Upcoming Disney+ X-Men: The Animated Series revival X-Men ’97 sees many of its titular mutant superheroes played by the same performers as before – but not Jubilee. We’ve explained why Jubilee is voiced by a different actor in X-Men ’97 below.
Related: X-Men ’97: Are the Original X-Men Voice Actors Coming Back?
X-Men ’97: Why Jubilee Is Voiced By a Different Actor, Explained
Alyson Court voiced Jubilee in X-Men: The Animated Series, however, in X-Men ’97, the team’s resident rookie is brought to life by Holly Chou. Why the casting shake-up? Because Court – a white Canadian actor – is no longer comfortable voicing an Asian-American character. Court made her position clear in a 2020 social media post, a year before X-Men ’97 was even announced. “I will not voice Jubilee [again],” she wrote. “It was an honor to bring life [and] voice to such an iconic character in the original series, but I know far too many talented young Asian actors who would do Jubilee justice now.”
Court has since admitted she wasn’t aware of Jubilee’s canonical ethnicity during X-Men: The Animated Series‘ original run. “At the time of my audition, I didn’t know anything about the X-Men… I actually didn’t know that [Jubilee] was Asian,” Court recalled at the Uncanny Experience fan event. “It was never mentioned in her character description. It was never something that was focused on. It was actually years later that I found out she was Asian-American.”
Related: Is X-Men ’97 Set in the MCU?
The veteran voice actor added that she was mortified upon learning the truth about Jubilee, fearing that her performance may have upset some viewers. Fortunately, Court’s interactions with fans indicated this wasn’t the case. “Not a single one ever gave me grief,” Court said. “They have always come up and said thank you for voicing that character. The first thing I do is say ‘I’m sorry, and it wasn’t meant to be bad.’ And they said ‘No, are you crazy? I didn’t care, having her on screen meant the world to me. You have no idea how important it was having her on the show. Thank you for what you brought to the character.'”
Even so, Court insisted that she “couldn’t be prouder to step aside and hand over the torch” to Chou on X-Men ’97. This doesn’t mean Court isn’t part of the X-Men ’97 cast, though. She’ll still lend her vocals to the revival series, but as a different character: Abcissa. In Marvel’s X-Men comics, Abcissa is an alternate timeline incarnation of Jubilee. So, assuming this carries across to X-Men ’97, Court playing the part is a nice nod to her history with the character.
X-Men ’97 arrives on Disney+ on March 20, 2024, and will run for 10 episodes.
