Norm Spencer – Cyclops/Scott Summers
Cathal J. Dodd – Wolverine/Logan
Lenore Zann – Rogue
Iona Morris (season 1-2) & Alison Sealy-Smith (season 2-5) – Storm/Ororo Munroe
George Buza – Beast/Dr. Henry “Hank” McCoy
Chris Potter (season 1-4) & Tony Daniels (season 5) – Gambit/Remy LeBeau
Alyson Court – Jubilee/Jubilation Lee
Catherine Disher – Jean Grey/Phoenix/Dark Phoenix
Cedric Smith – Professor X/Charles Xavier
It was a long, hard road to get to
this point. Marvel Comics’ X-Men were first animated as part
of the Sub-Mariner
segment of The Marvel Super Heroes in 1966, a limited animation program
that essentially used art straight from the comics, as a stand-in for the Fantastic Four
whose rights the production company didn’t have. However, they weren’t called
the X-Men—they were known as the Allies For Peace. Since then, two attempts had
been made at giving the X-Men their own animated series (with them actually
being, y’know, the X-Men). The first came in the Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends episode “The X-Men Adventure,” which
was intended to serve as a backdoor pilot to a series that would include
original creation Videoman
from that series and a version of the original Ms. Marvel called Lady Lightning.
The second attempt came in Marvel Productions’
failed pilot episode, Pryde of the X-Men. Networks had no
faith in the comics being adequately adapted to screen (despite Super
Friends having run multiple seasons by this point, or the numerous solo
character projects that have aired since Filmation first adapted Superman),
nor that they would attract an audience bigger than the niche one comprised of “nerdy”,
“introverted” teenaged boys that read them.
 |
| The X-Men of Pryde of the X-Men. |
In 1990, Margaret Loesch left
her post as Marvel Productions’ President and Chief Executive Officer to become
the head of the blossoming Fox Children’s Network; a children’s programming
block on the FOX network that eventually
became Fox Kids. Loesch was
a big believer in the source material for the X-Men, having been introduced to
the characters by co-creator Stan Lee, and one of
the principles behind the production of Pryde.
Loesch had spent months trying to sell the concept to her boss, Jamie Kellner, while
also working on developing the project behind the scenes with Sidney Iwanter who had been
with her at Marvel. When Loesch said she was willing to stake her job on it
being a success, Kellner finally relented and allowed the series to move
forward. Unfortunately, time was not on their side as official production began
in February of 1992 and the show was slated to air that September, giving them
only 7 months to work rather than the customary 9.
 |
| Eric Lewald, Larry Houston, Margaret Loesch and Julia Lewald. |
Iwanter tapped Eric Lewald to run the show
(his first time doing so for a major network program from the outset), while Will Meugniot served a
supervising producer and Larry Houston
as a producer-director. The latter two men had worked at Marvel and on Pryde,
and were the primary sources of knowledge on the characters in an age when
comic collections and the internet were sparse (Houston would often tweak
storyboards to add cameos and easter eggs). Mark Edens was brought on as
the head writer and helped Lewald work out the storylines for the first and
eventually second season. They strove to keep the stories as true to the books
as possible while adjusting them to fit the different medium of television and
avoiding the mistakes of network urges to downplay things to a younger
audience. Additionally, Marvel’s executive in charge of movies and TV Joe Calamari served
as their representative during the production, while then-X-Men comics editor Bob Harras helped with
keeping the characters and stories feeling like X-Men. Saban Entertainment
was contracted to produce the series, and they in turn hired Graz Entertainment
to help cover the deficit in their own manpower.
