An X-Men ‘97 movie? The directors behind the animated series aren’t ruling it out. They actually sound downright excited about the idea. Whether it happens or not is up to the powers that be at Disney and Marvel Studios.
Inverse recently spoke with X-Men ‘97 directors Chase Conley, Emi Yonemura, and Jake Castorena. When asked about the possibility of a movie, they sparked to it. “First off, it would be a slam dunk,” Conley said. “I think that would absolutely be something the audience would want to see, and we would want to be a part of.” Speaking further, Conley explained that a movie budget would allow them to do much more.
“With animation, the more time and money we get, the better it will be. That’s just a fact.”
For what it’s worth, Marvel Studios is currently developing a live-action X-Men movie for the MCU. That might get in the way of an animated movie happening. Yonemura was also very much into the idea. He believes They could do for the X-Men what Into the Spider-Verse did for Spider-Man. Or what Mutant Mayhem did for the Ninja Turtles last year.
“It feels like we’re already making movie-level animation and events. But just to have that budget and time then to make it a full feature, and to kind of do what Spider-Verse and the recent animated Turtles movie did…One of our influences was ‘80s and ‘90s Japanese animation. Akira. Ghost in the Shell. Those levels. It’s like: Hey, you want to give us the money and budget to do that for you? But for X-Men ‘97? Gladly.”
“Oh, I love job security,” Castorena added. “I think myself and the entire team would love to keep doing this. Seven seasons and a movie. Let’s go!…If the love and the demand is there from the fandom, and Marvel wants to let us do it, it’d be great to bring these X-Men, these characters, this style, and this work to the silver screen.”
Here is the synopsis for X-Men ‘97.
“X-Men ’97 revisits the iconic era of the 1990s as the X-Men, a band of mutants who use their uncanny gifts to protect a world that hates and fears them, are challenged like never before, forced to face a dangerous and unexpected new future.”
The voice cast for the series includes Ray Chase as Cyclops, Jennifer Hale as Jean Grey, Alison Sealy-Smith as Storm, Cal Dodd as Wolverine, JP Karliak as Morph, Lenore Zann as Rogue, George Buza as Beast, AJ LoCascio as Gambit, Holly Chou as Jubilee, Isaac Robinson-Smith as Bishop, Matthew Waterson as Magneto and Adrian Hough as Nightcrawler.
Beau DeMayo serves as the head writer of the series. It is executive produced by Brad Winderbaum, Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso and DeMayo.
X-Men ‘97 is streaming now on Disney+.
What do you think? Would you like to see an X-Men ‘97 movie? Or are you comfortable keeping it as a TV show? Join in on the conversation over on Facebook or Twitter!
