02x07 - The Making of X-Men '97

[bunniefuu]

[Professor X] Coexistence is messy.

Thus, my love for education,

for my X-Men.

Their heroism teaches a lesson
we mustn't forget.

That the universe is very old,

and all of us, very young.

Born of ancient stardust,

and all children of the atom.

[Brad Winderbaum] When Disney+ first
came about, I had a great opportunity

to go into Kevin's office

and pitch every wild animated idea
I could think of.

And the first words out of my mouth were,

"Revival of the original
X-Men: The Animated Series."

It was, by far, the most influential show
on me as a kid.

[Dana Vasquez-Eberhardt] It holds
such a special place in everyone's heart.

It has made animation fans
of so many people, myself included.

[Jake Castorena] I remember when
Pizza Hut was doing the promo

for "Night of the Sentinels I and II"
on VHS.

I wore that thing out.

That was my introduction to the show,

and that's where my love
of the characters came from.

It was groundbreaking, and I loved
looking forward to watching it.

X-Men, more than anything,
is my favorite allegory.

The X-Men have always treated
being different in a realistic way,

like how would the world
actually react to that?

The X-Men feel grounded,

they're ground level,
they deal with being persecuted,

trying to go out
and help people that hate you.

It weighs on you a lot,

and we get a chance
to be in those moments with them,

and how that affects their relationships,

I think it's all great allegory
for our world now.

[Winderbaum] It was a show
that was for kids,

but it didn't talk down to the audience.

I think this is a strength
of the comic book,

as well as the animated series,

and you can go all the way back
to the earliest comics

written by Stan Lee,

to see that the X-Men
made people's feelings of isolation,

of trauma in their own lives, feel seen,
and it certainly made me feel seen.

I thought you wanted to be cured.

That's what I thought, too, Doc,
but there ain't no cure for who you are.

[Emi-Emmett Yonemura] I loved being able
to see these characters

who really, in one way or another,
saved us as kids.

Whether they became our friends
because we were lonely kids,

or they taught us,
or they were just the fun heroes

that we got to check in on on Saturday.

Okay, hairball, let's talk.

What I really respected about X-Men
was that it said,

"Life is hard, and it's gonna be hard,
but you can do it together,

"you can have a team,
you can find your family,

"and you can actually make a difference."

So often in our history,

unhappy, misguided people
have created scapegoats,

blaming those that are different
for the problems in their own lives.

It is an evil in men's hearts
that must be fought.

The original pitch
was about reviving the series,

not about rebooting it,
not about remaking it.

[Vasquez-Eberhardt]
A lot of people will say,

"It's X-Men: The Animated Series.

"They're continuing on
with one of my favorite shows,

"the show that I grew up on,
the show that I'm introducing my kids to.

"What are they gonna do with it?
Where will they go?"

And we're those same people.

Like, everyone making this show
is that fan going,

"Where do we want to go?

"If the series had never stopped,

"if it had continued on,
what other stories would the show tell?"

I know you cannot bear to see him go,

but it is the only way.

Can he ever come back?

From the jump,
it's like that direct continuation,

that direct lining up with the stories
that they were telling in the '90s,

and seeing where that can take us,
referencing the comic's lore since then,

but really tapping into
this nostalgia factor of that series.

Heads up!

[Winderbaum] So much of
the conversation was about

not just paying homage
to the original style,

but emulating people's memories
of the original style.

Oh, my stars and garters.

We must warn the team.

[Winderbaum] And so,
we have Larry Houston, the director,

who's coming back
as a consulting producer for us,

as well as the Lewalds, who were
the original showrunners on the series.

[Julia Lewald] Disney+ began to run
X-Men: The Animated Series,

I want to say in 2019,

and we were amazed
at the fan response to that,

but we had not heard that something
was going to happen

until it really started happening.

Yeah, they were playing everything
close to the vest,

and then we got the phone call
and they said,

"Well, it's happening.

"We've got a huge staff of excited young,
you know, creative people.

"Do you two and your friend Larry Houston
want to be involved as consultants?"

I could not believe
that I was hearing what I was hearing,

you know, that truly,
calling it X-Men '97,

because they're picking up
where the original series wrapped,

amazing and exciting.

Trask would rather humans and mutants
go to w*r than work together.

We all win when men like him fail.

You sound like Charles.

He would have been proud today.

Thank you, Dr. Cooper.
But to be honest, it was a team effort.

I remember when we first called them

to let them know
that we were doing the series,

they told us a story about
having to make the same call to Stan Lee

when they did the original series.

And just like Stan told them,
they told us that they have our back

and to make them proud.

I know I've been hard-headed lately,
it's just... [sighs]

I didn't know how the X-Men
could go on without the Professor.

Thought it was on me.

But his dream doesn't need me.

It has all of you.

My superhero world started with mythology,
Greek mythology, Egyptology.

The literature I read,
basically all fantasy.

Then I discovered comics.
I cannot remember exactly when,

but my first comic was Iron Man,

and then I got X-Men,
Spider-Man, all of them.

I started reading them like crazy,
and as an only child,

I was the ultimate mutant.

I went to school
in Hofstra in Long Island,

and I became...

a very successful toy inventor.

And the first toy

that I wanted to turn into a show
was X-Men,

and I felt...

if I take something that exciting,

kids wouldn't feel
that they're the only one like them.

So I'm pitching X-Men,

and Stan Lee is with me
in many of these meetings,

and no one got it.

[Eric] They tried all during the '80s
to get X-Men on television,

and nobody in Hollywood
thought it would be successful.

"Oh, superheroes, you can't make
a successful TV show around them."

So it was this non-starter.

