In 1992 Fox Kids made multiple shows underneath the Marvel brand such as Iron Man, Spider-Man, and of course, X-Men. Multiple children across the country watched and adored this show for its writing and characters. The show quickly became one of the best superhero shows being made until it was canceled because of multiple budget cuts to the point where there was barely any money left to make the show. There was no hope for this show to return since other X-Men shows like X-Men: Evolution and Wolverine and the X-Men were made after. Sure, these shows were great in their own right but never compared to the ’90s show and its influence on people. Then in D23 2021, Kevin Feige announced X-Men ‘97, a sequel to the original X-Men show running on Disney+. Fans were ecstatic and excited for the show to come out and got even more excited to watch it when they got a trailer. There were many high expectations for this show with celebrities tweeting about it and fans saying that Marvel is finally done making bad content, so when the show did come out it exceeded all expectations.
When the writers were working on the show it was clear that they knew how to make the show accessible to fans of the show and newcomers which a lot of reboots can’t do. The show tackles more mature themes like parenthood and being hunted just for being different and knocking them out of the park. The writers took the first two episodes to fix how general audiences view Cyclops, who, despite being the leader of the X-Men, was always considered lame by general audiences, so one of the first things he does is to fight an entire warehouse of enemies by himself. The animation allows characters to do more dynamic poses, express emotions better, and do things impossible in live action like Gambit charging up Wolverine’s claws to destroy a Sentinel. It also helps that most of the voice acting is from most of the cast from the original show. Marvel got the most talented voice actors in the industry like Jennifer Hale and Ray Chase for the characters whose voice actors couldn’t return and ensured they were the best they could get.
The success of X-Men ’97 proves that Marvel finally knows what to do with their most popular characters and that the best way to adapt them is to ensure the entire team cares about the characters they are doing a project on. This show has even given hope to fans that shows like the 90s Spider-Man show might return, with the creators saying they would happily return to do the project. If Marvel keeps doing what they did with X-Men ’97, there is no doubt that they’ll go back to their roots and make shows and movies that are guaranteed hits.