Posted in: Disney+, Marvel, TV | Tagged: X-Men ’97
X-Men ’97 Producer Talks Season 2 Shockers, Topping Season 1 Success
X-Men ’97 supervising producer Jake Castorena on Season 2, navigating brutal storylines, introducing X-Factor, X-Force, and more.
Article Summary
- X-Men ’97 producer Jake Castorena says Season 2 aims to top Season 1 by pushing the team’s creative bar even higher.
- Castorena reveals Magneto’s death was Season 2’s toughest sequence, balancing Xavier’s grief and Apocalypse’s rise.
- X-Men ’97 Season 2 introduces X-Factor, X-Force, the Acolytes, and dozens of new characters alongside core heroes.
- Castorena teases major finale surprises, including a returning character and more brutal, fast-paced X-Men ’97 action.
If there was any debate on Disney’s biggest animated Marvel success in its streaming era, it would have to be hands-down X-Men ’97, the direct sequel series to the Fox Kids Saturday morning staple, X-Men: The Animated Series, directly picking up after the events of the original show, as denoted by the year in the title. While some familiar voices have sadly passed on, much of the crew has returned for more adventures and a grittiness far beyond its Saturday morning predecessor. One of the figures responsible for its success is supervising producer Jake Castorena, who spoke with The Nerdist on the fun, tumultuous journey that sees quite a few shocking deaths and new groups the team has to contend with, including X-Force, X-Factor, the Acolytes, and more.
X-Men ’97 Supervising Producer Jake Castorena on Navigating Through Season 2’s Biggest Moments
When it came to what the creative team’s biggest pressure was to top the success of season one, “Honestly, that. We’re all fans, we’re all nerds, we’re all artists and creatives on our end. So it’s like, cool, now we just got to do better than what we did before,” Castorena said. “And that’s sort of the same synergy that we already have amongst the crew, especially when we have animatic screenings or when we have meetings where every so often we all come together. Whether it’s in the episode getting animated or whether it made the cutting room floor, just like to highlight the work.”
The producer adds how much coordination it takes to make it work, “Because when you work remote or hybrid, you don’t get to see what everyone else is working on. So we try to make an effort to make sure we showcase what everyone’s working on together and that can’t help but just, ‘Oh man, oh, so-and-so did that. Damn, all right, I want to step it up now. Oh, they did that such-and-such cool thing. Okay, cool. I want to do something cool now too.’ So we already have that synergy. So that wasn’t too much of a leap for season two. It was just doing it after already being timed from season one. But yeah, man, it never falls short on the responsibility and the genuine gratitude that we have to get to bring these characters and these stories to life.”
(L-R): Beast (voiced by George Buza), Bishop (voiced by Isaac Robinson-Smith), Rogue (voiced by Lenore Zann), Professor X (voiced by Ross Marquand), Magneto (voiced by Matthew Waterson), and Nightcrawler (voiced by Adrian Hough) in Marvel Animation’s X-MEN ’97 Season 2, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel
As far as most challenging sequences go, Castorena said, “The death of Magneto because we’re killing off a main character and we want to give a good sendoff, but it’s as much about the main character’s death as it is about Xavier watching Magneto die. And it’s also about Apocalypse coming into his own as Apocalypse. So there are three things you have to juxtapose against all each other. All need the same amount of screen time, all need the same amount of justice, and all need to hit. And so delicately balancing that.
Also, just shout out to Chase Conley, director for that episode, because he and I got to work together closely and craft that whole thing together, which is pretty awesome. And just as you see, just making it all work. For me, it’s in a fast-paced show like us always remembering, and our team does this in kind, not being afraid to let things breathe, not being afraid of silence. Because ideally what you slow down helps to sped up stuff and vice versa. So for me, the challenge was making sure that Magneto stuff hit. And then the other challenge was something that’s not out yet, but in the finale, just a certain character coming back and molly whopping a whole bunch of Multiple Men.”
A scene from Marvel’s X-MEN ’97 Season 2, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel
When it came to the herculean task of introducing as many characters as they did in season two, “Yeah. One thing I’ll say is I don’t envy our head E.P. Matthew Chauncey and our writers room. I don’t envy them. It’s like, oh, 22 new characters plus the other 18 to 20 that we already know? But the cool thing is my unique position and my ability is, I don’t necessarily work on the scripts in Genesis phase, but I do get to have a say or get to have some input,” Castorena said. “Matt Chauncey is gracious enough to ask me, ‘Hey, how do you feel about this? Is this hitting the way I’m looking for it to hit? Or what would you do? What are you looking for?’ Or sometimes it’s even like, ‘Hey, I wrote this and this. Whatever the action says, I’m not really married to it. Please work with directors and whatever you want to do to that, just as long as we hit this and this.’ It’s like, great. That’s not different from season one either.”
For more on Castorena talking about X-Factor and X-Force, and why we shouldn’t be holding our breath on seeing Kitty Pryde back any time soon, you can check out the entire interview. The season two finale of X-Men ’97 streams on Wednesday on Disney+.
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