X-Men '97

Season 1 (2024)

Season 2

Work on a second season began by July 2022. Initial head writer Beau DeMayo had finished writing for the season by the time he was fired in March 2024. Voice recording for the season had begun by February 2023, and animatics for the entire season had been created by March 2024. The season is set to premiere in mid-2026.

Season 3

A third season was in development by the end of March 2024. Voice recording started a year later, and animatics for most of the season were created by October 2025. The season is expected to be released a year after the second.

Main

The mutant field leader of the X-Men whose eyes emit powerful beams of concussive energy. Cyclops is prepared to lead the X-Men after the loss of Charles Xavier, before Magneto takes that role. Chase replaces Cyclops's original voice actor Norm Spencer, who died in 2020. Chase had not seen the original series when he auditioned, and was provided clips and references for the character's voice to base his performance on. After being cast, he watched the original series and listened to interviews of Spencer. A powerful telepathic and telekinetic mutant who is married to Cyclops, and was once the host of the cosmic entity Phoenix Force. Her relationship with Cyclops is complicated by Wolverine's feelings for her. Hale, who previously voiced the character in other Marvel media, replaces original series voice actress Catherine Disher, and based her performance on Disher's voice. A mutant metamorph who can change their voice and appearance to that of any person. Morph's base design is updated from the original series to be "pale, hairless, and blankly-featured" similar to the version of the character seen in the "Age of Apocalypse" comic book storyline and the Exiles comic book. Morph identifies as non-binary, but the series does not explicitly use that term as it was not common in the 1990s. Characters that Morph shape-shifts into in the first season include Xavier, Jean Grey, Archangel, Blob, Lady Deathstryke, Colossus, Psylocke, Sabretooth, Spiral, Illyana Rasputina / Magik / Darkchylde, Quicksilver, Juggernaut, Hulk, Mister Sinister, Sauron, and Mister Fantastic. Karliak replaces Morph's original voice actor Ron Rubin. A mutant who absorbs the memories, powers, and energy of those she touches. The series reveals that Rogue had a secret romantic relationship with Magneto when she was younger, causing friction in her current relationship with Gambit. Zann reprises her role from the original series. A mutant and former thief who can charge objects with explosive kinetic energy, including his signature playing cards. Gambit's actions in the early episodes—including wearing a crop top and taking his shirt off, and his relationship with Rogue—were intended to endear the audience to him before his death at the end of the fifth episode. LoCascio replaces Gambit's original voice actor Chris Potter. The youngest member of the X-Men who can create firework-like explosions. Chou replaces Jubilee's original voice actor Alyson Court, who previously said she would not reprise the role and would prefer that an Asian-American actor take it. Court instead voices Abscissa. A powerful mutant who controls magnetism. Magneto is given control of the X-Men in the last will and testament of Charles Xavier. Waterson replaces Magneto's original voice actor David Hemblen, who died in 2020. The founder of the X-Men who was taken to space to be healed by the Shi'ar Empire following an assassination attempt. Marquand replaces Xavier's original voice actor Cedric Smith. Coincidentally, both actors previously provided the voice for Marvel villain Red Skull in different projects. A Catholic, blue mutant with teleporting abilities and prehensile hands and feet. Hough reprises his role from the original series in X-Men '97, which includes the character's playfulness from the comics.

• Ray Chase as Scott Summers / Cyclops:

• Jennifer Hale as Jean Grey:

• Hale also voices Madelyne Pryor / Goblin Queen, a mutant clone of Jean created by Mister Sinister. Madelyne gives birth to Cyclops's son, Nathan, which further complicates his relationship with Jean. Hale used a slightly different tone when voicing Madelyne to separate her from Jean.
• Alison Sealy-Smith as Ororo Munroe / Storm: A powerful mutant who can control the weather and is described as a "goddess". Sealy-Smith reprises her role from the original series.
• Sealy-Smith also voices the Adversary, a demon that feeds on negative emotions
• Cal Dodd as Logan / Wolverine: A hotheaded mutant with a regenerative healing factor, heightened senses, retractable claws, and an adamantium-laced skeleton. Dodd reprises his role from the original series.
• J. P. Karliak as Morph:

• Karliak also voices William Stryker, an anti-mutant Christian minister; and the superhero Hulk
• Lenore Zann as Rogue:

• George Buza as Dr. Henry "Hank" McCoy / Beast: A blue-furred mutant genius with superhuman strength and agility. Buza reprises his role from the original series.
• A. J. LoCascio as Remy LeBeau / Gambit:

• Holly Chou as Jubilation Lee / Jubilee:

