When “X-Men ’97” was announced to be a new continuation of the classic Fox Kids cartoon, fans of the show got very happy very fast. There was a lot of hope for it to succeed, and reason to believe it would by respecting the series legacy. Efforts like bringing back members of the original voice cast, the iconic theme song, and picking up where the original story ended, all boded well for the Disney+ animated series. With all these things in place, the only question left was whether or not the show could deliver the goods, so to say. Boy did it ever, and in a way that has the creative team already planning season three.
SPOILER WARNING…
If you haven’t watched the first season yet, of “X-Men ’97” we strongly recommend you do so. All ten episodes have been released at this point so you can binge without anticipation for what happens next. And if you were concerned about how the quality of the show would hold up compared to the original, put your trepidations aside. “X-Men ’97” is incredibly strong and is the kind of show that has aged with its audience. That is to say, it’s more intense than the original and is aimed not so much at kids today but at the kids from the ’90s who are adults today. Okay, with that out of the way, let’s dive into how the finale of season one is driving the series forward.
When Bastion was revealed as the primary antagonist of the season, a lot of speculation arose online that the season would culminate with the arrival of Onslaught. If you’re not familiar with the name, Onslaught was a villain created in the mid ’90s run of X-Men comics whom ended up affecting the entire Marvel universe. To try and sum up the fictional biography quickly, Onslaught is a being of pure psychic/psyonic energy that manifested after Xavier used his abilities to dive into Magneto’s mind. The combination of Magneto’s contempt and Xavier’s suppressed negative emotions eventually resulted in giving life to Onslaught.
That’s not what we wound up with though at the end of season one, even though elements may be in place for the future. What we got instead was the return and origin, of Apocalypse. Otherwise known as En Sabah Nur, the villainous mutant should be familiar to anyone who watched the original series or who watched the sadly lackluster “X-Men: Apocalypse” film of 2016. And this wasn’t a tease of the character that wrapped season one, this was a full on reveal with the potential of him reviving Gambit as one of his Horsemen.
Members of the “X-Men ’97” creative team have been heavily spurred on thanks to the show’s positive reception. Apocalypse was in the cards from the beginning thanks to the dynamic he brings to the balance of power.
As director Emi Yonemura told EW, “I love it because both Magneto and Xavier are right and wrong, so you’ve got to have this other party come in and completely destroy how both of them see the world…” Apocalypse is certainly capable of that, especially as seen on the original run of the show. With time travel now in play, we get to see Apocalypse as he was before he took on the moniker.
As for the potential revival of Gambit, the creative team didn’t confirm anything, but they did note the importance of the post-credit sequence. In present-day, Apocalypse visits the grave of Gambit and among other things states, “So much… death.” Jake Castroena, the show’s supervising producer said in wry fashion, “Oh, did something happen with Gambit in the comics? Oh, that’s cool.”
He followed it up by stating that their word choice is very important in their scripting, to the point where the scripts are combed over multiple times to ensure everything is intentional.
So we have Apocalypse stepping up for season 2, the unconfirmed potential for Onslaught beyond that, and who knows what other tricks the team has up their sleeves. The series is a bright spot for X-Men fans who have been sorely lacking representation outside of comics for sometime now. If you’re not excited for where “X-Men ’97” can go from here, then go back and watch the Apocalypse episodes from the original run. And uh, avoid the movie version of him. God love you Oscar Isaac, but not even you could save that film.
You can catch the original animated series as well as “’97” on Disney+ now.
