The Big Picture
- X-Men: The Animated Series ran for five successful seasons, an impressive accomplishment for its era.
- The Animated Series showrunner Eric Lewald envisions a Season 6 where a scattered X-Men team reunite to help Charles Xavier.
- Disney+'s new series X-Men '97 diverges from Lewald's plot but maintains the intense character-driven conflicts that fans have come to love.
X-Men: The Animated Series managed a rare accomplishment for animated shows: running for five seasons, each balancing comprehensive, serialized storylines. Even the acclaimed Batman: The Animated Series had only two seasons (granted, Batman's first season was 65 episodes long, the number required for a show to qualify for syndication). Just getting X-Men off the ground was difficult in the days before Marvel was a proven entity, let alone sticking to the writers’ visions, thanks to "competing corporate interests, a cost-cutting obsessed producer, and even the threat from the creative staff to quit over a merchandising initiative gone wrong," according to The Hollywood Reporter.
For clarification, Fox Kids didn't cancel the series after Season 5. Its end naturally emerged once the creative team surpassed the syndication goal by 11 episodes. In 2024, the now-powerhouse Marvel Studios revived it through Disney+'s X-Men '97, which styles itself as The Animated Series' sixth season. If the original series had kept rolling (into the year 1997, hence '97's title), Eric Lewald, its showrunner, has a clear idea for the Season 6 that never materialized.
X-Men
AnimationActionAdventureSuperheroA team of mutant superheroes fight for justice and human acceptance in the Marvel Comics universe.
Release Date April 1, 2011 Cast Scott Porter , Jennifer Hale , Steve Blum , Danielle Nicolet , Cam Clarke , Stephanie Sheh Main Genre Animation Seasons 1 Streaming Service(s)What Is the Plot of ‘X-Men: The Animated Series’ Season 6?
Regarded as one of the era's best shows, X-Men: The Animated Series helped popularize its mutant superheroes for a new generation. Its successful ratings launched the X-Men live-action movies, a franchise that, in turn, helped springboard the Marvel Cinematic Universe into its current status. To start, The Animated Series came about thanks to the efforts of Fox Kids CEO Margaret Loesch,Saban Entertainment founder Haim Saban, and series showrunner/developer Eric Lewald. The latter shared his concept for Season 6 with Syfy Wire (reported via Den of Geek) in 2017, years before Marvel would announce the X-Men '97 revival:
"Season Six could open, months later, with the X-Men in disarray – a few gone, the ones remaining at each other’s throats. They miss their leader. Then somehow they are called to – and transported to – an existential crisis on Lilandra’s distant world. The team grudgingly reunites ‘for Charles,’ heads off to space, solves the crisis, and a somehow-healed Charles Xavier is either able to return to Earth with them or, if he can’t, his heroic final sacrifice heals the team’s wounds and they return to Earth as the proper X-Men again."
How Does ‘X-Men ‘97’ Differ From the Season 6 Concept?
CloseAlthough Lewald's plot contrasts with X-Men '97 so far, the themes aren't too different. '97 keeps the core team intact but throws the characters curveballs designed to maximize internal strife. Storm (Alison Sealy-Smith) tragically loses her powers and departs the mansion on a journey of renewed self-discovery. Cyclops (Ray Chase) struggles with inheriting a leadership role in Charles Xavier (Ross Marquand)'s absence, wondering if it's time for him and his pregnant wife, Jean Grey (Jennifer Hale), to move on. Once Cyclops accepts his duty, Magneto's (Matthew Waterson) entrance undercuts his position. Then, it's revealed that Jean is a clone created by the couple's nefarious — and the definition of "this guy can't take a hint" — archnemesis, Mr. Sinister (Christopher Britton).
When Jean's clone learns the truth, Mr. Sinister's mind control spirals her into becoming the villainous Goblin Queen, who wreaks havoc on the team until the real Jean frees her from Sinister's influence. The clone renames herself Madelyne Pryor and leaves the X-Men, but not before letting Bishop (Isaac Robinson-Smith) take her and Cyclops's son Nathan Summers into the future. Doing so means never seeing her newborn again, but there's a chance that Bishop's time has a cure for the lethal disease Sinister infected Nathan with. Not wanting to repeat his abusive father's mistakes, Cyclops grieves abandoning his son, even if doing so saves Nathan's life.