• Isaac Robinson-Smith as Lucas Bishop: A mutant from a dystopian future with the ability to absorb kinetic energy and redirect it into concussive blasts. Robinson-Smith replaces original actor Philip Akin.
• Robinson-Smith also voices T'Chaka / Black Panther, the king of Wakanda. The character's appearance creates an apparent continuity error with the animated series Fantastic Four (1994–1996), in which he dies and is succeeded by his son T'Challa; while developing the first season in early 2021, Marvel Studios and creator Beau DeMayo felt it was too soon to feature T'Challa following the August 2020 death of Chadwick Boseman—who portrayed T'Challa / Black Panther in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films—and chose to "put humanity before continuity" by featuring T'Chaka instead.
• Matthew Waterson as Erik "Magnus" Lehnsherr / Magneto:

• Ross Marquand as Professor Charles Xavier:

• Marquand also voices Doctor Doom, the leader of Latveria who is a member of "Operation: Zero Tolerance" (OZT); and Apocalypse, one of the first mutants who is thousands of years old and an enemy of the X-Men, replacing John Colicos and James Blendick who voiced the character in the original series.
• Adrian Hough as Kurt Wagner / Nightcrawler:

• Hough also voices Strong Guy, a mutant who can channel kinetic energy into physical strength

Recurring

• Gui Agustini as Roberto da Costa / Sunspot: A young mutant rescued by the X-Men who can channel solar energy
• Catherine Disher as Dr. Valerie Cooper: A United Nations official. Disher voiced Jean Grey in the original series.
• Gavin Hammon as Dr. Bolivar Trask: Creator of the Sentinel program. Hammon replaced Trask's original voice actor Brett Halsey.
• Hammon also voices Shi'ar chancellor Lord Araki
• Eric Bauza as the Master Mold supercomputer and mutant-hunting Sentinels, replacing original voice actor David Fox who died in 2021
• Donna Jay Fulks as Trish Tilby: A news reporter
• Fulks also voices the mutants Tommy and Amelia Voght, replacing Amelia's original voice actor Susan Roman.
• Christopher Britton as Dr. Nathaniel Essex / Mister Sinister: A scientist from Victorian era-London who has enhanced himself using mutant DNA. Britton reprised his role from the original series.
• Gil Birmingham as Forge: A mutant who can invent advanced technology. Birmingham replaced Forge's original voice actor Marc Strange, who died in 2012.
• Christine Uhebe as Nina da Costa: Roberto's mother
• Chris Potter as Nathan Summers / Cable: The son of Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor who was taken to the future as an infant after being infected with a techno-organic virus. Potter voiced Gambit in the original series.
• Theo James as Bastion: The anti-mutant leader of OZT, a human-machine hybrid created by Nimrod whose parents were background characters in the original series episode "One Man's Worth"
• Ron Rubin as Robert Kelly: The U.S. president. Rubin, who voiced Morph in the original series, replaced original Kelly voice actor Len Carlson, who died in 2006.

Guest

• Lawrence Bayne as Carl Denti / X-Cutioner: Leader of the anti-mutant group Friends of Humanity. Bayne voiced Cable in the original series.
• Todd Haberkorn as
• Henry Peter Gyrich: A former government agent who attempted to assassinate Xavier. Haberkorn replaced original voice actor Barry Flatman.
• Ronan the Accuser: A high-ranking member of the Kree Empire
• David Errigo Jr. as
• Leech: A young Morlock who can nullify other mutants' powers. Errigo replaced original voice actor John Stocker.
• Mojo: An interdimensional media mogul from the Mojoverse. Errigo replaced original voice actor Peter Wildman.
• Sean Cassidy / Banshee: An Irish mutant with a sonic scream who serves on the council of Genosha. Errigo replaced original actor Jeremy Ratchford.
• Gladiator: The Strontian leader of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard. Errigo replaced original voice actor Richard Eden.
• Courtenay Taylor as
• Callisto: The leader of the Morlocks. Taylor replaced original voice actor Susan Roman.
• Illyana Rasputina / Magik / Darkchylde: A mutant sorcerer. Taylor replaced original voice actor Tara Strong.
• Kimberly Woods as Shard: Bishop's younger sister, who appears to him in a vision. Woods replaced original voice actor Kay Tremblay.
• Alyson Court as Abscissa: An older version of Jubilee from the "Motendo" video game world. Court voiced Jubilee in the original series.
• Abby Trott as Spiral: Mojo's assistant. Trott replaced original voice actor Cynthia Belliveau.
• Martha Marion as
• Emma Frost: A former member of the Inner Circle Club who serves on the council of Genosha. Marion replaced original voice actor Tracey Moore.
• Dr. Moira MacTaggert: A Scottish geneticist who serves on the council of Genosha. Marion replaced original voice actor Lally Cadeau.
• Travis Willingham as Sebastian Shaw: A former member of the Inner Circle Club who serves on the council of Genosha. Willingham replaced original voice actor David Bryant.
• Morla Gorrondonna as Lilandra Neramani: Empress of the Shi'ar Empire. Gorrondonna replaced original voice actor Camilla Scott.
• Cari Kabinoff as Deathbird: Lilandra's sister
• Josh Keaton as Steve Rogers / Captain America: A World War II veteran who was enhanced to the peak of human physicality by an experimental serum. Keaton reprised his role from the animated series What If...? (2021–2024). Bayne voiced Captain America in the original series.
• Michael Patrick McGill as Thunderbolt Ross: A U.S. Army general who has dedicated his life to capturing the Hulk. McGill reprised his role from the animated series What If...?.
• Jeff Bennett as Ford: The da Costa family's butler
• Kari Wahlgren as
• Sebastian: A young version of Bastion
• Rose: Bastion's mother
• Anjali Bhimani as Daria: Bastion's assistant
• Rama Vallury as Baron Zemo: A member of OZT
• Gates McFadden as Rachel Summers / Mother Askani: Leader of the Askani Clan in a desolate future
• Adetokumboh M'Cormack as En Sabah Nur: A younger version of Apocalypse living in Ancient Egypt