 |
| Promo art by Neal Adams depicting Professor X, Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, Rogue and Jubilee. |
There was some back and forth over
who would comprise this new team of televised X-Men. Marvel had their wish
list, FOX had theirs, the crew on the show had theirs—especially if they were
already fans of the books. Ultimately, it was whittled down to nine core
members whose personalities not only provided adequate means for dramatic
interactions, but could also make them uniquely distinct from each other and
allow each to have their own voice. This included previously-depicted
characters like team founder and powerful psychic Professor Xavier (Cedric
Smith); the savage, clawed Wolverine (Cathal J. Dodd, the first actual
Canadian to play the Canadian hero), optic-blasting team leader Cyclops (Norm
Spencer); powerful telepathic and telekinetic Jean Grey (Catherine Disher);
weather-controlling Storm (Iona Morris for the first season and several season
2 episodes, Alison Sealy-Smith for the remainder); and blue-furred genius Beast
(George Buza), who was originally not a main character until the crew fell in
love with using him. Animated for the first time were Rogue (Lenore Zann), a
southern belle with super strength, flight and the ability to absorb anyone’s
memories and abilities upon skin-to-skin contact; Gambit, aka Remy LeBeau
(Chris Potter, later Tony Daniels), a Cajun thief with the ability to charge
any object with explosive kinetic energy; and Jubilee, aka Jubilation Lee
(Alyson Court), a teenager who could project colorful plasma bursts from her
hands. Jubilee, whose inclusion was requested by Marvel, was meant to serve as
the audience surrogate that would be introduced to the world of the X-Men
alongside the viewers; much the same way Kitty Pryde did in Pryde.
The team largely reflected the Blue
Team featured in the recently-launched X-Men comic, with Storm and Jean rounding it
out from the Gold
Team featured in parent title Uncanny X-Men.
_011.png) |
| Morph in his normal form. |
Created specifically for the show was Morph (Ron Rubin), a mutant
shape-shifter that was a reimagining of the villain Changeling from Uncanny X-Men #35 (1967). Morph was designed to be super
likable in order for the audience to believe he was the only person to make the
gruff Wolverine laugh. He was also created to die, giving his life for
Wolverine’s in the very first episode (a questionable gesture considering
Wolverine can heal). This was intended to establish that the X-Men’s world was
dangerous and had actual stakes. Originally, the sacrificial lamb was meant to
be Thunderbird,
who had died shortly after joining the team way back in Uncanny X-Men #95 (1975). However, it was pointed
out that killing the only Native-American member of the team probably wouldn’t
play out very well. Lewald then selected Changeling due to his sacrificing
himself to save Xavier in Uncanny X-Men #42
(1968), and wrote him into the pilot. However, the Fox lawyers were nervous
over the fact that rival publisher DC Comics
had their own Changeling (better known as Beast Boy) and they had to
change his name; despite Marvel’s usage coming first. Hence, Morph got his
name. Thunderbird still appeared, though, as one of the evil mutants charging
the X-Men at the end of the series’ intro (hey, you’d be mad at them too if
your comics career was cut short!).
 |
| The X-Men: Cyclops, Wolverine, Rogue, Gambit, Storm, Jubilee and Professor X. |
The voice cast that ended up
becoming the voices of the X-Men for a generation were actually the second
group. The original actors selected couldn’t get a handle on the different type
of production X-Men was trying to be; approaching the characters as
typically flat 70s or 80s Saturday morning cartoon characters without the
needed serious emotion or gravitas the scripts would require of them. Iwanter, Houston and Calamari took a special
trip to Canada to oversee the recasting with casting director Karen Goora. They decided to expand
beyond voice actors, going into stage performers where they found much of their
cast—many of whom had very little or no experience in animation at all. However,
there ended up being one character that needed another round of recasting. Nicky Guadagni ended up winning
the role of Storm and recorded the entire first season, with absolutely no
thought given into what she looked like. As the series premiere was
approaching, it finally dawned on them that if the series was a success and got
a lot of publicity as a result, it might pose problematic to have their regal
African goddess (and the only regular minority character) being voiced
by a White woman. After a massive scramble, it was decided it would be best to
save time and temporarily cast an American actress; that being Iona Morris.
