Similar to how Bryan Singer’s X-Men really kicked off the modern trend for superhero movies that took the characters seriously, X-Men: The Animated Series was one of the first animated shows of the 90s that found an audience in both cartoon-loving children and grown-up X-Men fans.
This was because of many different reasons, but chief amongst them were that the series had an excellent line-up – with evergreen X-Men like Wolverine and Cyclops to fan-favorites like Gambit and Jubilee – and also boasted comic-faithful character designs, based on the work of artist Jim Lee. It also brought to life many of the major storylines from the page and its incredibly catchy theme tune didn’t hurt its popularity, either.
That’s why it was such a shame when X-Men: The Animated Series came to an end in in September 1997, leaving us with the cliffhanger of an injured Charles Xavier leaving Earth for a life with Shi’ar Empress Lilandra. Ever since, fans have been hoping that maybe, just maybe there’ll be a revival one day and now, it seems like they may get their wish.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the creative team behind the show is planning to approach Disney to pitch some kind of continuation. What form it’d take is still unclear, but X-Men artist Larry Houston told the outlet that “the one thing we’d like to do more than anything else is to continue where we left off.”
Of course, just because the creators are interested in doing more doesn’t mean that we’ll ever see the series again, but this is certainly encouraging to hear. After all, though X-Men: The Animated Series is very much a product of its time and hasn’t aged particularly well (unlike the timeless Batman: The Animated Series), it still clearly understood the mutants and truly respected the history and characters.
As such, we’ve be all for seeing some kind of revival, though given that the Mouse House already has their hands very full with all their upcoming projects for Disney Plus, it may be some time yet before the mutants return in animated form. Still, we’ll definitely be keeping our fingers crossed.
