X-Men ’97 is set to serve as a revival for the hit animated series 1992 X-Men: The Animated Series. As merch for the series begins to leak into stores, X-Men ’97 head writer Beau DeMayo gets ahead of the rumors to confirm that Cyclops and Storm will serve as the shows leads instead of Wolverine.
Despite running for less than 100 episodes, X-Men: The Animated Series holds a soft spot in the hearts of fans and is often cited as the gold standard for adapting everyone’s favorite mutant team. With its spiritual successor X-Men ’97 set to premiere this fall on Disney Plus and merch finding its way on to store shelves, rumors have begun circulating. Namely, some sites have begun reporting that Wolverine and Storm will be taking up the role as the leaders of the X-Men instead of Cyclops. The show’s head writer Beau DeMayo was quick to put a squash on these rumors, assuring fans Scott Summers would still lead the team:
Fans of the comics know that Storm is no stranger to leading her own team. Given their time together as allies and the stakes being higher than ever, its a no-brainer that Cyclops would recruit her to help him lead. While fans may be disappointed that Wolverine won’t be leading the charge, Logan has never been the type to inspire others and lead them into battle. He’s always been more of a lone wolf who pushes back against whoever decides to lead him. Despite this, he’s never had a shortage of screentime. So even if he’s not leading the X-Men, fans will be seeing Wolverine in all his glory whenever X-Men ’97 hits streaming.
What can fans expect from X-Men ’97?
The final episode of the original series saw the X-Men saying goodbye to Charles Xavier as he left with Lilandra to visit the Shi’Ar homeworld. X-Men ’97 will pick up where the original series left off and promises to feature some of the most iconic villains from the X-Men universe, including Mister Sinister, Emma Frost, Sebastian Shaw, Callisto and Valerie Cooper.
Fans can look forward to the return of some of their favorite voice actors from the original series, including Cal Dodd, Lenore Zann, George Buza, Adrian Hough, Christopher Britton, Catherine Disher, Chris Potter, Alison Sealy-Smith, and Alyson Court. In addition, X-Men ’97 will include the voice talents of Jennifer Hale, Anniwaa Buachie, Ray Chase, Matthew Waterson, JP Karliak, Holly Chou, Jeff Bennett and AJ LoCascio.
X-Men ’97 was originally slated to premiere in the fall of 2022, but has been pushed back with no official release date. With Marvel reducing its Disney Plus output, X-Men ’97 is now expected to debut sometime in 2024.
Stay tuned for the latest updates surrounding the X-Men animated series revival and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more content!