Once production was underway on the second season, the Canadian Alison
Sealy-Smith was permanently cast in the role and re-recorded the first season
for a third time in order to eliminate the residual payments Morris
would be owed for repeated airings of her episodes (Canadian actors get a
larger lump sum rather than residuals each time an episode airs).
 |
| Jim Lee connecting cover art for the deluxe first issue of X-Men #1. |
For the look of the characters, it
was ultimately decided to go with Jim Lee’s redesigns; not
only because they were the prominent ones in the current books and what the
fans would be expecting to see, but because with some minor tweaks they would
be the most animation-friendly. However, the production reached a snag when
they were already into the designing process as Marvel suddenly wanted them to not
use those designs. The producers didn’t know it at the time, but this was when
Lee and several other prominent Marvel artists went on a mass
exodus to found their own company, Image
Comics, so that they could have full creative freedom and ownership over
what they created. Meugniot took a gamble and redid the designs in a
“young/funny Hanna-Barbera, 1970s version of the team” in order to force Marvel
to reverse their decision. Fortunately, there was no one at Marvel that
actually liked that concept, and the Lee designs were approved for use
once again.
 |
| A Sentinel captures Jubilee. |
Much like Pryde before it, the first two episodes, “Night of the Sentinels,” focused on Jubilee’s introduction to the X-Men and their world. Jubilee’s foster parents, upon discovering she was a mutant, registered her with the Mutant Control Agency which prompted the giant robotic mutant hunting Sentinels (all David Fox) to attempt to capture her. The X-Men came to her aid, and after figuring out a connection between the Sentinel attack and the Mutant Registration Program, decide to shut the program down. During a battle with the Sentinels, Beast ended up captured and Morph seemingly killed. From that moment, the series set itself apart from shows that came before in not only sidelining a main character for the entire season, but featuring an on-screen death which helped cement how different this show would be from ones before it. It was also notable as being one of the few cartoons to run in a serial format; something else the producers fought heavily for. To help keep viewers up to speed, editor Sharon Janis took it upon herself to create the well-known “Previously on X-Men” segment that would precede each episode as a recap to what came before.
 |
| Early concept storyboards for the opening sequence. |
 |
| Sentinels flying overhead. |
As the September deadline approached, animation started to come in from AKOM Productions, Ltd.—and it was
terrible. No one on the production or network end was happy with it, but Haim Saban refused to
allow any additional money to get it fixed. Marvel ended up sacrificing their
licensing fee for the first season in order to infuse the budget with enough to
get the episodes re-animated properly, with Meugniot flying to South Korea to
personally ensure it would be done right. Unfortunately, that meant the series
wouldn’t make its airdate. Loesch had to smooth things over with the affiliates
and advertisers by convincing them that delaying the show until January would
be beneficial as they would be the only ones airing something new while other
shows were in reruns. When the first episodes were nearly ready by October,
Loesch worked with the prime-time executives to secure a timeslot to air them
as a preview to the series.
 |
| The original broadcast (top) vs. the regular broadcast. |
The episode aired on Halloween of
1992 as an introduction to the series, with the next the following week and the
third airing on November 27th. AKOM turned in the episodes riddled
with numerous errors, 50
scenes missing and only a single day of editing. After threatening to sever
their contracts with the studio, these episodes—and others—would receive multiple
versions as they were tweaked or fixed by the time of their next broadcast.
For instance, “Slave Island” initially aired without the cliffhanger ending it
would later get as the next episode wasn’t finished in time. X-Men: The
Animated Series (as it would come to be known) finally made its official
debut on January 9th, 1993 with an hour-long presentation of “Night
of the Sentinels”. It would go on to receive critical and commercial acclaim;
particularly for its mature storytelling. The producers fought hard for that
integrity, staving off merchandisers’ desires for product placement within the
show (Wolverine and Cyclops faces on walkie talkies, anyone?) and Stan Lee’s
desires to insert himself with on-screen introductions to every episode
(something he’d later be granted with the shows aired during the Marvel Action Hour
programming block).
 |
| Older Wolverine protects Kate Pryde (top) in the comics while Bishop captures older Wolverine in the cartoon. |
The series closely adhered to the
mythology established by the X-Men
comics, adapting many stories straight from the 15-year stint of writer Chris Claremont. Naturally,
alterations were made to better translate them between mediums, character
substitutions were made to fit in with their production, and similar stories were
combined into one narrative. For example, the two-part episode “Days of Future
Past” was based on the comic story of the same name, in which a
few remaining mutants survive in a dystopian future where mutants are hunted
and exterminated. Kitty Pryde had her mind sent back in time to her younger
body in order to try and prevent the events that set that future in motion.