Sounds like just another day
that ends in "y" when you put it that way.

Precisely. And we face it
as we always have.

As a family.

When we were at Marvel Productions
in the mid-'80s,

I had two supervisors.

One was Stan Lee,
the other one was Margaret Loesch.

Margaret Loesch always believed
in the concept of The X-Men.

So fast forward about six years,
she became the CEO of Fox Kids Network.

She had the power to greenlit stuff now.

So she called up me, Will Meugniot,
Eric, Julia, and some others,

said, "Okay, we're gonna do The X-Men.
Gonna put it on the air."

And she's like
the secret superhero nobody knows about.

[Mojo] Do you hear that applause?
They love you, guys.

Stick with me and you, X-Men,
will be stars.

The folks above her didn't believe
X-Men was gonna do anything.

And it was, "Okay, we'll give you


"And if this fails, you're out of a job."

She goes, "Okay, I'll take that risk."

You were hired to do 13 episodes,
one season,

and I got to be a writer on that season.

But after 13 episodes,
[chuckles] we were all let go.

The entire creative staff
was let go in July, August,

when we'd finished our work.

And then in January, it premiered,
and suddenly it was this number one hit.

If ratings don't go up with every show,

I'll cancel the series
and its performers permanently.

Control room!

It's showtime!

So we were working in other places,
and we had the call saying,

"Um... We really want you to come back
for another season."

And about half of us could.
Some of them couldn't.

They came back as quick as they could.

The ratings are going through the roof!

[Houston] At the time, we were not aware
of how popular the show was.

There was no Internet, you know,
none of that stuff.

We just had ratings. That's all we had.

And so, the first season was actually
the most important season for us,

because we had to get the highest ratings
to keep the show on the air.

And so, we were lucky
to get that second season.

But, you know,
we were hanging on like a cat,

you know that picture
with the cat hanging on,

we were like that because we had no idea.

[Eric] We were not aware
of what's going on out in the world

with folks watching this
and falling in love with it,

until Julia asked a friend of ours there,
Charlotte Fullerton, about,

"Do you get any fan mail on this show?
Is it doing okay?"

I happened to show up at Fox Studios

and asked her,
you know, "What's the feedback?"

Because, again, the ratings
we knew were amazing,

but, "Are you getting any response?"

And she took me into a hallway,

and those big, milky USPS mail cartons
that you see mailmen carry,

there was one on the ground,
and it was full,

and it was stacked and it was full.

- With fan mail.
- Stacked all down the hall and back.

Floor to ceiling, stacked.

And she goes, "Every one of those,
it's the kid for X-Men."

[Arad] Parents loved it.
Parents sent thank-yous.

"My child's life changed.

"He realized he's not alone.

"There are others like him."

And I used to go talk to...

For promotional purposes,
I said, "We are all like that."

And I think the best evidence of it
was X-Men.

Back in the '90s, it's either Scooby-Doo
or Super Friends, that was the standard.

So, we wanted to make sure that when kids
saw "Night of the Sentinels I and II,"

they could tell this is not the usual
show that they're used to.

This is different.
This is going to stand out.

Did you see what she did?

Yes, Rogue has a way with men.

What we were doing is like,

"You're going to k*ll a character off
in the first episode.

"You got a girl being chased by a robot."

Stand aside. I must apprehend that mutant.

We did that deliberately
so that people would,

"Wow, what's this?
What's going to happen next?"

We wanted to pull them into the show
and make it a must-see show every week.

Life don't get much better than this.

[Arad] We all knew that there's something
in our stories that is like a mission,

and you feel it, so that you just
cannot wait to get to the next chapter.

I still remember rushing home
after school to watch each new episode,

and I think it was the first serialized
piece of entertainment I had ever watched.

It was the first time I remember
there being, like, cliffhangers

at the end of every episode,

and that amazing feeling you had
when anything was a "to be continued"

happened every single day on that show.

It was my gateway into comics.

I'd watch that original series

and then immediately want to go
to the comic store

and see what was going on,
not just with X-Men,

but every comic book on the shelf.

And as I became a filmmaker

and started meeting
with writers and directors,

so often you would hear that show come up
as a seminal work in their lives,

and you could see that the love of comics
for people that grew up in the '90s

was in large part
due to that series in particular.

We have accomplished
a great victory this day.

I think the '90s aesthetic
is something that is so intrinsically tied

to those designs that they used,
but also how that show feels.

It just feels of that era.

We're looking to do
the same things that they were.

Yo, Cyclops. Hit me.

[Meinerding] Using the proportions
of those really muscular,

you know, iconic characters, not diverging
from the really comic-accurate look.

You know, the Jim Lee stuff
was their North Star

in designing that series,

and I think we're trying to use that
as our North Star as well.

The comics designs
obviously had much more detail

and much more evocative line work.

It's the tangibility of the world.

I mean, it felt like comic pages
were moving.

The high contrast, black shadows,
I mean, they went for it.

It just gave it more life.

They didn't streamline any of the designs.

Like, look at Storm's hair.

You know, it's crazy.

There's many little wisps,
but they're tracking all that,

and that's what made it so unique.

I love that aesthetic.

It fills me with
an immense sense of nostalgia,

and it feels like a celebration to me.

What a kick! Can we do it again?

[Vasquez-Eberhardt] Animation has
just come leaps and bounds,

not only with the technology,
but also with the styles.

Not just animation style,
whether it's 2D or CG,

but also in how animation
is approached with directing.

Emi and Chase are the episodic directors,
which means they did every other episode.

Jake set up the directing style
with the first episode,

and then they followed suit.

[Yonemura] For me, it was a discussion
of, where do we go tonally?