Development

Announcement and first season

Larry Houston, the producer and director of X-Men: The Animated Series (1992–1997), said in June 2019 that he and that series' creative team were discussing a potential revival with Disney. They wanted to continue the story from where the original series ended. Disney subsidiary Marvel Studios was developing their first animated series, What If...? (2021–2024), and executives began discussing what their next animated project could be. The first idea considered was a revival of X-Men: The Animated Series, which was suggested by Brad Winderbaum. The head of streaming, television, and animation at Marvel Studios, Winderbaum was a fan of the series, and said several filmmakers who had met with Marvel Studios in the past had cited that series as a touchstone. In November 2020, Beau DeMayo was asked to present a pitch for the revival after working as a writer for Marvel Studios' live-action Disney+ miniseries Moon Knight (2022). Jeff Trammell also presented a pitch for the revival, but his desire to create an original story rather than continue the narrative from X-Men: The Animated Series led to Marvel Studios suggesting he present a pitch for their Spider-Man animated series, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (2025–present), instead.

By June 2021, Marvel Studios Animation was developing a slate of at least three series in addition to What If...? that, as of August 2021, were in various stages of development and not expected to be released until 2023. In November, one of these was announced to be X-Men '97, a revival and continuation of X-Men: The Animated Series. Dana Vasquez-Eberhardt, VP of animation at Marvel Studios, said many of the people involved with the revival were fans of the 1990s series and "knew " what the continuation should be. DeMayo was announced as head writer and executive producer, with Jake Castorena as supervising director and Charley Feldman as supervising producer. Houston and the original series' showrunners, Eric and Julia Lewald, were consulting on the revival, assisting with any "red flags" that arose and suggesting things they would like to see. The trio were contacted by Winderbaum shortly after the revival series entered development, and were excited that Marvel chose to make a direct continuation of their series. The Lewalds attributed Disney and Marvel Studios' decision to fast-track the revival to the success of the original series streaming on Disney+ and the release of the book X-Men: The Art and Making of The Animated Series (2020). Castorena, Chase Conley, and Emi Yonemura directed episodes of the first season. Marvel Studios' Winderbaum, Kevin Feige, Louis D'Esposito, and Victoria Alonso also served as executive producers.

The series was the first X-Men project from Marvel Studios since they regained the film and television rights to the characters from 20th Century Fox, which put more pressure on DeMayo to get the project right in addition to wanting to respect the original series. X-Men '97 is not set in the Sacred Timeline of Marvel Studios' shared universe, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), though Feige did consider integrating the series with the MCU during development. Instead, X-Men '97 shares continuity with the original series and several other animated Marvel series that were released in the 1990s, including Iron Man (1994–1996), Fantastic Four (1994–1996), Spider-Man: The Animated Series (1994–1998), The Incredible Hulk (1996–97), and Silver Surfer (1998); within Marvel Comics' multiverse, X-Men: The Animated Series exists on Earth-92131. Winderbaum said X-Men '97 would continue the original series' tradition of featuring crossover cameo appearances from the other 1990s series. During Marvel Studios Animation's panel at the 2022 San Diego Comic-Con, X-Men '97 and the studio's other animated series were described as being part of the "Marvel Animated Multiverse", and Winderbaum said there was potential to connect the series with other MCU properties using the MCU's multiverse.