Another time-traveler named Bishop (Philip Akin), who came back in
time to retrieve an escaped criminal, Trevor Fitzroy, beginning
in Uncanny
X-Men #282 (1991), was used in
the place of Kitty and physically traveled back with the aid of an the elderly
mutant inventor Forge (Marc Strange). The notion of
Gambit betraying the X-Men, which was Bishop’s driving plotline in the comics
for several years, also played as a subplot for the entire first season.
 |
| Two worlds without an Xavier. |
However, the comics would also take some influence from the show itself.
In the two-part episode “One Man’s Worth”, Fitzroy killed Xavier in the past
creating an alternate timeline in which the X-Men as we knew them were never
formed and mutant/human relations plummeted into an all-out war between the
races (notably, these episodes featured one of the first interracial kisses and
marriages in animation between Wolverine and Storm). Once again, Bishop had to
put it right. Marvel liked the concept so much they created an entire event
around it called the Age of
Apocalypse; where they would temporarily cease publication on all
X-titles and replace them with new ones for four months. They set it up with
the story “Legion Quest”,
which saw Xavier’s son, the mentally-ill and powerful Legion, go
back in time and accidentally kill his father. Without him to form the X-Men,
the mutant Apocalypse was
able to conquer the world and reshape it in his image with humans on the verge
of extinction and one-time arch-nemesis Magneto having formed his own
X-Men in Xavier’s honor to combat him. Houston was able to see the new designs
for some of the characters and incorporated them into the episodes.
 |
| Magneto threatens Senator Kelley. |
Writers for the show included Lewald, Edens and his brother, Matt, Julia Lewald, Robert N. Skir, Marty Isenberg, Don Glut, Jim Carlson, Terrence McDonnell, Julianne Klemm, Francis Moss, Ted Pedersen, Elliot S. Maggin, Stephanie Mathison, Brooks Wachtel, Adam Gilad, Jan Strnad, Steven Levy, Larry Parr, Len Uhley, Doug Booth, David McDermott, Steven Melching, Richard Mueller, Gary Greenfield, Sandy Scesny, Bruce Reid Schaefer, Luanne Crocker, Jeff Saylor, Steve Cuden, Dean Stefan, Francis Moss, Martha Moran, Mark Onspaugh, Marley Clark, Mirith Colao, James Krieg and Wolverine co-creator Len Wein. Dan Hennessey would serve as the voice director, as well as provide various voices. The music was credited to Shuki Levy and Saban (as Kussa Machi).
 |
| Wolverine and Beast with X-Factor's Wolfsbane and Strong Guy. |
Numerous X-Men supporting
characters made appearances from major roles to minor ones, such as original
X-Men Iceman (Dennis Akayama) and Angel/Archangel
(Stephen Ouimette); second
generation X-Men including steel-skinned Colossus (Rick Bennett, later Robert Cait), sonic-powered Banshee (Jeremy Ratchford), fire-powered Sunfire (Akayama) and teleporting
Nightcrawler (Adrian Hough); time-traveling Cable (Lawrence Bayne, who was up for the
role of Wolverine); the alien Shi’ar race, which
included Xavier’s love interest, Empress Lilandra Nermani
(Camilla Scott); and even
the government-sponsored mutant team X-Factor comprised
of plasma-blasting Havok,
magnet-powered Polaris
(Terri Hawkes),
self-duplicating Multiple
Man, speedy Quicksilver
(Paul Haddad), super-strong Strong Guy, wolf-like Wolfsbane, and a younger
Forge. Recurring villains included their arch-nemesis Magneto (David Hemblen); the savage clawed
Sabretooth (Don Francks); Xavier’s
mystically-powered half-brother, the Juggernaut (Bennett);
Graydon Creed (John Stocker) and his Friends of
Humanity hate-group; Senator
Robert Kelly (Len Carlson),
who ran the Mutant Registration Act with Henry Peter Gyrich (Barry Flatman) until the X-Men
saved him and he won the Presidency on a pro-mutant platform; the
shape-shifting Mystique (Randall Carpenter, later Jennifer Dale); and the first
mutant, Apocalypse (John Colicos,
later James Blendick). Other
non-mutant Marvel characters would appear in brief cameos in various episodes
throughout the series mostly thanks to Houston (ignoring the edict that they
couldn’t technically use any of them), including Spider-Man,
Nick Fury, G.W.