Because there are things
in the original series

that you might see as cheesy,
but actually aren't.

Maybe that was a budget.

I mean, you watch it now, and you can see
recycled animation, and you can tell,

"They just didn't have the means
to go back in with retakes."

And we've actually spoken with Larry
about that since.

You know, I only had so much time,
so it was like, I had to get it done.

[Yonemura] Now that we have that ability,
and we can put that budget behind it,

how do we then go,
"Okay, so then what is this show?"

Because is it just the visuals?
Is it just the storytelling?

And I think what we all
ended up deciding on,

I just want the audience to feel
the same way we felt watching it as kids.

Rogue always come to Gambit's rescue.

I've always wanted to make content

that was as potent
as the stuff that inspired me,

because we all stand on the shoulders
of the people prior to us, right?

Never thought to ask the Professor
to show me how he did what he did so well.

[Jean] Some lessons are taught, Scott.

Others are learned.

[Conley] We're all huge X-Men fans,

and we wanted to see them elevated.

And it forces us to be creative.

It forces us to figure out, "Okay,
what's the clearest way to say this?"

What's the most impactful thing
that we can do here,

especially when it comes to action?

Because we would like to embellish
on all of that stuff.

How can we make every little piece
of action on screen as potent as possible?

[Castorena] Animation is being
pushed so much.

The bar is being raised so high.

So how do we still stay relevant
and stay on that bar,

but keep that nostalgic feel?

Man, talk about simpler times.

It's unreal.

We should probably find a way out of here.

What's the rush?

These levels are taking me back.

[Castorena] We're set in '97.
We are essentially a period piece.

What was being done in cinema
between '96 and '98?

How was live action being shot?

How were things being animated?

What was TV animation doing?

What lenses were being used?

What was considered cinematic at the time?

What was considered groundbreaking
at the time?

It's great to have those '90s tropes
in our back pocket,

because that is just a fundamental,
tactile feel in the DNA of the OG show.

While the idea of cell-drawn animation
with flat backgrounds

kept you to a very flat frame,

we are honoring that
almost 80% of the time.

But one thing that makes it X-Men '97
and not X-Men: The Animated Series

is that we are blowing past that at times
for emotional effect.

So big crescendo moments
in battles and in fight scenes,

and even in some
of our bigger emotional scenes,

push past that flat plane
into a more three-dimensional space.

And that's something
that our studio partner, Studio Mir,

who produce a lot of anime,
really allows us to do effectively.

What was done at the time
was the top of that animation scale,

was the top of the action
and what was available

and what could be done at the time.

And our responsibility now
is to do the same, to do the top.

Like, that's how high the bar is.

[Polgar] We were able to look at
the footage in this thing called DI.

It's a really cool post process
where we get to throw a filter on it.

We were thinking about a film filter
to make it look closer to '90s film.

So you get a little bit of that jitter

that you would have
from the film processing.

You get noise grain, film processing
makes the blacks pop out even harder.

I'm cool with rack focusing a bit more

just to go a little more cinematic,
lean into the era of it all.

And we also have to put it
to widescreen format, right?

So we got to make it more cinematic.

Look-y ahead.

[Gambit] Ki-yay!

They be busy doing a bit of renovating
since Gambit's last visit.

[Yonemura] We wanted to make sure
we were honoring the Lewalds and Larry,

and the work that they had set down,
that it was never going to be about,

"Well, that was cheesy,
so how cheesy can we go?"

More like, "No, you guys were actually
building something incredibly beautiful.

"Look at how much it affected
a whole generation of people."

And to carry that torch
is not only a lot of responsibility,

but we're actually excited for that.

I can't wait. I want to bring honor
to these characters.

Well, if being an X-Man
teaches anything, Ms. Tilby,

it's to expect the unexpected.

[theme music playing]

One of the most important aspects
to the series is the music.

When you hear that rendition
of the opening title,

what's amazing is not that it sounds new,

but that it sounds
like it really celebrates

and props up what was beautiful
about that original music.

In terms of ID'ing a show,
I mean, it's so important.

I mean, I grew up in the '60s
and there's a lot of shows

that all you had to do
is hear two or three notes

and you know what it is.

And so we knew that for The X-Men,

we need to have something that was
very distinctive and strong and driving.

Back in the '90s, I was given like,
I think, what, a weekend,

like two or three days to draw the intro.

And the intro is going
to be about a minute,

a minute and four seconds.

I drew two minutes.

I just let the fanboy roll out of my head.

I just started drawing images
and just let stuff pour out.

And once I got it done and finished,

then we went back
and just took the two minutes

and culled it down to just one minute,
the one what everybody knows right now.

My storyboard was actually done
before the music.

And so, once we got that done,
the next part was trying to get the music

that was driving
to try and match the high pace.

And if my memory serves me right,

I think it was, like, maybe
the 13th version of the music

until we said, "Yeah, that's it."

Because the first 12 was like, no.
[chuckles]

It didn't have the punch.
It didn't have the excitement.

And so, it took time
and then it magically merged together

and everything worked out just fine.

[Castorena] The OG show
leaned into the prejudice.

It didn't shy away from it,
but it also didn't dumb it down

or treat the audience like a kid.

It just told stories.

It told the stories
and it had a greater story to tell.

For us to be a successor,
we got to carry that DNA in.

Your heart may beat for me,

but I can't feel it.

You light up everything you touch,

but never me.

Every story we tell in the show
is born out of a human drive,

out of the characters showing the writers
where to take them.

They're following those relationships.

And it's really about driving
at the human heart.

The world around these characters
might be chaos,

but their humanity, their soul,
their internal feelings

and love for one another
is what's going to see them through.

