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Fired X-Men ’97 Creator Beau DeMayo Clarifies Involvement With Season 2
X-Men ’97 showrunner and executive producer Beau DeMayo, who was fired just ahead of the series premiere on Disney+ on March 20, has clarified his involvement with Season 2.
In a tweet responding to questions from fans following the Season 1 finale, DeMayo said that while he wrote “a lot” of Season 2, he will not be heavily involved in the production of it.
“I did write a lot of Season 2,” DeMayo said. “However, unlike Season 1, I will not be heavily involved or leading production, cast records, design, editorial, post, music, etc., nor doing any production rewrites as it relates to the creative vision of the show.”
DeMayo continued: “This is why I’ve said I can’t really speak to Season 2. But, looking forward to seeing the final product with you all whenever it airs. I have high hopes.”
DeMayo has been active on social media throughout X-Men ’97’s hit first season, commenting on a number of plot points, including the whereabouts of The Avengers and Deadpool during the cataclysmic events The X-Men deal with on earth.
Warning! Spoilers for X-Men ’97 Season 1 follow.
In one tweet, DeMayo confirmed that the scene in which Morph transforms into Jean Grey to tell a badly injured Wolverine that they loved him was the superhero’s way of confession their feelings for Logan.
Yes, Morph was confessing romantic feelings for Logan #xmen97
pic.twitter.com/FhgShK5CX9— Beau DeMayo (@BeauDemayo) May 16, 2024
“You know when you’re secretly in love with a close friend, and you’re terrified to tell them?” DeMayo tweeted. “Wouldn’t it be nice to turn into someone you know THEY love, say the words to just finally say them and have them feel it, even if you haven’t fully accepted you feel them?”
DeMayo later tweeted to confirm that Morph was both playing as Jean to convince Logan he had something to live for and confessing romantic feelings for him.
Yep. Morph was giving the object of their desire the comfort of hearing those words from the woman he loves because Morph is in love with him
— Beau DeMayo (@BeauDemayo) May 16, 2024
X-Men ‘97 ends with a number of tantalizing teases for Season 2. Check out IGN’s X-Men ’97 Season 1 review, then head over our feature on How the Series Sets Up Season 2.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
X-Men ‘97 Proves It’s Time For A New Marvel Animated Universe
Warning: This article contains full spoilers for Season 1 of X-Men ‘97. If you haven’t caught up yet, check out our review of the finale.
Who would have guessed that X-Men ‘97 would be one of 2024’s biggest surprises? At a time when Marvel Studios is still working out some bugs over on the live-action side, their best project in years has turned out to be a revival of a widely-beloved ‘90s show. Now that the Season 1 finale is out, Marvel fans the world over are excited to speculate on the myriad of directions the show could go in Season 2. We’ve gone into our theories already (hint: Apocalypse fans will be very happy!), but for today, we’re looking not at what the future holds for X-Men ‘97, but more what the show’s success may mean for the future of Marvel Studios Animation.
Formed in 2021, Marvel Studios Animation (shortened to Marvel Animation in its logo) only has a handful of projects under their belt, but X-Men ‘97 proves that this subdivision may be the most exciting team currently working under the Marvel Studios banner. Between the strong critical and audience response to the show’s quality as well as all of the crossover cameos from other Marvel properties in the last few episodes, there’s perhaps never been a better time for Marvel to get back into the business of building a brand new animated universe. How so? Let’s take a look.
The Previous Marvel Animated Universe
Before we get into how X-Men ‘97 might herald a new Marvel animated universe, we’d be remiss not to mention that the original X-Men: The Animated Series was already part of an animated universe, one that it still appears to be in based on some cameos in 97’s finale. We’ll get to that in a sec, but let’s start with how X-Men: TAS was connected to a bunch of other shows, even if those connections weren’t as solid as the modern MCU. X-Men: TAS was most famously attached to Spider-Man: The Animated Series, and that latter series featured a two-part crossover in its second season episodes “The Mutant Agenda” and “Mutants’ Revenge.” There were various other small crossovers over the years that connected the continuity of these shows to other ‘90s animated series, such as Fantastic Four, Incredible Hulk, and even the (sadly not very good) Iron Man series.
Now, the continuity between all of these shows is spotty at best, and that’s not even getting into Spider-Man: Unlimited, the Silver Surfer show or Avengers: United They Stand because we’d be here all day. But X-Men ‘97 has kept up this tradition with plenty of cameos from other Marvel characters. These include the Spider-Man: TAS versions of Peter Parker and Mary Jane, various heroes like Daredevil, Cloak & Dagger and Alpha Flight seen fending off Bastion’s Prime Sentinels, or villains like Doctor Doom and Baron Zemo showing up as members of Operation Zero Tolerance. What’s great about how the show implements these cameos is that they tend to be for just a few seconds at a time, suggesting a bigger world without bogging down the story at hand to do so. As well, seeing other Marvel heroes reacting to the world-shattering stakes of the X-Men’s battle against Bastion helps sell how important the events are supposed to be.