Bridge, War
Machine, Black
Panther, Thor,
Ghost
Rider, Punisher,
Hulk, Uatu the
Watcher, and Dr.
Strange. Deadpool
would also make his very first appearance outside of comics; or his visage
would, at least. The original Ms. Marvel (Roscoe Handford) appeared for
the first time as well, as she was crucial in Rogue’s origin story.
 |
| Ka-Zar and Zabu guide Xavier and Magneto in the Savage Land. |
Naturally, Fox Kids greenlit the series for a second season. They still
had a tight deadline, but no longer any growing pains to excuse their missing
another September deadline. They also gained their autonomy as now all parties
trusted their judgement. Except for two edicts: 1) Morph had become so liked by
the fans that FOX wanted them to bring him back, which they did by having
immortal scientist Mr.
Sinister (Christopher Britton)
rescue and reprogram him into his minion, and 2) no more serialized stories.
This was due to nervousness over possible future delays, but the production wanted
to try something new, anyway. However, they did integrate an ongoing B-plot of
Professor X and Magneto lost together in the Savage Land, a place out
of time in the Arctic where dinosaurs still existed, while the X-Men dealt with
his disappearance and other pressing threats. Focus was placed on expanding the
backstories of the characters, giving viewers more familiarity with them.
 |
| On an Ireland adventure with Banshee. |
In between the seasons, the cast and crew were released from their
services while awaiting word of renewal. Meugniot, the Edens brothers, Graz’s Jim Graziano and Lewald all
went over to work on ExoSquad.
Meugniot stayed on as an advisor, but didn’t play the role he once did in the
production of the series; replaced by Scott Thomas. The Edens also
had diminished roles, but helped where they could in setting up the season as
well as contributing a few scripts here and there. Stephanie Graziano remained at
Graz to help continue the production. Fortunately, job security was on the
horizon as the network soon upped their order for an additional 3 seasons. Saban,
notorious for trying to save whenever possible, experimented with cheaper
animation studios, such as Hong Ying, that
ended up turning in shoddy work and causing several episodes to be delayed—some
by years—and reshuffled in the airing order while the business end of
getting those corrected were dealt with. After season 3, ongoing story arcs
were significantly reduced as FOX began airing episodes, except continuing
stories, in a random order due to those animation delays as well as agendas to
push certain characters sooner.
 |
| Jean finally lets her hair down for the last season. |
“Beyond Good and Evil” was intended to be the series finale, but FOX
ordered more episodes at the last minute. Unfortunately, Marvel had begun
having financial trouble at this point and couldn’t finance the production
of more episodes. Saban chose to fund them directly—and cheaply. AKOM was
already committed to other projects, so Saban hired Philippines Animation Studio to
complete the work. As a result, beginning with “Jubilee’s Fairytale Theater” (the
first episode aired after the change, though not the first produced), the
series’ animation style and character designs were significantly different and
a lot more simplistic; losing the expensive-to-animate shading the series had
until that point. Potter had left the show and was replaced by Daniels as
Gambit. Houston had also departed the show to work on the second season of the Fantastic Four
animated series running at the same time.
 |
| Archangel with Apocalypse. |
Had the series continued on into a sixth season following “Graduation Day”,
plans were in place to make Bishop, his sister Shard, telepathic ninja Psylocke and Archangel
(revisiting a scrapped notion from season 2) members of the team. A time skip
would have shown how the X-Men dealt with life without Xavier, as well as
having to adventure into space when the Shi’ar sent a distress call. Additionally,
there were once talks about producing an animated crossover movie between X-Men
and fellow Saban property, Mighty
Morphin Power Rangers. However, one property was always more popular
than the other that it felt the project would risk diluting the brand. All that
resulted from that idea was a piece of concept
art by Meugniot and clothing depicting both
properties.