Right now, we have to be strong.

For the team.

For every mutant still out there
who's watching these images.

They need hope.

It's what the Professor would do.

Then let's go remind the world

that times like these
are when dreaming matters most.

Our number one priority was to bring on

as many of the original cast members
as we possibly could.

[Houston] Back then,
we wanted to elevate the storytelling.

So one of the things that we did

was we auditioned people
who did stage plays

as opposed to voice actors

who work just in, you know,
Saturday morning cartoon media,

because we wanted to get actors

who have a range of inflections
in how they act,

and they didn't sound
like everybody else out there.

I think it helped add to the character
and quality of the show

because they brought
the characters to life.

Don't you ever get tired
of listening to yourself?

Not when I'm talking about you, chère.

I had no clue

about the X-Men at the time.

I had never heard of the X-Men.
I don't think any of us had,

except George Buza.

They didn't tell us the title of the show
that we were going to read for.

They said, "Project X."
And I'm reading and I'm reading.

And I said, "This is X-Men."

So strange, and yet so familiar.

I used to buy a lot of comic books
when I was a kid.

And I remember
when the first X-Men comic book came out.

And I saw it on the newsstand.

And I do remember reading it.

And I knew right off the bat
that I was auditioning for X-Men.

It appears to be a deliberate trail.

I might as well have
gone and auditioned for Star Wars.

To be a part of that,

at that stage of my career,
was a real high point.

You are a work of art.

The majority of us
had done quite a bit of theater

coming into the '90s.

[Zann] I was a serious actor, you know.

I did movies, television, theater,

a radio drama.

I was not doing voiceovers,
I was a singer.

I was doing jingles my whole life

in the city of Toronto
and flying to New York,

flying to Chicago, whatever, to sing.

My background is very much

the theater.

[Adrian Hough] I'd done
a couple of voice things

for commercials and stuff.

But my very first animated audition ever

was this character.

[Zann] My agent at the time
was here in Toronto, said,

"Lenore, I want you to go in
for this new series.

"They're looking for a sexy, husky voice
with a Southern accent."

And I'd played a lot of Southerners
in movies and television by that time.

But I didn't go to the first auditions.

I just wasn't that interested.

You've given us a place
where we belong, Professor.

Just takes us hard-headed ones
longer to realize it.

So then, a few months go by
and they had callbacks.

And she said, "Lenore, they haven't found
the right actress yet for this part

"because it's you.

"So get your a*s in gear and go."

So I did.

And I walked into the studio,
put the headphones on.

The producers were in LA.

I took a look at the picture
of the character,

I was like, "Yeah, hell yeah,
I can do that."

And then I just opened up my mouth
and basically said,

"You know, my daddy'd like to k*ll himself

"when he found out I was a mutant."

[chuckles] You know?

And I heard all these screams
and yells and everything.

They're like, "Don't let her
leave the building. [chuckling]

"That's her. That's Rogue."

This is going to be more satisfying
than I thought.

[Houston] Once we heard the audition,
we said, "Okay, that's it. We got it."

It was the same with Wolverine.

This one's mine.

[Dodd] I went in and they showed me
a picture of him.

They explained who he was and stuff,
that he was Canadian.

I said, "That's good."

The first line was like, "All right,
you egg-sucking piece of gutter trash.

"You always did like picking
on people shorter than you.

"Well, I'm shorter. Pick on me."

They just went, "Oh, gosh,
give him some more lines."

So, it just happened like that.
It was like it was meant to be.

Just call me Wolverine.

Wolverine.

So impulsive.

I identified with Hank right off the bat.

When I was a kid in school, I got bullied.

I was a big kid. I was overweight.

I got into quite a few beefs
on the schoolyard,

and it was there that I learned
that even though I'm big,

if you retaliate,
you will be the one who they blame.

So think before you act

and try and defuse a situation
and walk away.

And this is what Hank does.

They must see that we are not a threat
to mankind, but are a part of it.

[Dodd] He won't resort
to his abilities, his superpowers

unless there's absolutely
no other recourse.

He will try and talk
and reason his way out of a situation

before he will use violence.

But then when he does,

watch out.

I summon the full power of the storm!

[Sealy-Smith] I had gotten this audition
for my very first animation,

and I was out in Stratford,

and I was doing Shakespeare.

And I really only had one day
that I could come into the city.

Everything was very rushed.

And so, I'm looking
to hold on to why I'm there

and what can I possibly
bring to this audition?

And then they said that she was a queen.

And I went, "Okay,
I don't know a whole lot about her,

"but I can do queen."

I must keep my emotions in check,

lest my powers rage out of control.

[Sealy-Smith] She played right
into my very natural strengths.

I've never been a subtle actress.

[chuckles] You know, I do it big.
Go big or go home.

I am free!

I'm fond of the Nightcrawler.

Our time together meant a great deal
to both of us.

[Hough] I just remember they called me in,

and there was this moment of...

landing in the part.

And he was both passionate,
but yet spiritual.

There's something gentle about him,
but also fierce.

I remember finishing the read,
and there was this pause.

And I looked over into the booth
at Dan Hennessey, who was the director,

and he paused, and looked at me,
and he goes,

"He's a very passionate guy, isn't he?"

And I was like, "Yeah.

"Do you want to do it again?" "Sure."

And so that was [chuckling]
my very first animated audition.

And there was something about the script,
the complexity of the character,

which just brought it out of me.

I am overwhelmed.

You X-Men
are experienced with such things.

[Rogue] You've come
to the right place, honey.

[Potter] When we first started the series,

we recorded together possibly six
of us in the studio at a time.

