| X-Men: The Animated Series | |
|---|---|
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| Genre | Superhero |
| Based on | |
| Developed by |
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| Voices of | |
| Theme music composer | Ron Wasserman[1] |
| Composers |
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| Country of origin |
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| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 5 |
| No. of episodes | 76(list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers |
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| Producers |
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| Running time | 22 minutes |
| Production companies | |
| Original release | |
| Network | Fox Kids Network |
| Release | October 31, 1992 (1992-10-31) – September 20, 1997 (1997-09-20) |
| Related | |
X-Men: The Animated Series, also known asX-Men, is ananimatedsuperhero television series, based on theMarvel Comics superhero teamof the same name.[6] The series aired in the United States for five seasons from October 31, 1992, to September 20, 1997, onFox'sFox Kidsprogramming block.[7] It was produced byMarvel Entertainment andSaban Entertainment, and animated principally byAKOM.
It was Marvel Comics' second attempt at an animated X-Men television series after the pilotX-Men: Pryde of the X-Men was not picked up.[8] Set in the samefictional universe asSpider-Man: The Animated Series (1994–1998), Earth-92131,[9][10] it was followed by arevival,X-Men '97, which began airing on March 20, 2024, onDisney+ to critical acclaim.
The series is currently owned and distributed byThe Walt Disney Company (Marvel's parent company), which acquired all Fox Kids-related properties fromNews Corporation and Saban in 2001.[11]
The show features a team similar to that of the early 1990sX-Men comics byJim Lee, specifically the Blue Team established early on inX-Men (vol. 2). It consists ofCyclops,Wolverine,Rogue,Storm,Beast,Gambit,Jubilee,Jean Grey, andProfessor X, as well as original characterMorph, who is based onChangeling. All 76 episodes were directed by Larry Houston.
The series deals with social issues, including divorce ("Proteus"), religion ("Nightcrawler" and "Bloodlines"),the Holocaust ("Enter Magneto", "Deadly Reunions", "Days of Future Past" and "The Phalanx Covenant"),AIDS hysteria ("Time Fugitives"), and loneliness ("No Mutant Is an Island"). It satirizes television in the episodes "Mojovision" and "Longshot".
It crossed over withSpider-Man: The Animated Series when Spider-Man seeks the X-Men's help to stop his progressing mutation. In theabbreviated form of theSecret Wars storyline, theBeyonder andMadame Web select Spider-Man to lead a team of heroes against a group of villains. An earlier draft of "Secret Wars" involved all the X-Men, but transporting the voice cast from Canada to Los Angeles, where production for theSpider-Man animated series was based, had been too costly in previous crossovers, so the episode was rewritten to feature only Storm, whose actress, Iona Morris, lived in Los Angeles.[12]
In the first season, the X-Men come into conflict with human conspirators buildingSentinel robots to kill mutants, Magneto's plan to instigate a human-mutant war, and the powerful mutantApocalypse's plan to eradicate the weak. Other storylines include Morph's death at the hands of the Sentinels, Beast's incarceration, and Apocalypse's minions attempting to assassinate SenatorRobert Kelly to turn humans against mutants.
In the second season, Cyclops and Jean are married and targeted byMister Sinister, who seeks to use the genetically perfect combination of their DNA to create an army of obedient mutants. Morph returns, having been rescued by Sinister and brainwashed into forcing the X-Men apart. Over time, a rift grows between humans and mutants, with theFriends of Humanity, an anti-mutant group, leading their persecution. Apocalypse returns, developing a deadly plague that he plans to blame on mutants to fuel hatred against them. It features a parallel narrative of Professor X and Magneto being lost in theSavage Land.
The third season involves thePhoenix Force, a cosmic force that merges with Jean Grey and turns her into the Dark Phoenix. It introduces theShi'ar Empire, which includesLilandra Neramani andGladiator, and seeks to stop the Dark Phoenix. Other storylines include the introduction of Wolverine's former lover turned mercenary,Lady Deathstrike, former X-Men memberIceman, and the villainousShadow King.
Volume 5 of theOfficial Handbook of the Marvel Universe listsX-Men: The Animated Series as Earth-92131 in the Marvel Comicsmultiverse. Additionally, the plague-infested future thatBishop tries to prevent in Season 2 is listed as Earth-13393, whileCable's release of the cure is listed as Earth-121893.