The X-Men intro remained unchanged
until the final season. When the animation changed, the theme was altered slightly
and the intro was infused with a series of clips from various episodes. When
the series was broadcast in Japan on TV Tokyo from
1994-95, a new
anime-style intro was created with the song “Rising” by Ambience.
Notably, this intro featured a comic-accurate depiction of the alien parasitic
race known as the Brood,
whom were required by broadcast standards & practices to be altered for the
actual series to be more reptilian in appearance with metallic tentacled armor
and called The Colony. After 42 episodes, a new intro was used with
the song “Dakishimetai Dare Yori Mo.” The Japanese dubs featured rewrites to
make the episodes more humorous and self-satircal, a trademark of director Yoshikazu Iwanami. These
episodes were edited for time to allow promotion of Capcom’s then-new fighting game, X-Men: Children of the Atom, featuring the actors pretending to play the game as their
characters while cracking jokes. When the series was rebroadcast on Toon
Disney in Japan, it had a new translation that was more faithful to the
American scripts and used the American intro and outro. In Germany, their intro had kids
superimposed over various scenes singing a rap about the X-Men.
Comparatively, the series had several ending credit outros. The first one
featured a rock and roll instrumental playing over a faux computer screen where
an unseen user accessed a computer-generated model of each character with an
accompanying description of their abilities. Network censors felt the CGI
models looked too close to toys, so to alleviate concerns that the show was actually
a toy commercial another outro ran featuring a complete scene from a previous
episode playing out over the credits. A third showed clips from
various episodes. The fourth version had the original X-Men intro
reprised alongside the credits in a separate box. When the series was rerun
by UPN on Sundays, the original
Japanese intro was shown
behind the credits, although trimmed down to run in the time allotted. The
Japanese version of the outro showed various images of the comics.
 |
| The X-Men on Spider-Man. |
Outside of the series, the X-Men appeared in a two-part episode of sister
FOX show Spider-Man: The Animated Series in
the episodes “The Mutant Agenda” and “Mutants’ Revenge”. In these episodes,
Spider-Man (Christopher Daniel
Barnes) sought Xavier’s help in stopping his radioactive blood from
mutating. While the character models appeared close to the series’, the
characters’ coloring was altered due to the fact Spider-Man employed a different production studio. The X-Men were
intended to appear in the Spider-Man “Secret
Wars” storyline, but because the cast was located in Canada it was deemed too
expensive to bring them to Los Angeles where Spider-Man was recorded. Instead, producers settled on using only
Storm as Morris was located in L.A., marking her brief return to the role since
X-Men’s second season. Smith, Zann
and Britton also reprised their respective roles in 1995 for the Chef Boyardee X-Men pasta commercial,
produced by The Ink Tank and Young & Rubicam Advertising.
 |
| Rogue bio from the comics, mimicking the original ending credits sequence. |
From 1991-98, Toy Biz manufactured a line
of X-Men figures featuring various characters from throughout the
franchise. While there was no specific series inspired by the show, the commercials
made use of the series’ intro and the timing of the releases of certain figures
could be attributed to their appearances on the cartoon. There were, however,
several figures directly inspired by the show. In 1994, Morph received his first
figure, giving him interchangeable character heads, and later was featured
as part of the 1998 Shape Shifters line as a transforming
figure. 1995’s Civilian
Wolverine figure, its 10”
counterpart and Projector
version directly resembled Wolverine’s out-of-costume appearance on the
show. Speaking of the Projectors, each figure came with a slide of stills from the
cartoon. The Sentinel
released in 1994 and the Blackbird
Jet released in 1995 took their designs more from the animated series
version than the comics. Also in 1995, several previous figures were
re-released as part of the Classics line with an animated
series theme. Toy Biz also produced a line of CD-Rom
comics, which reprinted a primary comic, several secondary comics, and
included clips from the series.