What they found is there was
too much spill happening between mics,

not to mention that we could barely
get the scenes done

because we were laughing so hard.

Not at the script, just at the goofs
in the room that were so talented.

He better be more careful with his mouth.

You better stop worrying about my mouth,

and start worrying about these.

I mean, I just remember my first day
in the studio, there was Cal Dodd,

there was Lenore Zann,
and it was pretty wild.

I saw Cal Dodd

hunch his shoulders up and make fists,

and then suddenly his name dropped
into the voice and said,

"Listen here, bub."
And I was like, "Oh, okay."

It really taught me
that doing animated voices

is not just standing
in front of a mic not moving.

There's actually, like,
full body expression involved.

You cannot conceive, nor can I,

the appalling strangeness
of the mercy of God.

You were pulling punches
on the dock today.

When we go up there,
if you want to end it, and end it fast,

hit, and hit to k*ll.

I just interrupt everybody
because I'm Wolverine.

Rogue would be in the middle of something
really important,

[chuckling] and I'll say,
"Are you just about finished?

"There are other people here
that have to talk, too."

Stuff the philosophy.

Let's go kick his butt.

At one point, they were turning off
my microphone.

I said, "Don't you do that.
Leave that on, because this'll be good."

I go where I wanna go.

[Zann] It was magical.

It was a really magical chemistry
that we all had.

[Potter] Eventually, they split us up,

and yet we would all use the same studio,
so we'd see each other coming and going.

[Buza] Everybody else had different jobs.

Very few people do strictly voice.

At the time we were doing
the first couple of seasons,

I was on another series
just around the corner from the here,

on Maniac Mansion,
which was a George Lucas thing.

I was doing Shakespeare [chuckles]
when I auditioned for this.

For the whole first season,
I was in Stratford.

I had shows every night.

Monday was our dark day,

and so, every Monday,
I got in my car bright and early

and came down and recorded X-Men.

Rise, fog,
and divert your enemy from her path.

Storm, your master, commands.

Back then, I was doing Kung Fu
with David Carradine,

and it was a two-hander, more or less,

so I was working 12, 14-hour days on that,

and I would do The X-Men
literally on my lunch hour

or in a break that I had that was
like lunch throughout the day.

[Gambit] Relax, Cyclops.

All work and no play
make Jacques a dull boy.

[Potter] I'd have to drive from
the studio down to do The X-Men,

but not knowing
that it was actually becoming a hit.

[Chris Britton]
I think it was just the word of mouth,

and we just heard gradually
that people were watching it

and fans that normally might not be
into that type of animation

and that storyline are talking about it.

You don't know what you've done.

You ain't seen nothing yet.

[Britton] You know,
the characters are now iconic,

but at the time, they were just, you know,

these fascinating, complex characters

with some really interesting dialogue,

dialogue with depth

that you wouldn't expect
from a weekly cartoon.

The Phoenix was a mythical bird
that was consumed by fire,

but always rose again from the ashes.

Perhaps that's what
the Phoenix represents.

Hope, which never dies.

When it was over after five years,

I was like, I didn't know
what to do with myself.

No more going to the studio to do him.

Does he just fall off
the face of the earth? What's going on?

I really missed him because

he's me.

This busted mug
ain't changed in a hundred years,

and you know it.

So it was so great to get back in him.

Well, Magneto ain't gonna change his mind
just because we say "please."

The man just declared w*r
on the whole planet.

His day ends one way.

We were all gung-h*.
There's no question about it.

I don't think there's a single person
that said, "I don't know.

"Why would we want to do this?"

We went, "Oh, yes, absolutely. Let's go."

It's been too long, my friend.

You know, what's really cool
is that it's the same studio

that we recorded The X-Men in,
in the '90s.

I am Storm, mistress of the elements.

[Sealy-Smith] I value it
in a completely different way.

And the time that I spend in the studio,

I appreciate and love it so much more.

Surrender the boy or face my fury.

I love this stuff.
I love this character. I love this show.

[Storm] Let them thunder,

for I am lightning!

I did go back and revisit the show

because I wanted to, you know,
make sure that I was going to be true

to the character
that was created years ago.

I just remember it just literally
all came flooding back to me.

None of you were there
the day Genosha fell.

Who dies next, Professor?

Jean? Been there, done that.

I watched a couple of the episodes,
like "A Rogue's Tale,"

you know, and my voice
is naturally there anyway.

And so it just came back really quickly.

And then when I walked in the studio
the very first time,

I was a little nervous 'cause I was like,
"Oh, my God. Do I still have it?"

And within two seconds, really,
of opening up my mouth

and saying the first couple of lines,

I was like, "Yeah."

It's like a well-worn leather jacket
that you just slip in and away you go.

You went slower
than snails in maple syrup.

I reckon we nab him now
before our mystery boys move him again.

It's so funny how my lines
stick in my head. [chuckles]

Some of the best lines
that I've had, you know, like,

"You look about as nervous
as a long-tailed cat

"in a room full of rocking chairs."

And yet, here you are,

dragged in like a kitty cat's prize.

- [Cyclops] Cable?
- Huh

Chris Potter, who played Gambit
in the original series...

Everyone can relax.

Gambit has returned.

...is actually voicing the role of Cable,
who's a massive part of the season.

I know all I need to know.

That machine k*lled my mother.

We need to make sure
he doesn't do the same to anyone else.

A couple centuries late
on the overprotective dad bit, huh?

Both of you, stop it!

I'm going to miss Gambit,
but I'm loving doing Cable.

I'm so excited
about where we're headed with this.

[chuckles] Am I going to w*r or a circus?

What'd you expect? Black leather?