| Season | Episodes | Originally released | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First released | Last released | |||
| 1 | 13 | October 31, 1992 (1992-10-31) | March 27, 1993 (1993-03-27) | |
| 2 | 13 | October 23, 1993 (1993-10-23) | February 19, 1994 (1994-02-19) | |
| 3 | 19 | July 29, 1994 (1994-07-29) | October 5, 1996 (1996-10-05) | |
| 4 | 21 | May 6, 1995 (1995-05-06) | October 26, 1996 (1996-10-26) | |
| 5 | 10 | September 7, 1996 (1996-09-07) | September 20, 1997 (1997-09-20) | |
The series' voice acting was recorded in Toronto, withDan Hennessey serving as voice director. Toronto voice actors had also been used in the 1960s Marvel Comics cartoons.Catherine Disher had originally auditioned for the part ofStorm before she was cast asJean Grey.[4]Chris Potter was cast in the role ofGambit during filming forKung Fu: The Legend Continues (1993-1997) which was helpful since his co-starDavid Carradine, a big fan of the comics, helped as he was unfamiliar.[4]Alyson Court andCal Dodd were neighbors when Court was a child and Dodd was a well-known actor in Canada long before voicing bothJubilee andWolverine respectively, attributing their characters' chemistry to being previously acquainted with one another. Another voice actor originally had been cast as Jubilee, but Court was cast when the original voice was deemed too sweet and innocent for the role.[4]
In March 1990,Margaret Loesch (who had previously worked as president and chief executive officer atMarvel Productions) became head ofFox Children's Network.[14] Having championed thePryde of the X-Menpilot in 1989, she ordered 13 episodes ofX-Men.[when?][5]Saban Entertainment was contracted to produce the show and hired a small studio,Graz Entertainment, to produce episodes because, at the time, they lacked sufficient staff to handle in-house production. Mark Edward Edens and Eric Lewald were to write the show, with the two dividing the job between Edens as head writer and Lewald as story editor.[15] The voice work was done throughCanadian studios, andSouth Korean studioAKOM was hired to animate episodes.X-Men was initially set to premiere overLabor Day weekend in September; however, due to production delays, it was delayed to the end of October. When AKOM turned in the first episode, it contained several animation errors, which they refused to fix. Because of time constraints, the episode was aired unfinished;[5] when Fox re-aired the pilot in early 1993, the errors were corrected.[16] The second episode was submitted just before the deadline, with 50 scenes missing and a single day reserved for editing.[5] The two-part episode "Night of the Sentinels" originally aired as a "sneak preview" on October 31.[17]
Because of the production delays and animation errors, Fox threatened to sever AKOM's contracts.[5] The series earned top ratings throughout its first season,[5] and was renewed for a second season of 13 episodes. Throughout its run, producers had to deal with quality control issues, including attempts to cut costs and requests to change the tone of the series to more child-friendly and integrated toys.[4]
The show was originally planned to run for 65 episodes, but as a result of its success, Saban funded eleven more episodes, albeit with a reduced budget due to Marvel's bankruptcy.[18]
The series is currently owned and distributed byThe Walt Disney Company (Marvel's parent company), which acquired all Fox Kids-related properties fromNews Corporation andSaban International in 2001.[11]
The series was added to streaming serviceDisney+ following its launch on November 12, 2019, with a revival,X-Men '97, subsequently announced to be in development.[19][20] The series premiered on March 20, 2024.
The original opening sequence, used throughout the first four seasons, features the X-Men demonstrating their mutant abilities to an instrumental theme written byRon Wasserman and composed byHaim Saban andShuki Levy. A modified version is introduced in the fifth season. WhenUPN began airing reruns on Sunday mornings, an alternate credits sequence was used: a high-quality Japanese-animated version of the original opening. This modified version occasionally appears in the digital streaming release of the show, which was used for re-runs on Toon Disney.
In Italy, where the series began airing in 1994 onCanale 5, the intro and outro sequences were replaced by a new sequence and theme song: "Insuperabili X-Men", sung by Marco Destro and Pietro Ubaldi.[21]
X-Men originally aired onTV Tokyo from 1994 to 1995. For the TV Tokyo dub of the series, the intro was replaced with a new, Japanese-animated sequence and a new theme: "Rising" by Ambience. Starting with episode 42, a second intro was used, featuring the song "Dakishimetai Dare Yori Mo" (抱きしめたい誰よりも; "I want to embrace you more than anyone else"). The end credits sequence was also changed: it featured shots of AmericanX-Men comic books set to the song "Back to You", also by Ambience.
The TV Tokyo dub was directed by Yoshikazu Iwanami and featured scripts rewritten to include a more humorous, self-satirical tone with an emphasis on comical adlibbing, a hallmark of his dubbing style. Episodes were edited for time so that new segments could be added to the end to promoteX-Men: Children of the Atom, which featured the dub actors pretending to play the game as their characters. A second dub was made in the early 2000s for broadcast onToon Disney (Japan) that is more faithful to the original English scripts and does not cut episodes for time. This version used the original American intro and end credits rather than the unique ones created for the TV Tokyo version.
