The X-Men have yet to officially appear in the MCU, but they’re back in an even better way in the trailer for X-Men ’97.
The new series brings back the classic ’90s Fox X-Men cartoon, which was one of the biggest animated hits of that century and squarely launched the team into superstardom, and it’s doing it in as ’90s a way as possible. That’s easily the first thing you notice (aside from the theme song getting instantly stuck in your head) from the trailer. This isn’t some rebooted version, either, but instead the same show. That is, of course, exactly what Marvel is going for as it tries to recapture the magic of the series, especially as it begins moving the X-Men into the MCU as well.
X-Men ’97 takes place directly after the death of Professor Xavier in the series finale of the original show, which was one of the earliest “kids” cartoons to tell a serialized story over the course of multiple seasons. The X-Men find themselves continuing the fight for mutant equality but without their leader. They may have a new one, however, in their arch-nemesis Magneto. The X-Men ’97 trailer also shows off a plethora of exciting plot lines, including a pregnant Jean Grey, Beast not being a war criminal, and Cyclops definitely still being the worst.
The show will see a bunch of actors return to voice the iconic characters. Cal Dodd (Wolverine/Logan), Alison Sealy-Smith (Storm/Ororo Munroe), George Buza (Beast/Henry “Hank” McCoy), Adrian Hough (Nightcrawler/Kurt Wagner), Chris Britton (Mister Sinister/Nathaniel Essex), and Lenore Zann (Rogue) are all returning and sending shivers of nostalgia down everyone’s spine when they hear them in the trailer.
Some voice actors who couldn’t quite get their voices back to where they used to be are returning as other characters. Catherine Disher (Jean Grey) is voicing Dr. Valerie Cooper; Chris Potter (Gambit) is now playing Cable/Nathan Summers; Lawrence Bayne (Cable) is now playing Carl Dentil/X-Cutioner; Ron Rubin (Morph) is now playing President Robert Edward Kelly, and Alyson Court (Jubilee) is now playing Abscissa.
X-Men ’97 will debut on Disney+ on Mar. 20.