[Winderbaum] There's also
a lot of great newcomers

who are bringing new characters to life

and who are giving us new takes
on the characters from the original show.

The name's Gambit. Remember it.

For this show,

I got a weird laundry list
of just characters, all with fake names.

I think Gambit
was, like, Johnny or something.

And the reference
was Chris Potter as Gambit.

And I was like, "Hold on."

Then I looked through all the female
and male reference.

I was like, "Okay, this is X-Men."

So I kind of freaked out a lot.

And I made the probably very, very, very
dumb decision to only audition for Gambit

because there was no prehistory
with doing, really, a Cajun accent.

I mean, I would do an impression of him

between me and one of my friends
in high school.

"Are you an assassin or a thief?"
we used to say, like "mon ami."

You stopped the bad guys,
saved the kid, got home safe.

These beignets needed me
more than you did, mon ami.

You know, I took French because of Gambit.

And this is probably
the lamest thing I could say.

But we were allowed to choose names.

And so I chose Remy, of course.

But then I would sign it Remy LeBeau.

And my teacher thought that was so cute.

She was like, "Remy the handsome."

And I was like,
"Yeah, that's what I meant."

Not "I want to be Gambit."

I can't believe I get to say this.
I'm so excited.

Mon ami, maybe Gambit
should have played less rough with you

in the Danger Room, n'est-ce pas?

But the cards, they're wild.

Would we be here helping the survivors
if we cared about staying alive?

We care about others.

As do most, I believe.

I got a email asking
if I could audition for Charles.

And I was over the moon, obviously,

because I was a big fan of the show
from the early years.

I'm a mutant.

Telepathy. Mind reader.

Likely can control them, too.

Bend their will.

I remember the first recording.
I was doing a few takes.

And then I just had to stop for a second

and look at, you know, the writers

and the producers,
and casting director, and director.

And I just said,

"I can't tell you how tickled I am
to be a part of this,"

because when I say this show was
the reason why I got into voice acting,

it was also the reason
why I got into acting in general.

I mean, this show was so important to me
growing up as a kid.

Just the fact that it's gone
full circle now, 30 years later.

Now I'm a grown man
and I get to share this beautiful story

with my nieces and nephews
who are about that same age.

It just blows my mind.

And I'm so, so grateful
to be a part of this.

Help the world see, by being different,
we all share something.

You're him!

- You're...
- Magneto.

[Matthew Waterson]
I didn't grow up with the original show

in the way that a lot
of my contemporaries did.

So for Magneto,
the team gave me a list of episodes.

They're like, "Here's the list
of the ones that your character is in

"that you should go to first
just for reference."

So I went back and then watched
as much of it as I could

to get a good feel of both the show
and the characters.

So I knew the context of it.

Then looking up David,

who voiced it in the original series,
and going, "He was English-Canadian

"and also had a theater background."

His background and training
wasn't different.

And his voice was
in the same sort of tenor as mine.

So I went, "Oh, I think I can actually
probably come close to what he was."

My intentions here
were not to cause drama or discord.

Okay, prove it.

Let Jean scan your mind,
see your real plans.

- Scott, no.
- What?

Even if I sensed
Magneto's intentions were sincere,

that's today, this hour, this minute.

I was familiar with the original show

because the '90s rocked
and it was super fun.

Like most of us workaday voice actors,

the way this started for me
was an audition.

They send the copy and you read it
and you go, "Oh, my God, I love this.

"I really would love to do this."

Then you throw your heart into it.

And if you're lucky, you happen to fit
the recipe they're making.

It's like you said, Scott.

What have we been fighting for
all these years

if not the chance
to finally live our lives?

The team will be fine.

Our son will need us more.

Deep down, you know that.

I am so enjoying living in this character

who has all this complexity
and all these things going on

in the face of giant robots,
and horrible villains,

and what's going on
inside the X-Men this season,

which is pretty intense.

Beast's tests won't change the fact
that I'm Nathan's mother.

I know. No one is saying that.

Just...

With the Professor and Storm gone,

and Magneto here,

it's been a lot for everyone.

I didn't grow up with the show,
so I wasn't familiar with the characters

as much as the other kid next door.

Rogue, the Professor entrusted us

with his dream
of mutant-human coexistence.

We have to stay vigilant,

no matter how good things seem out there.

[Chase] I auditioned
for Scott Summers, Cyclops.

They were looking for
a strict, strict voice match.

Name's Cyclops. Definitely the good guy.

Did an okay job at it.

But Meredith Layne, the casting director
and voice director on this project,

knew that I could do better
and gave me a callback

with, I think, the subtext of,
"Ray, take this one seriously."

So I took it really seriously.

I started to figure out
who this character was, researched clips.

And Norm Spencer's Cyclops

is something that I was not
super familiar with coming into it.

But once I started watching
the original series

and especially two long-form interviews
with Norm on the show,

I listened to them,
absolutely devoured them

and fell in love with the guy.

I do think that it's just such a tragedy
that we lost him

right before this show
was even getting made.

I think that he would've absolutely loved
the chance to be with his friends

one last time.

And I dedicate this performance to him.

Different generations
have their own view of Cyclops,

have their own ideas
about what he should be.

And I just hope that I'm able to please
as many of those people as possible.

To me, my X-Men.

[Winderbaum] The X-Men
is a story about mutants.

It's a story about outsiders.

It's a story about people protecting
a world that fears and hates them.

But these mutants, these h*m* superiors

that have evolved past h*m* sapiens
are human.

They're human in their hearts,
in their souls.

They fall in love. They feel envy.

They feel remorse.

They feel affection.

It's actually an incredibly
emotional story between characters

that make a lot of sparks
when they collide into each other.

