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Credit: Marvel AnimationX-Men ’97 has officially broken new ground for the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the future of mutantkind on streaming television.
Marvel Animation’s newest series is a follow-up (and direct continuation) of X-Men: The Animated Series, the beloved cult series that aired on Fox Kids for five seasons in the mid-1990s. As one can tell from the name of the new show, X-Men ’97 is both picking up where the narrative of the original series left off and handing Marvel Comics fans a huge helping of nostalgia, which can often be a recipe for disaster.
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Fortunately for 1990s kids (and everybody else), X-Men ’97 has been an immediate critical success. The first two episodes of the show have launched it as the most highly acclaimed Marvel Cinematic Universe project ever; it premiered to a knockout 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and has only barely dropped after five days, currently holding 98%. After a series of critically derided movies and shows like Thor: Love and Thunder (2022), Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023), Secret Invasion, and The Marvels (2023), Marvel Studios needed a big win like this.
However, it is not just critics who are getting on board with X-Men ’97 and pushing the Marvel Cinematic Universe to increasingly focus on its mutant characters. Disney+ has announced that the show has received a staggering four million views in five days (per Variety), making it the most-watched animated series premiere since the first season of What If…?, which was notably one of the other few successful Marvel projects of the last year.
With that kind of massive viewership, it is unquestionable that Marvel Studios will continue to push forward and recenter the Marvel Cinematic Universe around its mutant characters, particularly as it increasingly loses its original roster of Avengers like Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, and Scarlett Johansson. The studio is betting big on Deadpool & Wolverine to act as its huge tentpole for 2024, and it seems that this new animated series is helping get audiences primed for all things from the Fox X-Men franchise.
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X-Men ’97 was created and written by Beau DeMayo, who was mysteriously fired from the show only days before its streaming premiere. The show features numerous returning voice actors from X-Men: The Animated Series, including Jennifer Hale as Jean Grey, Ray Chase as Cyclops, Alison Sealy-Smith as Storm, Cal Dodd as Wolverine, JP Karliak as Morph, Lenore Zann as Rogue, George Buza as Beast, AJ LoCascio as Gambit, Holly Chou as Jubilee, Isaac Robinson-Smith as Bishop, Adrian Hough as Nightcrawler, and Matthew Waterson as Magneto. New episodes will be released weekly on Disney+ and two more seasons are currently in active development.
Have you seen the first two episodes of X-Men ’97? What are your thoughts about the animated series revival?