Over two decades after the release of X-Men: The Animated Series, fans are finally getting a long-awaited continuation of the five-season cartoon. In anticipation of the follow-up series, Marvel Studios’ Head of Streaming, Television and Animation Brad Winderbaum sat down with IGN to answer all of our most burning questions.
As an executive producer on the new series, titled X-Men ‘97, Winderbaum walked us through the thought process behind the upcoming project. Put simply, X-Men ‘97 is a love letter to its predecessor: beyond the canonical storylines that are expanded from the original series, X-Men ‘97 even emulates the hand-drawn aesthetic of X-Men: The Animated Series.
“It's not like we were just trying to make a show that took place in the '90s - we were actually trying to make a show as if we were in the '90s,” Winderbaum explained. But with so much updated technology to work with, the executive producer said the animation team “had to create false parameters” for themselves to capture the spirit of the original series — from budget constraints to avoiding modern optical animation techniques.
To help with this effort, the director and writers of the original series were brought on to the production to give insight about what limitations they encountered back in the early '90s while working on X-Men: The Animated Series.
“Our guiding principle was to try to revive our memories of this thing,” Winderbaum said. “And let me tell you, every single person that worked on this show, it's not just like they're fans of the X-Men: they hold the X-Men very deeply in their heart, and particularly The Animated Series.”
The roots run especially deep for Winderbaum. In his case, X-Men: The Animated Series was the gateway he needed to get into the world of comics: “It was an animated series for kids that didn’t talk down to me, that met me where I was at, that talked openly about things that were just kind of stuck in my mind because I was 10 and didn’t have an outlet for it.”
What Winderbaum didn’t know at the time was that this animated series about a rag-tag group of mutants would permanently shape the rest of his life. Taking a look around his office at Marvel Studios, there’s not an inch of wallspace that isn’t covered by comic memorabilia. From his assortment of Marvel Legends What If…? action figures to his stash of Toy Biz X-Men collectibles, it’s evident these heroes play a heavy hand in the executive producer’s personal life beyond his line of work.
“You bond to these characters so quickly because you have nostalgia for them,” Winderbaum said. “Or if you're a new fan, it's like they just pop off the screen. They're so archetypal, their relationships make sparks right away.”
Romantic tension and deeply complex personal relationships were at the core of X-Men: The Animated Series, and X-Men ‘97 is poised to be no exception. Fans may recall the messy love triangle between Wolverine, Cyclops and Jean Grey that became a narrative arc of the original series, and it’s safe to say that this plot point will remain an integral part of the new series. In a Feb. 15 teaser for X-Men ‘97, fans noticed that telepath Jean Grey is pregnant after catching a split-second shot of her cradling her stomach, which means there’s bound to be some serious drama in the X-Men mansion.
But the drama has also transcended off-screen — on March 12, X-Men ‘97 showrunner and executive producer Beau DeMayo was fired with just a little over a week to go before the series premiere. According to The Hollywood Reporter, a reason for the firing has yet to be revealed, but we do know that the decision was “sudden.” Prior to being laid off, DeMayo was scheduled to attend the show’s Hollywood red carpet premiere and was on the docket for the March 15 press junket where IGN spoke with Winderbaum.
“[DeMayo] did excellent work writing Seasons 1 and 2, and I can’t wait for fans to see the series,” Winderbaum said in a press statement issued to Variety. “The entire team came together to create a revival worthy of the X-Men’s 60-year legacy. From Stan and Jack, to Claremont, to the Lewalds, we all truly were standing on the shoulders of giants.”
X-Men ‘97 is still set to premiere with two episodes tomorrow, March 20, on Disney+. For a full list of episode titles in the anticipated first season, check out our story here.