And that's not just in these amazing
splash page action scenes,

but also in the human drama
behind each one of their relationships.

You hurt me.

As you did me.

Countless times.

Both of us.

But we never abandoned each other.

I loved the scripts.

You could look at them
from so many different levels.

And I've always been really interested
in mythology ever since I was a kid.

So, for me, I looked at them as archetypes

and almost like the Greek
or Roman gods and goddesses.

Your parents don't know, do they?

[sighs]

[Roberto] Some sort of solar energy.

Still figuring it out.

Makes me strong, though. Really strong.

Whenever I do this,
it just reminds me that I'm different.

That I'm lying to them.

Be an X-Man, Jubilee?

I don't even want to be myself.

The writing that we had for five years
was unbelievable.

And it's just continuing.

We...

had a dream.

Charles.

Yes. A dream that made us a family.

And like that dream,
any family worth having...

Is worth fighting for.

What was interesting, you know,
I think for all of us

who are grateful
to be invited back to the show

is we want to see where it goes now,

because 30 years later
there are different concerns,

different aspects to society

that hopefully will be incorporated
into the show.

And we'll see how the X-Men
deal with everything that is of today,

because that will bring in new fans
as well as the old ones.

[Marquand] Those themes of loss
and alienation and love and heartbreak,

those are all themes that can be addressed

and can be understood
by literally anyone of any age.

And I think we go infinitely darker
and more realistic

and more humanistic in our approach
with this iteration than ever before.

Everything around us
would not have been possible

without the work of the X-Men.

The general trajectory of this was
unlike any other show that I've worked on.

At the very, very beginning,

we were going for strict 100%,
as if nothing changed.

This is the exact same cast
sounding the exact same way.

Defend your master!

Kid, get down!

Erik!

[Chase] And I think what we learned
going forward was

that type and style of delivery and acting

that was more prevalent
in animated series of the '90s

just didn't quite hit right
with audiences today.

It sounded a little bit like
we were trying to emulate a time capsule

of a time that has passed.

And I think they made the right choice
to start dialing it back

and put it more in a 2020s sensibility
of acting style.

It was the most care and thought

that I've seen put into any other project
that I've ever worked on.

[Storm] All this change?
It's all the same.

Let us do what we do.

Believe not in a dream or our gifts,

but in each other.

[Castorena]
It's a spiritual successor, right?

So, having that wonderful perspective
of being a fan,

knowing source material
and being able to go,

"That feels right to me.

"That might feel right
to the audience." Or...

You know, "The script is saying this.

"I'm feeling like
this is honoring the script.

"The script is honoring the comic."
This is all going together.

There is a lot of pressure,
but when you love what you do

and when you have a love
for the IP and the source material,

it quiets all the other voices.

Odds may be bad,

but the cards
are always in the X-Men's favor.

[Houston] Back in the '90s,

when the writers were brought in
to work on the show,

they knew nothing about the X-Men.
[chuckles]

And I knew too much.

So it was a great balance

because they knew
how to write great character dramas.

And I knew all about who liked this one,
who didn't like this one,

who hated who,
who's a brother, sister, all that stuff.

And I could just pour that out
for them to read.

They also got
the Marvel handbook back then.

So, all together,

we were able to put together
some great stories

that felt like we kept the heart
of what fans would love.

And then, also regular people
could just dive into the mythology

and enjoy the shows.

As Archimedes said when he discovered
the principle of displacement,

"Eureka."

We've worked on other action shows

and it tended to be
more about the plot and the action.

And we started every episode

as we started to think
about writing it about whose story is this

and how can we best reveal character?

How can we make the deepest,
most intense Storm story or Rogue story?

We started thinking of them
as adult human beings

and then thought about them as people
that had superpowers.

I have been dedicated to the X-Men
since I was a teenager,

never allowing myself
a life beyond my work.

[Julia] And if you look
at each individual X-Men

on the core team on
X-Men: The Animated Series,

each one of them was like the best
at that crazy, amazing superpower

that they each had.

But it was also the thing
that was their deepest sadness.

Rogue has got crazy powers,

but if you swapped her powers
with Wolverine, she could've been happy

because she could touch people.

No need to pull out her claws
unless she chose to.

Rogue's story would have been different.

And if Wolverine couldn't touch people,
fine, he'll go live in the woods.

[Wolverine] There's no place like home.

[Julia] Cyclops,
you can't look him in the eyes.

Here is this upright guy
who just wants to do the right thing,

and he's got the shield between him
and the whole world.

So each one of them, the thing
that you go, "That's so cool,"

is the thing that's the saddest,
most haunting moment for each of them.

Some say they're freaks,

some call them monsters,

but all over the planet,
they are known as mutants.

We only found out,
really, how successful the show was

maybe, like, two years ago,
[chuckles] three years ago,

when we were asked to come
on a few Comic-Con tours.

[Buza] I was at the airport flying down
to one of the Comic-Cons,

and you have to clear Customs
in Canada to go to the States.

So the American border guard asked me,
"Where are you going?"

I told him the city I was going to.

He says,
"What's your business down there?"

I said, "I'm going to Comic-Con."

He goes, "Comic-Con?"

I said, "Yeah, I'm one of the guests.
I'm one of the X-Men."

And he starts singing [laughing]
the theme song.

And I told him, "Well, I played Beast."

And he was all excited.

[chuckles] Blue blushes, too, my dear.

It was a homecoming of sorts
for all of us,

and great to see each other
after literally 25 years.

It's just a bonding, big-time, all of us.

Like, we went to Wales, for God's sakes.

This is super.

What makes it all is the happiness
that you see on these people's faces.

