Sharpen your claws and get ready for some fireworks because original X-Men: The Animated Series writers Eric and Julia Lewald revealed the episode count for the highly-anticipated revival X-Men ‘97. While appearing on Justin Underwood’s YouTube channel, the duo confirmed that X-Men ’97 will have 10 action-packed episodes. They also said that X-Men ’97 is eyeing a mid-2023 launch.
While speaking with Underwood, the duo confirmed that X-Men ’97 is indeed a sequel series and that they’re bringing back many fan-favorite characters from the original animation.
“There is great love and affection and respect from an entire group of people that are doing this show, starting at the top with Beau DeMayo as the showrunner. And they have this challenge, I believe, looking at 10 episodes for the first season that’s gonna come out mid-next year, and they’re starting it soon after ours ended.”
You can check out Underwood’s interview with Eric and Julia Lewald below:
Returning to the voice cast for X-Men 97 are Cal Dodd, Lenore Zann, George Buza, Adrian Hough, Christopher Britton, Catherine Disher, Chris Potter, Alison Sealy-Smith, Alyson Court. New cast members will include Jennifer Hale, Anniwaa Buachie, Ray Chase, Matthew Waterson, JP Karliak, Holly Chou, Jeff Bennett, AJ LoCascio. The Head writer and executive producer on the series will be Beau DeMay while the supervising director is Jake Castorena and supervising producer is Charley Feldman.
Developed by Eric Lewald, Sidney Iwanter, and Mark Edens, X-Men: The Animated Series ran on the Fox Kids channel for five seasons and 76 episodes, from 1992 to 1997. All episodes of the original series are available to stream right now on Disney+.
Don’t make me pop my claws, Disney! You better support the daylights out of this revival and have that renewal button primed for pressing. The X-Men fandom is mighty, and fans have been waiting for what feels like an eternity for these characters to return to the animation medium in a big way. I can’t think of a better way to bring them all back than to pick up where their best series left off. Let’s go!
What do you think of the X-Men ’97 episode count? Are you content with the revival kicking off with 10 episodes? Do you think 2023 is when we’ll hear more about Disney and Marvel’s plans to reboot the team in live-action? I certainly hope so.