X-Men '97 Has A Huge Advantage Over X-Men: The Animated Series

X-Men ’97 dives into an iconic origin story with a major advantage.

One of the biggest lingering questions after the debut season of X-Men ’97 is how the series will explore the origins of Apocalypse. The finale left several members of the titular team stuck in ancient Egypt during 3000 BC, where they encounter a young En Sabah Nur (Adetokumboh M’Cormack), also known as Apocalypse (Ross Marquand). And now that X-Men ’97 season 2 is officially airing, the executive producer of the show, who was also the producer of the original X-Men: The Animated Series, has shed new light on how they will approach the villain’s backstory.

Although Apocalypse has long been one of the X-Men’s most well-known villains, his complete origin story had not been written until a year before X-Men: The Animated Series concluded its run. The villain’s backstory wasn’t written until the 1996 comic book, The Rise of Apocalypse (by Terry Kavanagh and Adam Pollina). Meanwhile, the original show ended in 1997, which put the creative team at a huge disadvantage when it came to the character because of the lack of source material.

In an interview with SlashFilm, the producer of the original animated series and executive producer of X-Men ’97, Larry Houston, revealed that they now have the upper hand. Now, nearly three decades after X-Men: The Animated Series came to a close, not only do they have Apocalypse’s origin story, but so much more follow-up information and storylines to pull from as the villain has become immensely popular throughout the years.

Houston explained that X-Men ’97 and its creative team, many of whom were also involved in X-Men: The Animated Series, now find themselves in a very different position. The access they now have to Apocalypse’s full comic book history not only gives them more stories to draw inspiration from but also several iterations of the character with different motives, giving them more than enough content to work with, allowing them so much more flexibility.

I think [‘X-Men ’97’ has] the advantage that we didn’t have in the ’90s because when we did the Apocalypse stories, all of that backstory didn’t really exist. So we had to dance around exactly his origin.

Apocalypse first appeared in 1985’s Marvel Graphic Novel #17 (by David Michelinie, Christopher Priest, Brad K. Joyce, Charles Vess, Christie Scheele, and Geof Isherwood). The villain was initially an unnamed character and wasn’t officially introduced until the following year in X-Factor #5 (by Bob Layton and Butch Guice).

Disney+’s X-Men ’97 is a direct continuation of X-Men: The Animated Series. The show features a massive ensemble cast which consists of Ray Chase (Scott Summers / Cyclops), Jennifer Hale (Jean Grey and Madelyne Pryor / Goblin Queen), Alison Sealy-Smith (Ororo Munroe / Storm), (Cal Dodd as Logan / Wolverine), J. P. Karliak (Morph), Lenore Zann (Rogue), George Buza (Hank McCoy / Beast), A. J. LoCascio (Remy LeBeau / Gambit), and Holly Chou (Jubilee).

X-Men ’97 season 2 releases new episodes Wednesdays at 3:00 AM ET and 12:00 AM PT on Disney+.