[Zann] When we got to LA,
I did the one in LA, holy moly.

That was when we found out

how much it had changed
so many people's lives.

[Potter] I went into the green room
in Los Angeles for that event,

not knowing what audience was out there.

And then they called us up onto a stage,
announced us,

and literally stepped out from behind
the green room in a curtain onto a stage.

And there were, to me, what appeared to be

a few thousand people
in this convention center,

jammed, standing.

It was overwhelming to me.

[Houston] I've had people come up
and saying that I made their childhood.

It was like the most enjoyable time
that they could go watch Saturday morning.

I've had people come and talk
about how Rogue's character,

or Gambit's character,
or Wolverine's character,

specifically helped them

in certain situations
when they were growing up as a kid.

You know, kids that were maybe short
or being bullied,

that when they saw Wolverine
and how he didn't take much from anybody,

the kids saw that as something

that they could incorporate
into their confidence.

I don't hide from anybody, kid.

I'm fighting my own battle right now.

People just come up and say, like,
"You made my childhood.

"Thank you so much.
I can't thank you enough."

What a wonderful thing to say.

[Buza] We thought we were making
a piece of entertainment.

Even though it was very topical
and very meaningful to the times,

we didn't think
that we were actually affecting people

in that much of an emotional way.

We're Canadian.
Most of the time, we're humble,

and we were just gobsmacked, blown away

by the fact that our work could have had
that effect on so many people.

And we still are to this day.

We love meeting our fans
and it really means a lot to us.

Always thanking the fans
for supporting the show

and supporting...

this fanboy to get that on the air

so I can show everyone that
you can do something more sophisticated

than what was being done back in the '90s.

Like, don't write down to kids,
write up to kids.

They're going to see the explosions
and laser beams

and all that kind of stuff.

But as they saw it in reruns,
they catch more of the adult subtext,

what we were trying to put out there,
and it worked.

Why do you hate us?

What did we ever do to you?

You were born.

Take her away.

You wouldn't be so brave
if my hands weren't tied.

[LoCascio] For me, the original series
was definitive X-Men.

And to some degree, I just would love
if this became, for other kids

and other adults and other teens,

a place that they see themselves
and their X-Men.

'Cause every generation
has their own version of a superhero,

and there's so many young kids
that don't know X-Men the way I did.

And to get to see it in this form,

I'm hoping excites them
the way it excited me.

You no longer need to live in darkness.

You are outcasts no more.

[Winderbaum] There's sometimes a tendency
with children's programming

to imagine an idealized version
of a kid's life

that is insulated
from the trauma of the world.

We know that's not the case.

It wasn't the case in the '90s
when I was watching it,

and it's certainly not the case today

with everyone's access
to the Internet and social media.

Kids see the world around them.

They see the racism in our world.

They see environmental calamities
in our world.

They see social unrest.

And I think that the show
is a place for kids

to find an outlet for that emotion,

to make them feel like
they're not isolated and alone

to deal with these anxieties,

that this is something that we all share

and that, like the X-Men,
can all persevere above together.

[Waterson] The strongest thing
to superhero stories,

whether it's sci-fi stories,
whether it's horror stories,

is that what they do is they allow us
to look at the human stories

and look at the difficult parts of it
and not make people feel targeted.

Because it's not about
this particular group.

It's about superheroes. It's about aliens.

It's about supernatural, whatever.

So we can address a lot of these things

in a way that is not necessarily
making somebody feel

like you're antagonizing them
or criticizing them.

You can do it in a way
that makes people watch it and go, like,

"Oh, they're dealing with the stuff
I was dealing with."

Or hopefully, alternatively,

"Oh, well, that kinda looks like
the way I behave,

"and that might not be the best way
to treat people."

Indeed, the odds remain reckless,
but if we all work in perfect unison,

we may just spare our world
a dinosaur's fate.

I think these stories are beautiful places
for kids and adults to come together

and deal with the things of life, right?

Even if they're fantastical stories,
they're still human themes.

What are demons,
but reflections of our fears and shame?

We need heroes
more than we've ever needed heroes.

And I think this is the time
where we're going to have to dig deep

and find our inner hero, our own personal,
the hero that we carry around inside,

and the need to do right for ourselves,

for each other, for the planet.

That is universal.

That is a universal message.

And it goes throughout history,

because throughout history, obviously,
there have been problems with countries,

nationalities, races, genders,

you know, people trying to make a duality

when really we need
to be working together.

My past is too littered with error.

[Rogue] Mine was, too, remember?

But the X-Men still took me in.

The thing is,
I didn't go about demanding their trust.

I earned it.

[Castorena] It's a show
about tolerance.

The way you can open up a dialogue
to talk to somebody,

to be able to hear them,

not to say you necessarily
agree with them, right?

But to hear them,
to understand how they are as a person,

to be able to communicate to them
the way they need it,

to potentially have them hear your side.

Charles Xavier entrusted me
with his dream,

and it does not ask you to love
or embrace my kind as your own,

but merely to accept
that this is a shared world

with a common future,

and that my kind, like yours,
have the right to live in it.

[Castorena] I love the fact that X-Men
does represent tolerance,

intolerance, prejudice, found family,

tribe, self-acceptance,
you know, in its IP.

And the fact that we don't shy away
from that in this show,

which I think has been beautifully done
from day one,

that's what I hope people
take away from it.

Stand down, team.

We can't give up.

No, Rogue.

We're gonna do what we've been telling
humanity to do for years.

Stop fighting the future.

[Storm] And embrace it.

[all vocalizing theme music]

And then I think it's...
[vocalizing theme music]

- [producer chuckles]
- Something like that.