Pop Culture | Cartoons | 90s
12 Facts About The 90s X-Men Cartoon That Even Professor Xavier Doesn't Know
With a huge cast of awesome characters, sprawling storylines, and one of the catchiest theme songs in cartoon history, X-Men was one of the singular greatest cartoons of the 90s. We still love it today (especially since you can watch it on Netflix), and we're willing to be you do too. However, I'm pretty sure even diehard fans won't know some of these facts!
It was one of the first animated shows to be serialized
Storylines in the show would last for several episodes (much like comic book storylines going for several issues), meaning it had to be watched regularly and in order.
The last six episodes look different because Marvel was broke
Fox commissioned more episodes after the show was thought to be over, but Marvel was filing for bankruptcy and couldn't afford to make more. Saban Entertainment ended up paying for the whole thing.
The producers thought their audience was stupid
They were worried that kids wouldn't care about a love triangle between Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Wolverine, or that they wouldn't be able to follow stories that lasted multiple episodes.
One of the voice actors was offered the same role in the live-action movies
David Hemblen, who voiced Magneto, was offered to play Magneto in Bryan Singer's X-Men movie, but couldn't get out of his contract for the show Earth: The Final Conflict. The role ended up going to Sir Ian McKellen.
They borrowed sound effects from other shows and movies
The sound of Magneto's magnetic powers is the same as the Klingon cloaking devices from Star Trek III: The Search For Spock.
These next few facts are just unbelievable...
Stan Lee didn't have much to do with the series
Lee wasn't involved with Marvel in a creative capacity at the time, so he only pitched a few ideas to the show.
Almost all of the voice actors are Canadian (just like Wolverine)
Specifically, they came from the Toronto theater scene.
Production of the show was very strained
The animation was outsourced to Korea, and episodes often aired out of order because of animation either being late or needing to be redone.
Something happened in the show before it even did in the comics
Jean and Cyclops get married in Season 2, which was a full year before they were married in the comics.
The show got its own separate comic book
X-Men Adventures followed the stories of the show and ran completely separate from the main X-Men comic.
Jubilee was intended as the show's main character
The network wanted it to focus on a character they thought the "hip" kids of the 90s could relate to. She ended up being one of the most-hated characters on the show.
One of the most famous storylines in the comics was inspired by the show
X-Men comics editor Bob Harris heard the show pitch an idea of Bishop traveling back to an alternate world where Professor Xavier has been killed, and liked it so much he used it as the basis of "Age of Apocalypse," one of the most beloved storylines in the history of the franchise.