Directors of ‘X-Men ’97’ reveal that the show almost became part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to make it an official part of the canon.
Emi Yonemura recently told Inverse that Kevin Feige thought about this idea from the start. He wondered if it would be good to include ‘X-Men ’97’ in the MCU:
“That has always been something we know was on Kevin Feige’s mind, do we make this part of the MCU? Do we not make this part of the MCU? It’s actually gone back and forth quite a few times, and I think we did land in a smart place because [‘X-Men: The Animated Series’] was its own thing, and I think that to continue it we needed to be our own thing.”
They Agree It’s The Right Thing To Do
Jake Castorena agrees that this was the right choice. He likes that the X-Men can be different and that fans enjoy these differences:
“We’re getting the X-Men in this format and we’re doing it justice not just by ourselves, but also other fans as well, and we’re starting to get a resurgence of the X-Men in film again. I love that. And I think it’s great that we can have different things, let them be different.”
Marvel got the rights back for X-Men in 2019, and they slowly started bringing them into the MCU. We saw hints of this when Professor Charles Xavier showed up in ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ and when ‘The Marvels’ introduced Beast in a special scene. Some fans noticed The Watcher in one of the episodes as well.
More X-Men action is expected with ‘Deadpool & Wolverine.’
‘X-Men ’97’ is now available to watch on Disney+.