The first two episodes of Marvel’s ‘X-Men ’97‘ debuted on March 20, 2024.
The animated show is currently the highest-rated TV series of 2024, with a perfect 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It is described as a fantastic return for the X-Men, featuring gripping storytelling and inventive animation.
‘X-Men ’97’ Achieves Certified Fresh Status with Perfect Critic Score; Highest-Rated Marvel Studios Production on Platform
‘X-Men ’97’ currently holds a Certified Fresh score with its first two episodes, with a critic score of 100% and an audience score of 92%. It stands as the highest-rated Marvel Studios production on the platform. Following closely behind is ‘Ms. Marvel‘ with a 98% approval rating. The show’s content pays massive respect to the 90s series, earning it high praise.
The show is a revival/sequel to the iconic “X-Men: The Animated Series,” which aired for 5 seasons on Fox Kids from 1992-1997. Created by Beau DeMayo and directed by Jake Castorena and Chase Conley. The Newton Brothers will compose the score for the series. The plot follows Storm and Wolverine as they try to continue the X-Men. Magneto comes in and wants to step up for Charles Xavier. Sinister comes in to try to end the X-Men once and for all.
The voice stars 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 Henry “Hank” McCoy/Beast, A. J. LoCascio as Remy LeBeau/Gambit, Holly Chou as Jubilation Lee/Jubilee, Isaac Robinson-Smith as Bishop, Matthew Waterson as Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto, Ross Marquand as Professor Charles Xavier, Gui Agustini as Roberto da Costa/Sunspot, Catherine Disher as Valerie Cooper, Lawrence Bayne as Carl Denti/X-Cutioner, Todd Haberkorn as Henry Peter Gyrich, Gavin Hammon as Bolivar Trask, Eric Bauza as Master Mold and the Sentinels, Adrian Hough as Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler, Christopher Britton as Nathaniel Essex/Mister Sinister, Gil Birmingham as Forge, Chris Potter as Nathan Summers/Cable, and Ron Rubin as Robert Edward Kelly.
‘X-Men ’97’ Maintains Hand-Drawn Animation, Says Supervising Producer in Interview
In an interview with Inverse, Jake Castorena, supervising producer and head director of X-Men ‘97, revealed that the show still predominantly uses hand-drawn animation.
Castorena said, “This is still a 2D hand-drawn show. Even though in this day and age we do take advantage of CG for layout or overly complicated vehicles or ships, But then you still have to go in and hand draw all of that because if you don’t, it doesn’t feel like it looks the way it should. I have to give a shout-out to our overseas vendor, Studio Mir. They carried this across the finish line and worked in tandem with our animation team to genuinely figure out the basic questions: What’s too fancy? What’s not? Where can we pull in the old tools of the trade, and where do we embellish what we’ve learned over 30 years?”
According to reports, the second season of ‘X-Men ’97’ is in development. DeMayo had reportedly finished writing Season 2 and was in discussions for ideas regarding Season 3 before his termination.
Recently, it was revealed that Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige had two conditions before greenlighting ‘X-Men ’97’: the original cast had to return, and the original theme song had to be included.
‘X-Men ’97’ consists of 10 episodes, with weekly releases scheduled until May 15th.
