From The Marvels to Blade, it seems like just about every single upcoming Marvel Studios project has had a rough time in making it to the screen. Apparently, that even applies to a certain reboot of a beloved IP that already has an established universe to play in. Namely, the oft-forgotten animated sequel series X-Men ’97.
A unique entry in Marvel’s canon, X-Men ’97 is a direct follow-up to the legendary X-Men: The Animated Series, picking up where the original show’s storylines left off and bringing back much of the voice cast. And yet, as folks on the r/MarvelStudios subreddit have pointed out, the series has still been stuck in development for twice as long as the old Fox Kids show did. As X-Men: TAS was conceived in 1991 and on screens by 1992, while ’97 was announced in 2021 and still yet to arrive, that is indeed accurate. But the delay actually goes even further than that.
Original producer/director Larry Houston confirmed he was in talks with Disney Plus to relaunch The Animated Series as far back as 2019, meaning that when the show finally debuts in 2024 it’ll have taken almost five years to hit streaming. That’s an ironic timeframe given that the old show was on the air for five years itself. All in all, then, this is Marvel’s ongoing problems with development — which appear to be caused by creative clashes between execs and showrunners/filmmakers — in a nutshell.
Luckily, X-Men ’97 is believed to be coming in early 2024, so the long wait is almost over, but the truncated development period — not to mention the ugly social media backlash EP Beau DeMayo faced after a controversial casting decision earlier this year — is certainly not what should’ve been an easy win for Marvel deserved.