Firing of DeMayo and further seasons

Work on a second season had begun by July 2022, with Conley and Yonemura returning as directors. By March 2024, DeMayo had finished writing for the season, and had begun discussing ideas for a potential third season when he was fired by Marvel Studios ahead of the series' premiere. He was not involved in further promotion for the series and missed its red carpet premiere, which The Hollywood Reporter said was unusual for someone working on a Marvel Studios project, "even if they've been shuffled to the side" or replaced by other creatives. Marvel said DeMayo had been fired after an investigation that led to "egregious" findings, which reportedly involved sexual misconduct. An agreement made following DeMayo's exit allowed him to still tweet about the series. Winderbaum praised DeMayo's work on the series and said his departure would not negatively affect work on the third season, which was in development by the end of the month and remained on track to meet its production schedule. The studio was searching for DeMayo's replacement by then.

In June 2024, after DeMayo posted gay pride-themed X-Men fan art on his Instagram account, Marvel told him they would be removing his credits from the second season because of the post. This decision was reportedly based on multiple instances that Marvel viewed as violations of DeMayo's termination agreement, in addition to the fan art post. DeMayo said the breaches of his termination agreement were posts that he had made about the first season while it was being released, along with him participating in a screening of the series at a bar. His lawyer Bryan Freedman said the agreement included "illegal unconscionable items". DeMayo released a video in which he denied reports of his own egregious misconduct and accused crew members and Marvel executives of "egregious prejudicial misconduct" against him, saying others had weaponized his identity as a gay Black man to undermine his work. He listed a series of concerns about crew and executives who worked on the series, and also suggested that his role on the second season had been "aggressively marginalized" before his firing due to concerns that he had expressed about the workplace culture of Marvel's in-development film Blade while he was working on that project. Matthew Chauncey, a writer on What If...?, was hired in July to write and executive produce the third season, replacing DeMayo. The scripts for the second season had reportedly been revised and rewritten by then, with Chauncey overseeing the rewrites.

Houston and the Lewalds were made executive producers starting with the second season. In February 2025, Winderbaum said the season would be released in 2026, more than a year after the first. He said X-Men '97 and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man were the studio's top priorities for "get[ting] to a place where we can reliably have very strong seasons every year", and in October he said future seasons would be released annually "for a number of years". He confirmed that the third season was in production and said discussions about potential fourth and fifth seasons had begun. Winderbaum also addressed questions about future seasons living up to the first season without DeMayo's involvement, saying the rest of the creative team—directors, writers, producers, and cast—remained mostly the same, Houston and the Lewalds continued to be closely involved, and he believed the revival worked because "everyone that works on the show knows that original series inside and out... the second season feels very much a worthy successor to the first season".

Writing

The series' bible was written by April 2022, and confirms that—as with the original series and the comic books—the revival's central ethos is the X-Men are allegories for people who face prejudice and discrimination. Eric Lewald described X-Men '97 as an extension of the original series that the Marvel Studios team had made their own, while Vasquez-Eberhardt said the original series "embraced action, soap opera and serious topics", and the revival would do the same. DeMayo wanted to honor the original series while bringing it into the modern world, hoping to retain its earnestness, emotional sincerity, and focus on found family while updating the social commentary to reflect contemporary society. The new series explores whether Professor Charles Xavier's dream of mutant/human co-existence and his focus on empathy are still relevant to modern audiences, with DeMayo feeling that issues of social acceptance had become more complicated since the 1990s.

The revival begins a year after the loss of Xavier during the original series' finale. The main antagonists for the first season are the returning Mister Sinister and the Sentinels, along with new villain Bastion. As with the original series, various comic book storylines were adapted for the revival. The Animated Series was primarily influenced by Chris Claremont's run on the comics from the mid-1970s to the early 1990s, and X-Men '97 continues to adapt stories from that era as well as elements from later in the 1990s and into Grant Morrison's early 2000s run. The second season features a storyline centered around the villain Apocalypse, and sees the X-Men being scattered throughout time and needing to find their way back to the 1990s from different points in the past and future. DeMayo's original plan for the series was to rotate the central characters each season, with Gambit planned to be the focal character of DeMayo's third season.