The Right Amount of Connectivity
Of course, it’s important to keep the universe connections minimal and maintain focus on the primary characters of the story being told. After all, part of what’s made a lot of folks fatigued with the MCU is the sense that there’s so much intricate connectivity that the individual projects are overshadowed by the omnipresent specter of “the universe” at large. But the discipline that the team behind X-Men ’97 have shown in hinting at the wider world while also delivering some of the best soap opera storytelling we’ve seen from a comic book adaptation in quite some time gives reason to be hopeful. We’ll see how future seasons of X-Men ‘97 and any other related shows will pan out, but they’re already on a far better foot than the last attempt at a Marvel animated universe.
That attempt would be the universe shared between Avengers Assemble, Ultimate Spider-Man, and Hulk and the Agents of SMASH, which was not exactly Marvel’s finest hour. Not only did the first two shows replace Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and Spectacular Spider-Man, commonly considered two of the best Marvel cartoons to ever air, but they also ejected a lot of fan-favorite characters and concepts out of a misguided attempt to enforce brand synergy. Aside from minor appearances from the Fantastic Four and Doctor Doom being a recurring villain in the first season of Avengers Assemble, X-Men and Fantastic Four characters were almost uniformly jettisoned from these shows. Instead, they promoted characters from concurrent or upcoming MCU projects, which isn’t wrong in and of itself, but the way this was executed left a bad taste in many fans’ mouths.
Characters would arbitrarily change designs or personalities to match whatever was happening in the films, but without any in-universe explanation. Look at how the Guardians of the Galaxy in Avengers Assemble Season 1 were based on their comic versions, while in Season 2 they just become the movie characters without any reason why. Ultron also changed from a design and persona resembling his comic counterpart in Season 2 into a carbon copy of his MCU incarnation in Season 3, again, with no reason given. There was also a heavy push for Inhumans characters with nary a hint at the X-Men, which was a corporate mandate based on the live-action rights situation at the time. The fact that these shows are now considered deservedly banished relics while X-Men ‘97 is receiving a rave response is the final comeuppance for a strategy of connectivity valued above quality.
Third Time’s the Charm?
Neither of the previous Marvel animated universes really hit the sweet spot. The 90s shows were up and down in terms of quality (see the gap between Season 1 and 2 of the Fantastic Four show for an example), and the continuity didn’t always line up even when crossovers happened. The 2010s shows were too bogged down with shoddy storytelling and trying to promote MCU projects. X-Men ‘97 is only concerned with being the best continuation of X-Men: TAS that it can be, and it succeeds at this goal with flying colors. That it also manages to throw in some fun cameos of other beloved Marvel characters is simply a bonus. That’s what crossover continuity should be: seasoning, but never the main course.
Whether Marvel decides to use X-Men ‘97 as a springboard for more revivals of the shows it’s already connected to (sign me up Fantastic Four ‘97!), or as a template for a brand new slate of interconnected cartoons, they would be smart to not let this opportunity pass them by. Perhaps the upcoming Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man show could be its genesis point? Many of Marvel’s stalwart properties have been hungry for quality adaptations in animation for far too long, and the goodwill generated by X-Men ‘97’s first season likely ensures that fans will be willing to at least try out whatever comes next.
At the end of the day, what matters most is strong storytelling, and X-Men ‘97 has that part more than covered. It never shortchanges itself to highlight that it’s part of a bigger world. If we can get animated shows of similar quality for Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers and others, and they can co-exist in the same reality without tripping over each other? Then perhaps we could see a renaissance of Marvel animation to match the rush the MCU gave in its heyday.
Carlos Morales writes novels, articles and Mass Effect essays. You can follow his fixations on Twitter.
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The Dune: Prophecy TV Series Is Doing Much More Than Setting Up the Bene Gesserit
This article contains spoilers for Dune 2.
A few years ago, it seemed deeply unlikely that a second Dune movie would be the biggest film of 2024 so far and even less likely that the seemingly far-fetched spin-off focusing on the witchy Bene Gesserit would be hitting screens that same year. But, here we are! At their recent upfronts Max revealed the hauntingly severe trailer set 10,000 years before the movies as well as the reveal that the show would hit in Fall this year. But, while the series seems to focus solely on the cosmic magic users, the title and trailer hint at a wider connection to the Dune universe (Duneiverse? Is that a thing?) that could offer deeper insight into the world and its witches.
