X-Men '97 Animated Series Brings On Amelia Vidal As Lead Character Designer - Plus What We Currently Know About The New Series

Jay Cochran - November 15, 2021

Last week for Disney+ Day we got the word that the X-Men from the 90's would be returning for a new animated series coming in 2023 to the streaming service. This will be a direct continuation of the fan-loved Fox X-Men Animated series that originally ran from 1992-1997 and featured Professor X's primary team of Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, Jean Grey, Rogue, Gambit, Beast and Jubilee.

While some might credit the Fox movies for making X-Men a household name, many of us who grew up in the early 90's probably would say it was this series that actually did that, often taking storylines straight out of the comics and putting them on the small screen.

While not a lot is yet known about the new series, we can tell you that it will be written by Executive Producer Beau DeMayo (Netflix The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf animated series). The Supervising director is Jake Castorena and supervising producer is Charley Feldman. We can also tell you that Amelia Vidal has been brought on as the lead character designer for the show. Vidal's most recent work includes the Marvel What If...? series also on Disney+ which will also be getting a second season.

While not specifically done for the new show, Vidal has been known to dabble in X-Men characters for fun, some of which you can check out below. Again these images were done a while ago and not specifically for this new show. It does likely give us an idea however of what we might expect for the look and feel of X-Men '97.

For the voice cast we can expect Cal Dodd, Lenore Zann, George Buza, Alison Sealy-Smith, Chris Potter, Catherine Disher, Adrian Hough, and Christopher Britton from the original series to return, though some might not be voicing the same characters they did in the original show.

New additions for the show will include Jennifer Hale, Anniwaa Buachie, Ray Chase, Matthew Waterson, JP Karliak, Holly Chou, Jeff Bennett, and AJ LoCascio.

Finally we can tell you the showrunners of the original series Eric and Julia Lewald along with original series director Larry Houstonhave have been brought on as consultants for the new series.

The X-Men have changed a lot over years in the pages of the comics since those classic 90's X-Men stories, so it's hard to say if the new show will solely stick to that era for it's stories or just use that as a launching point to bring us into the present with these characters. Never-the-less, if this new show is even half-as-good as the original, then I think it will be worth checking out. If you have never seen the original X-Men cartoon then I highly recommend you check it out, which if you have Disney+ already is easy to do being all the episodes are available there for your viewing pleasure.

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Comments...

Last 10 comments - ( Read All Posts )

CajunPirate - 2021-12-16 @ 11:02 pm

I can't wait! Chris Potter back as Gambit (I hope at least...guess he could be another voice, like Cyclops). Just happy to see him in something outside of Excalibur (which, for Gambit fans, is truly painful).

Satam - 2021-11-18 @ 6:00 pm

Folks, I know it's a little difficult to talk about X-Men without talking about politics, but give it a try.

Chunkylover - 2021-11-18 @ 3:16 pm

The art looks nice. Beast is an improvement. I never liked his face that was as broad as a bus. I prefer the weird "Wolverine" hair to be swept back more than sticking straight out.

watanabefan - 2021-11-18 @ 4:55 am

Great choice. I follow her on Twitter and her illustrations are cool as hell.

MarvelousFan87 - 2021-11-16 @ 5:55 am

Finally, this is happening. Sounds like a good idea.

mako - 2021-11-16 @ 5:29 am

In those rare moments I actually let myself feel even a hint of optimism about this, I DO smile just a little bit at the thought of the 90s Marvel toons potentially following X-Men back.

icematta - 2021-11-15 @ 9:34 pm

On 11/14/2021 at 9:10 PM, enzosaurusrex said:
Didn't really think of any of that as "Jim Lee." But surely you must've seen this pic by now. There's headbands and jackets and rolled up sleeves.

Yeah, that's Jim Lee for me, and the animation looks so good...

lolz - 2021-11-15 @ 9:29 pm

On 11/15/2021 at 11:59 AM, Powerhouse37 said:
Yeah man, they really messed up the Marvel IP. I really hate that they turned it into a multi-billion dollar juggernaut with consistently great movies and shows that make good use of their source material.
I certainly wouldn't want them to have an X-Men property that tackles complex political issues and pushes for minority representation because the X-Men I love never stood in for repressed groups through some sort of "mutant metaphor" or anything like that.

Powerhouse37 - 2021-11-15 @ 7:59 pm

On 11/15/2021 at 12:44 PM, mako said:
Disney has a long and proud history of taking the long and proud history of the IPs entrusted to them and wrapping their garbage in it. That's GARBAGE, not trash, the stuff Disney makes is rotten to core and stinks to high Heaven.
They'll ruin this the way they ruined every other Marvel property.

Yeah man, they really messed up the Marvel IP. I really hate that they turned it into a multi-billion dollar juggernaut with consistently great movies and shows that make good use of their source material.

I certainly wouldn't want them to have an X-Men property that tackles complex political issues and pushes for minority representation because the X-Men I love never stood in for repressed groups through some sort of "mutant metaphor" or anything like that.

mako - 2021-11-15 @ 5:44 pm

Disney has a long and proud history of taking the long and proud history of the IPs entrusted to them and wrapping their garbage in it. That's GARBAGE, not trash, the stuff Disney makes is rotten to core and stinks to high Heaven.

They'll ruin this the way they ruined every other Marvel property.

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