Casting

Starring in the first season are Ray Chase as Scott Summers / Cyclops, Jennifer Hale as Jean Grey, Alison Sealy-Smith as Ororo Munroe / Storm, Cal Dodd as Logan / Wolverine, J. P. Karliak as Morph, Lenore Zann as Rogue, George Buza as Dr. Henry "Hank" McCoy / Beast, A. J. LoCascio as Remy LeBeau / Gambit, Holly Chou as Jubilation Lee / Jubilee, Isaac Robinson-Smith as Lucas Bishop, Matthew Waterson as Erik "Magnus" Lehnsherr / Magneto, Ross Marquand as Professor Charles Xavier, and Adrian Hough as Kurt Wagner / Nightcrawler. Sealy-Smith, Dodd, Zann, Buza, and Hough reprised their roles from the original series, as did Christopher Britton as Mister Sinister. Original series stars Catherine Disher, Chris Potter, Alyson Court, Lawrence Bayne, and Ron Rubin returned to voice new characters.

Returning for the second season are Hale, Dodd, Zann, and Marquand, as well as Bayne.

Animation and design

Animation was provided by Studio Mir and Tiger Animation. The 2D animation style of the original series was retained, but "slightly modernized" to improve the quality and reflect advances in animation since the 1990s. Castorena's pitch for the job of supervising director was to make the series "fresh, but familiar", and he said it needed to be "the show we remember, but it has to be in 4K". Houston advised the animation team on how the original series was made, and the storyboard artists reviewed the original to inform their composition, editing, and cinematography decisions. Winderbaum said there was a "code of ethics" they followed to align with the restrictions of the 1990s animation, but they occasionally broke this for dramatic effect such as during key action sequences. A VHS-inspired effect was applied to the animation to make it appear more like 1990s television. 3D animation was used to lay out scenes and create more complicated vehicles and ships, but the animation team drew over this in 2D to maintain the series' art style.

The opening title sequence of The Animated Series was recreated with updated animation for the revival. Houston worked with episodic directors Conley and Yonemura to recreate the title sequence based on Houston's original storyboards. DeMayo said the costumes chosen for each character indicated which comic book storylines were being adapted by the series. Lead character designer Amelia Vidal retained the design concepts from the original series along with the style and aesthetics of the X-Men comic books of the 1970s to the 1990s. Any changes from those were made to either better serve the story or to assist with the technical side of the animation. Castorena said mutant powers were used in unique ways to convey their emotions, and his goal was to use mutant powers in ways that had not been seen before. Morph's shape-shifting powers allow for cameo appearances of other mutants.

Music

One of Feige's stipulations for reviving X-Men: The Animated Series was ensuring Marvel Studios was able to use that series' theme song, which was composed by Ron Wasserman. Wasserman composed the theme while under contract with producer Haim Saban, giving legal ownership of the song to Saban. Following legal battles over the use of the theme, Marvel Studios paid a large sum to secure the rights to it in 2022. This was done on the condition that it be re-recorded for future projects and credited to the original series' music executives, Saban and Shuki Levy. Wasserman was set to meet with Marvel about his involvement in the revival by early 2022, but John Andrew Grush and Taylor Newton Stewart—known professionally as the Newton Brothers—were announced to be the composers for X-Men '97 that July.

The Newton Brothers were hired while Marvel was still in the process of securing the rights for the original theme. On revisiting the original series, the composers realized that the music did not match with their childhood memories and many of the original synthesizer sounds would now sound dated to modern audiences. They chose to modernize the score with an orchestra, choir, and some modern synthesizers. However, they felt the theme song should remain more true to the original style, to not "ruin the nostalgic vibes" and embrace the sincerity of the original series. They produced eight different versions of the theme, each with a different amount of orchestral music versus synthesizer music, before settling on the final version. The main melody is played on a synthesizer and an electric guitar, the latter performed by Nili Brosh. The X-Men '97 version of the theme, credited to Saban and Levy, was first heard in the MCU film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) and then the series Ms. Marvel (2022) when those projects referenced mutants.

The X-Men '97 version of the main theme was released by Marvel Music and Hollywood Records as a digital single on March 20, 2024. A full soundtrack album for the first season was released on May 24.

Viewership

Disney announced that the first two episodes had 4 million views worldwide in the five days following their release, marking the biggest first-season premiere for a full-length animated series on the service since the first season of What If...? in 2021. The company announced that the first-season finale was watched by 3.5 million views globally during its first five days, which was similarly the biggest season finale for a full-length animated series on the streaming service since the first season of What If...?

Critical response

The first season received critical acclaim, was called "Marvel's best release in years", and was praised for its nostalgic animation, "smart writing, and captivating action sequences". Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes calculated that 99% of 79 critics reviews were positive, with an average rating of 8.9 out of 10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Pulling off the x-traordinary feat of staying true to its beloved predecessor while charting a path forward for the franchise, X-Men '97 is simply x-cellent."[1] Metacritic assigned a weighted average score of 82 out of 100 based on 14 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[2]

Accolades