It's a plot adaptation — the Inferno comics crossover — that's rife with conflict and focused on character evolution, which X-Men: The Animated Series holds paramount. How does one handle the conundrum of losing one's mutant gift? Of realizing you're a clone and forging your own identity, or that the woman you married is a clone of your true love? As for the original Jean Grey, as of Episode 3, one can only wonder as to the state she's in (beyond weakened and distraught). In short: everyone's a hot mess. How appropriately X-Men of them!
The Similarities Between ‘X-Men ‘97’ and the Original Series
CloseAdding Magneto into the fray throws a massive wrench into the team's dynamic. They might tentatively accept their former enemy as their new leader, but he has a lifetime's worth of redemption to prove. And there's the tiny issue of the steamy love triangle between Magneto, Rogue (Lenore Zann), and Gambit (A. J. LoCascio). With Wolverine's (Cal Dodd) earnest love confession to Jean, poor Scott and Jean are out of the frying pan and into the fire with X-Men's other recurring love triangle rearing its head.
Related‘X-Men: Evolution’ Is Better Than ‘X-Men: The Animated Series’
But which one has the better theme song?
In short, there's plenty of angsty content pushing X-Men '97 to dramatically engaging places. Eric Lewald's concept would have resulted in the same, just with more extremity. Although Charles Xavier's ambiguous "death" in the X-Men: The Animated Series' series finale leaves room for his return, his loss is as good as death. He mentored his team so they could stand on their own. For the X-Men to split so quickly and only reunite "for Charles" is a fascinating dramatic shift that leaves room for them to grow, reconnect, and become an assured group capable of functioning without their mentor. Plus, it leaves room for Charles to exist outside his life's defining efforts. Eloping with his alien girlfriend is one way to achieve that (and who can blame him).
‘X-Men ‘97’ Does Right by the X-Men
The finale of X-Men: The Animated Series adapts Uncanny X-Men #200, where Charles Xavier has a heart attack. Hoping her society's advanced technology can save him, Lilandra — that aforementioned alien girlfriend — takes him to her planet. The issue also introduces Magneto's trial and his decision to lead the X-Men, a plot thread X-Men '97 incorporates. The Animated Series is no stranger to adapting comic storylines and adjusting them within the series' established content, plus adding their individual twists. All five seasons pull from various Uncanny X-Men and X-Men: Legacy arcs, classic runs — Days of Future Past, the Dark Phoenix Saga, Apocalypse and the Legacy Virus – and single-issue stories.
With three episodes under its belt, X-Men '97 is no different. Brad Winderbaum, Marvel Studio's Head of Streaming, Television and Animation, told The Hollywood Reporter that "our guiding principle is trying to emulate our memory of [X-Men: The Animated Series]. So that’s one of the reasons why we brought in [X-Men: The Animated Series showrunners] Eric and Julia Lewald and [X-Men: The Animated Series producer/director] Larry Houston. We worked so closely with them throughout the process so that they could, in a way, train us on how they made the original show and what their limitations were."
Regarding how they handle Xavier's absence, Winderbaum added:
"One advantage that we have at Marvel is the legacy of the comics. We could go in and look at the stories where Xavier was off the field and see how those characters reacted. And Xavier’s message is so strong that even when he’s not onscreen, he’s very present. Scott [Summers/Cyclops], for example, is trying to uphold Xavier’s ideal in his own way, and even Magneto struggles with it as well. This idea of peaceful coexistence in a world that fears you is on everybody’s mind, as these mutants are the ones who are feared. So even though he’s not there onscreen, Xavier definitely looms large in the story."
With decades of comic material to mine, the X-Men '97 team has no shortage of material at their disposal for Season 1 and the already announced Season 2. As Charles Xavier himself says in the X-Men: Days of Future Past film, it's "a world of endless possibilities and infinite outcomes."
X-Men: The Animated Series is available to stream on Disney+ in the U.S.
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