The Making of X-Men ’97

Zann, who loves the X-Men mythology, described the original scripts and their continuation, as “archetypes, like Greek and Roman gods and goddesses.” That influenced the new creative team to continue to explore Magnus and Charles’ dream and bring it back just like those who came before. But they didn’t want to emulate a time capsule of the original, so they carefully tooled it to be a spiritual successor. Houston proudly said that the original creators stuck to the tenet “Don’t write down to kids, write up to kids”—and they are happy to see that continue.

Brad Winderbaum added, “Kids see the world around them, they see the racism, they see social unrest.” Much like the X-Men did for him growing up, he said, the characters and stories can do the same for kids now—and help them not feel alone. It’s a show about tolerance, something that the X-Men has always represented.

Watch Marvel Animation’s X-Men ‘97 and Assembled: The Making of X-Men ‘97, as well as X-Men: The Animated Series, on Disney+.

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