Thought I'd resurrect this thread to talk about X-Men. Not the comics or eventual upcoming movie(s), but the 90's cartoon series.
It's coming back!
X-Men 97
This is actually old news. I first heard about it in late 2021 and simply couldn't believe it. Fall 2023 release on Disney+, which is just around the corner. I heard rumors about X-Men being re-launched a few years back, but dismissed it as being too far-fetched to be true. I even heard rumors way back in the early-00's that they wanted to continue it but never believed it, as 99% of the time when a TV series is cancelled it's gone for good. So obviously this was a pleasant surprise for me.
This series will pretty much pick up where the 1997 series left off, give or take a few years I'm thinking. The coolest part is they were able to bring back the iconic original voice actors, (sadly a couple of them passed away - the voices of Cyclops and Magneto). What I do find kind of weird is the girl who voiced Jubilee won't be returning to that character, instead she'll voice someone else. She willingly surrendered the role to an Asian voice actress. While I'm as woke as the next person and think it's a noble thing to do, it doesn't really make much sense here. This is a VOICE role. Plus she's the recognizable voice of Jubilee...unless her voice drastically changed like Al Pacino, since it has been 25+ years since she last did the character. I'm fine with it I guess as long as Jubilee doesn't suddenly have an Asian accent, which will make no sense for someone born and raised in America.
I've always loved the X-Men. This TV show, (and related video games also featuring those same voice actors), was very special to me, and served as my gateway into the comics. This team was always my definitive X-Men, and I really felt I knew them. I have the original series on DVD and still watch it every now and then, usually once every few years. I don't know what their plans are going forward storytelling wise, but whatever they do I'm sure it'll be fun. I'm almost 48 now, so not really picky. It was a different time in the mid-90's when I first watched this, being in my late-teens and into early adulthood, which is a challenging time for most people. It was nice to have this as an outlet. I'd suspect that's why it's a sentimental favorite for a lot of people.
I do hope they retain the mature and serious tone of the original series. That was what set it apart for me from the other kid's TV shows of that time. Yes it was a kid's show, but not a particularly kiddie one. Battling discrimination and bigotry was always the central and underlying theme of X-Men, and that's what made it easy for me, and so many others, to relate with it. We all know these issues are in no short supply in this day and age, in fact it's gotten even worse.
I don't know how these cartoon shows have evolved over the years and decades, but I doubt X-Men will have trouble finding its spot. I read somewhere that they won't face as many restrictions under Disney as they did with Fox Kids, so Wolverine is free to stab and slash away at actual flesh instead of just robots.
I remember we saw many cameo appearances in the original show - Dr. Strange, Thor, Spider-Man, War Machine etc. I hope we get to see more interaction with the more mainstream Marvel characters this time around. I guess they didn't do it last time because, aside from Spider-Man, the X-Men themselves were the most popular and mainstream characters in the entire Marvel Universe, as their books were the only ones selling at the time. Today it's an entirely different world thanks to the MCU, and they need to sell the X-Men again - this time to a new audience. I think bringing in previous fringe characters, (who are now household names believe it or not), will help greatly in that regard.
Overall I'm very excited!
Bird Studio informed today that Akira Toriyama passed away last week at age 68.
acket.