The Marvel Animation revival of the “X-Men: The Animated Series” with Marvel’s “X-Men ’97” is becoming one of the more popular animated projects ever to grace Disney+. It is so popular with fans at the moment that the creators have been asked all kinds of questions. Would they want to make an animated “X-Men ’97” movie? You bet. Would they consider being part of the “X-Men” live-action films (of course, if they were asked), and many more what-ifs? Most of these questions are no-brainers; they’d love to do more and be involved in any capacity they could, but one recent question about MCU cannon has come up and yielded some interesting answers.
While speaking with Inverse, show director Emi Yonemura revealed that Marvel head Kevin Feige once considered making the show part of the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe canon. “That has always been something we know was on Kevin Feige’s mind, ‘Do we make this part of the MCU? Do we not make this part of the MCU?’” Yonemura told Inverse about the animated revival nearly joining the MCU canon. “It’s actually gone back and forth quite a few times, and I think we did land in a smart place because [X-Men: The Animated Series] was its own thing, and I think that to continue it, we needed to be our own thing.”
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Even in the world of comicbook movies, the logistics of how the show could be MCU “canon” aren’t clear, given “X-Men: The Animated Series” was created years before the MCU’s existence and took place in its own Fox Kids era animated connective universe (referred to as Earth-92131) with various small-screen crossovers such as Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Iron Man, Avengers, Fantastic Four, Captain Marvel, Blade, Punisher, and Nick Fury.
The show could have been established as a “Multiverse variant” of the team, not unlike what we saw with Earth-838 (John Krasinski leading the Illuminati as Mister Fantastic and Patrick Stewart’s Professor Xavier both killed in “Doctor Strange 2”) or Kelsey Grammer being able to voice a Multiverse version of Beast in “The Marvels” after playing the character in “X-Men: The Last Stand.” But anything beyond that, or trying to sandwich it into the continuity of the regular Earth-616, seems like it would have been folly.
Either way, “X-Men ’97” has the potential to serve as a gateway for a new generation of audiences, introducing them to the vast and diverse lineup of mutants, many of whom have never before been adapted to live-action. This exciting popularity of the series should give Marvel plenty of time to ponder what direction their eventual “X-Men” live-action movie takes. “X-Men ’97” already has a season two tentatively planned for Fall 2023, and a third season of the animated show is on the horizon too.
Meanwhile, “Deadpool & Wolverine” debuts on July 26 and could answer some of our questions about what’s next for the “X-Men,” as the fate of those Fox-centric mutant characters—likely not crossing over into the new MCU, but getting their flowers and goodbye’s—will likely be made evident. How The Multiverse Saga ends and what that means for the X-Men is still a complete mystery, but surely the seeds of that story will start in July with “Deadpool & Wolverine.”