Few announcements at Disney+ Day on Friday generated the kind of buzz among longtime Marvel fans that X-Men ’97 did, a continuation of the classic animated series from the 1990s. Arriving years before the live-action movies, X-Men introduced an entire generation to Marvel’s mutant branch. Its adherence to the artistic style of the comics – as well as faithful adaptions of numerous storylines from the X-Men titles – earned it massive respect from the community over the years. A new season after a quarter-century is ample proof of its lingering popularity and influence.
X-Men’s fifth – and at the time, final – season ended with a sense of closure. Charles Xavier must travel to the stars with his love Lilandra to recover from injuries inflicted by Henry Peter Gyrich. Magneto suspended a planned attack on humanity by his mutant army and stands with the X-Men as they watch their mentor fly away. It’s a supremely hopeful vision, and a good way to end the series. Now that a new season is underway, where does it go from here?
X-Men’s adherence to classic comic-book storylines means that it has already explored a huge amount of the teams’ early adventures. A few omissions remain, however, and make an excellent starting point for a new season. The X-Men’s time in the Australian Outback, for example, took place while Xavier was off-world and the team felt they could operate more freely if the world thought they were dead. The show has already introduced the Reavers, who became prominent X-villains at the time. The conditions are right to delve into that corner of their history.
Similarly, the comics released since the series went off the air provide a wealth of opportunities. Re-interpreting them in the style of the ’90s series could make for a fantastic creative exercise. The famous House of M makes an obvious immediate candidate, but with over two decades of comics published, the writers can choose from a wealth of strong options. Furthermore, while new episodes will presumably remain focused on the X-team, their universe contains other Marvel heroes as well. That gives the show the option to explore large-scale crossovers such as Civil War from the mutants’ point of view.
More than storylines, however, X-Men’s characters will likely point to which direction the new season will proceed. With Magneto standing alongside his old foes, will he attempt to lead them, as he did for a time in the comics? Or will they soon fall to fighting again, with Magneto resuming his old place as a neutral-at-best foil for Xavier’s students? New villains are possible as well. As with the plot arcs, the show made use of a large number of X-Men villains, but a few holdouts remain. One prominent absence from the first five seasons was Arcade, whose Murderworld games and similar traps hold strong visual potential for the show’s eye-popping graphics.
And while many of the mainstay heroes ended the fifth season in a state of fulfillment, the new season will include some new ones to re-energize the mix. Nightcrawler has already been confirmed for the new season – limited to just a pair of episodes previously – and several similar figures such as Colossus and Psylocke could easily join the team. Kitty Pryde has yet to appear on the show at all, and with Jubilee growing from teen to adult in the course of its five years, a spot may be open for a younger mutant to step in. Perhaps most importantly for longtime fans, Morph ended the show back with the X-Men. As the show’s most prominent original character – whose death in the series pilot played a huge role in subsequent storylines – ignoring him or shunting him to the sidelines would be a big mistake.
X-Men ’97 won’t premiere until 2023, so the showrunners have plenty of time to decide how they will proceed and what kind of stories they will tell. Fans’ devotion to the original paints a strong roadmap, however, and the fact that they have brought most of the vocal talent back to reprise their characters suggests nothing but respect for that tradition. With all of the options they have, the results could be something special.
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