It’s clear with “X-Men ’97” that the scope stretches beyond what already comes across as a stellar Saturday morning cartoon. Eli Yonemura assessed the work so far, saying, “It feels like we’re already making movie-level animation and events,” explaining that with the right budget for a full feature, “X-Men ’97” could match the likes of the Spider-Verse movies and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.”
The reassuring detail among all this is that the show’s creators are looking back as much as they’re looking forward with their impressive work. Yonemura referred to some groundbreaking animated feature films that worked as inspiration, and in the case of Season 1, Episode 3 — “Fire Made Flesh” and Season 1, Episode 5 — “Remember It,” it’s hard not to make comparisons. “One of our influences was ’80s and ’90s Japanese animation. ‘Akira.’ ‘Ghost in the Shell.’ Those levels. It’s like: Hey, you want to give us the money and budget to do that for you? But for ‘X-Men ’97?’ Gladly.”
The voice of fandom is sometimes louder than any boardroom managing the bank balance for certain projects, though, and Jake Castorena hopes it’s one that’s heard. “If the love and the demand [are] there from the fandom, and Marvel wants to let us do it, it’d be great to bring these X-Men, these characters, this style, and this work to the silver screen.”