In case you haven’t been keeping up with your sandworm lore or Timothée Chalamet fandom, Dune centers on the violent intergalactic politics of a galaxy torn apart by a war. Said war pitted humans against so-called Thinking Machines (aka robots), basically destroying most computer-based technology and sending the world back into a galactic feudal system where familial houses fight for power. At the center of the story is the prophecy of the legendary male leader known as the Kwisatz Haderach, who the Bene Gesserit claim will be able to access the genetic memories of the witches and use his powers to rule the world thanks to near omnipotence. As we learned in Dune 2, that man is none other than Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), who took on those powers in the last film after drinking the Water of Life and using “The Voice” that can control people.
Phew! Now that we’re all caught up on that, we can dig into the weird world of the Bene Gesserit. The witches are the focus of Dune: Prophecy, which looks to be set a few hundred years after the event of the Butlerian Jihad or, as the trailer points out, 10,000 years before old Paul “Lisan al Gaib” was born. So it makes sense then that, in the wake of the war, the burgeoning collective known as the Bene Gesserit would begin their plan for conquest. Which makes us think that the series could be just as concerned with the creation and plan to bring the Kwisatz Haderach to life as the women behind it.
The trailer showcases multiple acts of intimacy alongside the more staid and serious politicking. We also see the would-be Bene Gesserit enacting strange rituals. Both of those themes fit with the idea that the show is about about the origins of the millenia-long “breeding project” the witches planned in order to create the Kwisatz Haderach, alongside their galactic propaganda campaign to spread the concept of a prophecy that’ll make the common folk on planets everywhere believe in him when they do finally succeed. Taking the title into consideration too, it seems highly likely that we’ll see the witches plotting for that very reason, or we’ll learn that they were created solely for the power-hungry purposes laid out above.
According to the press release, the series is loosely adapting one of the later books written by Frank Herbert’s son Brian and Kevin J. Anderson, Sisterhood of Dune, which focuses on warring factions including the Bene Gesserit, the Mentant who use the space drug known as Spice to give them mental powers, and Space Guild who use the substance to enable them to navigate the cosmos. Despite that, it’s likely the series will introduce new elements and themes, that’s why we’re thinking that its focus may be on the creation of the Kwisatz Haderach. That would also give the series a more direct connection to the hit films, seeing as director Denis Villenueve is no longer actively involved or directing the pilot, as was originally the plan.
In a cynical business sense too, I’m sure the execs at Max thought a hard sc-ifi story about a bunch of middle-aged women coming together to manipulate the sex lives of the galaxy was a hard sell. But when you more directly connect it to a movie whose box office is currently over 700 million, it suddenly seems like far less of a risk. Saying that though, here’s hoping that Dune: Prophecy has the space in its six-episode run to be as weird and fantastically grotesque as the books and the Bene Gesserit within them really are. But we’ll have to wait until later this year to know if we’ll get any magical witch hoo-hahs or the like. Here’s hoping.
Rosie Knight is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything from anime to comic books to kaiju to kids movies to horror flicks. She has over half a decade of experience in entertainment journalism with bylines at Nerdist, Den of Geek, Polygon, and more.
Save Big On Beats Studio Pro Headphones And Beats Studio Buds at Amazon
Beats headphones are an excellent investment for those who love to be immersed in audio. Normally, the noise-cancelling Beats Studio Pro and Beats Studio Buds retail with a hefty price tag ($349.99 and $149.95, respectively) but right now you can score them at an over 40% discount at Amazon. The Beats Studio Pro wireless headphones are currently down to $179.95, a discount of 49% off MSRP, and the Beats Studio Buds are down to $79.95, a 47% discount.
These are well worth picking up at this price before the discount disappears. The Beats Studio Pro headphones are even featured in our list of the best over ear headphones in 2024, so you know you’re in for a worthwhile purchase.
Beats Studio Headphones and Earbuds Are Discounted at Amazon
If you’re looking for some great things to listen to once you secure your new headphones or earbuds, you can actually still take advantage of the limited-time Apple Music deal through Walmart+. When signing up for the Walmart+ membership (which offers a 30 day free trial for new members), you can immediately activate up to 5 free months of Apple Music to enjoy. This is a great way to test out your new Beats with an excellent music library to flip through.
If you’re curious to see even more of the best deals available right now, check out our Daily Deals roundup to see the latest highlights across games and tech. In the realm of headphones and headsets, you can also score a great deal at the moment on the new white SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro gaming headset at Amazon, but if you’d like to see a wider selection of gaming headset deals, check out our roundup of the best gaming headset deals right now.
Hannah Hoolihan is a freelance writer who works with the Guides and Commerce teams here at IGN.