 |
| A special edition action figure recreating a much-memed scene from the series. |
2019 would see a new wave of X-Men merchandise being released,
starting with X-Men-themed
figurines in Wizkids’
Heroclix
game. The following year, mini-busts
of the characters from Gentle
Giant Ltd. began releasing though Diamond Select Toys. Beginning in
2022, Hasbro, the current Marvel licensor,
began releasing a line of high-end X-Men
figures based on the series packaged in mock VHS boxes featuring art by storyboarder
Dan Veesenmeyer. That same year, Mondo
began producing 1/6 scale
figures as part of their X-Men Essentials line, again featuring art from
Veesenmeyer including his storyboards and words from the Lewalds.
 |
| Character select screen from X-Men: Children of the Atom. |
In 1993, Capcom gained the license to produced video games based on the
X-Men. The following year, they released the game that would launch their
highly successful Marvel vs. Capcom
series of fighting games: X-Men:
Children of the Atom. Although it did not feature the same line-up as the
cartoon, it did enlist several of the show’s actors including Dodd (who also
voiced Iceman), Disher (who voiced all the featured female characters), Buza
(who played Colossus, Omega Red, Juggernaut, Magneto and provided announcing
duties) and Spencer. Hennessey would fill in additional roles. Zann and Daniels
reprised their roles, as did Bennett as Juggernaut and Francks as Sabretooth,
for the sequel, X-Men vs. Street Fighter. When the series began to encompass the
greater Marvel Universe, Dodd assumed the additional roles of Captain America and U.S. Agent, while Court
reprised her role as Jubilee and Bayne as Cable. Their voices would continue on
in each of their characters’ appearances throughout the franchise until they
were all ultimately replaced in Marvel vs. Capcom 3, accompanying new game sprites.
 |
| Storm and Wolverine married in an alternate timeline. |
In 1996, Dodd and Morris would reprise their roles for the PC game X-Men Cartoon Maker by
Instinct Corporation and Knowledge
Adventure, which allowed users to create their own X-Men cartons featuring
sprites with limited animations. In 2000, Buza, Daniels, Disher and Francks
would reprise their roles again for the Activision
fighting game X-Men: Mutant Academy, which
was created to tie into the X-Men film (the
characters were playable in both their comic and movie costumes, with
approximations created for non-movie characters). Joining them were Hemblen as
Magneto, Sealy-Smith as Storm, and Dale as Mystique. Bayne would also reunite
with his former cast members, assuming the role of Xavier. Bennett joined the
cast in Mutant Academy 2 as did Strange as Forge and Hough as Nightcrawler, and Rod Wilson (who voiced Gorgeous George
and Longshot in the
show) came in as Cyclops’ brother, Havok.
Daniels would be the only actor to reprise his roles in the next follow-up, X-Men: Next Dimension.
 |
| Sweepstakes promotion for the Generation X pilot movie. |
Ratchford had the distinction of not only reprising his role of Banshee
in live-action, but having taken part in the first ever live-action X-project:
the failed Generation
X television pilot, based on the comic series of the
same name. When 20th Century Fox moved
forward on its live-action film series in 1999, early production for the first
film took heavy inspiration from X-Men; particularly with original director Bryan Singer, who only knew of
them from the show, and Oscar
Isaac, who used it to guide his performance as Apocalypse in X-Men: Apocalypse. In fact, two of the show’s cast would even
take part in the films. Buza made a cameo appearance in the first X-Men movie as the trucker who brings
Rogue (Anna Paquin) to where
she eventually meets Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) in
Canada. Hough would appear in X-Men: The Last Stand as
young Jean Grey’s (Haley Ramm)
father. Additionally, Hemblen was a contender to reprise the role of Magneto in
the film series, but had to turn it down due to scheduling conflicts with his
show Earth: Final
Conflict.