Two versions of the episode "No Mutant is an Island" exist, each with a different animation. The first version was aired for Toon Disney reruns, can be seen on digital streaming services such as Amazon Video, aired on Fox Kids in the United States, and uses the remixed intro theme from Season 5. The second version is available on Region 1 DVD, aired on Fox Kids overseas, and uses the default intro theme from Seasons 1–4.[22]
In its prime,X-Men garnered very highratings for a Saturday morning cartoon and received praise for adapting many different storylines from the comics. Haim Saban credits the success of the series in assisting him to sell his next project to Fox:Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.[4]
X-Men reached a viewership of over23 million households.[23]
By 2019, there were ongoing talks withDisney+ to revive the series.[24] In November 2021, it was revealed that a revival titledX-Men '97 was in development which will continue the plot of the series.[25]X-Men '97 eventually premiered on March 20, 2024. Beau DeMayo served ashead writer for the first two seasons, with most of the surviving cast members of the original series reprising their roles, including Dodd, Zann, Buza, Disher, Potter, Sealy-Smith, Hough, and Britton. They were joined byJennifer Hale,Ray Chase, Matthew Waterson,JP Karliak, Holly Chou,Jeff Bennett, andA.J. LoCascio. Alyson Court did not reprise her role as Jubilee, requesting that Jubilee be voiced by an Asian actress. She instead returned to voice an alternate version of the character namedAbscissa.[26] The series is produced byMarvel Studios Animation, but does not take place within theMarvel Cinematic Universe.[27][28]
| X-Men Adventures | |
|---|---|
 X-Men Adventures vol. 1 #1 (Nov. 1992) Art bySteve Lightle | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| Schedule | Monthly |
| Format | Ongoing |
| Publication date | November 1992 – March 1997 |
| No. of issues | 53 |
| Main character | X-Men |
X-Men Adventures was acomic bookspin-off of the animated series. Beginning in November 1992, it adapted the first three seasons of the show; in April 1996, it becameAdventures of the X-Men, which contained original stories set within the same continuity.[29] The comic book lasted until March 1997, shortly after the show's cancellation by theFox Network.
Bibliography
Additionally, stories featuring the same characters were printed through the 19 issues ofSpider-Man Magazine, published between March 1994 and March 1997, alongside stories inspired by the animated seriesSpider-Man.
The comic book seriesX-Men '92 was first released as one of the many tie-in titles for Marvel's 2015Secret Wars event, and continued in its second volume as a regular series in early 2016, starring characters of the TV show's reality.[34]
In January 2022, Marvel announced a new series inspired by the cartoon,X-Men '92: House of XCII. Published in April of that same year, the series explores an alternate universe where the events ofJonathan Hickman'sHouse of X and Powers of X happened decades earlier, in the '90s of the original show.[35]
In 2017, series developer and showrunner Eric Lewald released the bookPreviously on X-Men: The Making of an Animated Series, which features his interviews with 36 of the staff and voice cast behind the TV series, as well as Lewald's personal experiences on the series' development and production.[36]
In 2020, Eric Lewald and Julia Lewald released the bookX-Men: The Art and Making of The Animated Series, which features previously unseen concept art, storyboards, character models, background layouts, animation cels, and other production/promotional materials, along with new interviews with the series principal artists and production staff.[37]
The series was credited for being responsible for the beginning development of the 2000X-Men film. Fox Kids owner20th Century Fox was impressed by the success of the TV show, and producerLauren Shuler Donner purchased the film rights for them in 1994.[39][40] The film's success led to afilm franchise, which includes a series of sequels, prequels, and spin-offs, for two decades up to 2020, when the series came to an end due toDisney'sacquisition of Fox, with the character rights reverting to Marvel Studios. Potter revealed that he once auditioned for the role of Cyclops in the 2000 film before losing it toJames Marsden, while Buza would appear in the film proper as a truck driver.[4]
In the 2022Marvel Cinematic Universe filmDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, produced by Marvel Studios, the theme song from the TV series (orchestrated byDanny Elfman and credited asX-Men '97 Theme) is played whenCharles Xavier (portrayed byPatrick Stewart) first appears; in the film, unlike his previous performances as the character in Fox'sX-Men franchise, Stewart's Xavier is visually redesigned to match his animated counterpart, complete with his iconic green suit, blue and black tie, and yellow hoverchair.[41]
In theMs. Marvel episode "No Normal", set in the MCU, the theme song from theX-Men animated series is played whenKamala Khan discovers that she is a "mutant".[42]
On October 9, 2019, Hungarian immigrant Zoltán Krisko, manager of the estate ofGyörgy Vukán [hu], filed a lawsuit againstMarvel Entertainment Group,Warner Chappell Music,Haim Saban,Shuki Levy,Ron Wasserman,UMG Recordings (the current distributor ofDisney Music Group) andFox Corporation. He claims the theme music was plagiarized from the theme song to the 1984–1991 Hungarian action-adventure television seriesLinda, which was composed by Vukán.[43]
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