X-Men has been released numerous
times on VHS between the 90s and the early 2000s. Pizza Hut produced two VHS tapes featuring
two episodes each and had a round-table discussion between series co-creator Stan Lee, X-Men writers Fabian
Nicieza and Scott
Lobdell, and X-Men editor Bob Harras. Universal Studios released 16 tapes
containing 2-4 episodes each in the early 2000s, as well as three DVD
collections featuring five episodes each. In Australia, “Night of the
Sentinels” was included in an X-Men branded merchandise bag offered at various
county fairs. PolyGram
released selected episodes of the series, predominantly from season 1, in
various international markets including the original Japanese dubs. In 2008, Morningstar Entertainment
released a DVD in Canada featuring the two-part Spider-Man crossover.
In 2003, Buena Vista Home Entertainment
released two DVD collections before finally releasing the entire series across
5 volumes beginning in 2009. Liberation Entertainment and Clear Vision handled the United Kingdom
versions of these DVDs. It was also made available to view on a number of
streaming services. In 2019, it became one of the launch titles for the
streaming service Disney+.
 |
| Professor X in Multiverse of Madness. |
After Disney, the current
parent company of Marvel, regained the rights to the X-Men franchise by
purchasing 20th Century Fox, they began steadily introducing the
X-Men into the Marvel Cinematic
Universe using the animated series as their gateway. In the Disney+
streaming series Ms.
Marvel, a snippet of the theme played when titular character Kamala
Kahn (Iman Vellani) was
indirectly revealed to be a mutant. Patrick Stewart reprised his
role of Professor X from the Fox films in Doctor Strange in the
Multiverse of Madness as a variant of the character; making him the
first X-Man to appear in the MCU. He was given an outfit and hoverchair
reminiscent of the animated series version, had his powers visually portrayed
in a similar circular fashion, and was also accompanied by a snippet of the
show’s theme.
While developing the first season of the animated series What If…?, Marvel Studios was contemplating their next animated project. Ultimately, it was decided on a revival/continuation of X-Men and announced it in November of 2021. X-Men ’97 (named for the year when the show concluded) would become the first X-Men project from the studio, and the first X-Men series since Wolverine and the X-Men ended in 2009. Beau DeMayo was named showrunner, with Houston and the Lewalds serving as consultants. Dodd, Zann, Smith, Buza, Britton and Hough all reprised their respective roles, with Ray Chase taking over Cyclops (Spencer died in 2020), A.J. LoCascio as Gambit, Jennifer Hale as Jean Grey (reprising from Wolverine and the X-Men, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Marvel Anime: X-Men and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3:The Black Order), Holly Chou as Jubilee, Matthew Waterson as Magneto (Hemblen died in 2020), Isaac Robinson-Smith as Bishop, and Ross Marquand as Professor X. Additional original cast members included Court as Abcissa, opting to hand the Jubilee role to someone of Asian descent; Disher as Val Cooper; Bayne as X-Cutioner; Potter assuming the Cable role from Bayne; and Rubin as President Kelly. After following its predecessor’s tradition of production delays, X-Men ’97 landed on Disney+ in March of 2024.
Season 1:
“Night of the Sentinels Part 1” (10/31/92) – The X-Men rescue Jubilee from Sentinels and learn the Mutant Registration Program is really a mutant hit-list.
“Till Death Do Us Part (Part 1)” (10/23/93) – Mister Sinister uses a brainwashed Morph to destroy the X-Men.
“Out of the Past (Part 1)” (7/29/94) – Wolverine’s former lover, Yuriko Oyama, brings Wolverine to the Morlock tunnels in order to open an alien ship she found.
*“Longshot” (10/5/96) – Jubilee befriends Longshot and helps him evade the forces of Mojo hunting him.
(Uncanny Annual 10, X-Men 5-7)
“Cold Comfort” (2/4/95) – Iceman searches for his missing girlfriend, Polaris, whom he finds working with the government team X-Factor.
(Uncanny 114)
“One Man’s Worth (Part 1)” (9/9/95) – Master Mold sends Fitzroy and Bantam back in time to kill Xavier, forcing Bishop and Shard to travel back and prevent the resulting hellish timeline.
“The Phalanx Covenant (Part 1)” (9/7/96) – The X-Men discover the existence of the alien Phalanx that can assume the guise of anything or anyone.
(Further Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix 1-4)
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