If you love X-Men: The Animated Series or X-Men ‘97, you have Larry Houston to thank. The prolific producer was a guest at Fan Expo Denver, where he spoke about his lengthy career. Kicking things off, Houston confirmed to a storm of cheers that X-Men ’97 isn’t just returning for a second season, but has also been renewed for a third season and potentially a fourth! He also said that Season 2’s announcement was slightly delayed due to the release schedule for Daredevil: Born Again.
Houston then talked about the iconic theme from X-Men: The Animated Series, revealing that he only had a week to put it together; he also praised Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers composer Ron Wasserman for coming up with the theme. Houston also confessed that he was a longtime comic book fan and entered the animation field with fellow comic book fans Will Meugniot (Exo-Squad) and Rick Hoberg (Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends), who also worked on X-Men: The Animated Series. “Nobody wanted the X-Men,” he said when discussing the struggle to pitch the series to a network.
The talk then turned to the creation of the shape-shifting Morph, which Houston revealed was a change he made to introduce some tragedy. Other than that, Houston, alongside producer Eric & Julia Lewald, sought to stay true to the spirit of the X-Men comics. Houston even showed off a picture he and the Lewalds took with legendary X-Men writer Chris Claremont, noting that it was ironic that X-Men: The Animated Series adapted only two of Claremont’s iconic storylines: “The Dark Phoenix Saga” and “Days of Future Past.”
X-Men: The Animated Series ran for five seasons, which meant there was a lot for Houston, the Lewalds, and the rest of the fans to tackle. He did mention that one moment he wanted to bring from the comics was the original story from Giant-Size X-Men #1, where the mighty mutants battle the living island Krakoa. He also mentioned that one of his favorite episodes was “Beauty and the Beast”, where the super smart Beast fell in love with a blind girl. One tricky moment was that some mutants didn’t have a backstory, meaning that the crew had to fly by the seat of their past on certain episodes, particularly the episode “Rogue’s Tale,” as Rogue didn’t have a name in canon.
Houston also admitted that he loved having a bigger budget on X-Men ’97, though he wished the episode counts were longer. Another element Houston loves? The fact that X-Men ’97 can actually show people dying or bleeding. “We had to write around a lot of that,” he said, citing Morph’s death. Ironically, when Season 2 of X-Men: The Animated Series was greenlit, Houston was told to bring back Morph. He also had to change the ending to introduce Mister Sinister, which took place within two hours! Despite the ups and downs, Houston had nothing but praise for former Fox executive Margaret Loesch, who pushed for X-Men: The Animated Series to air. (Power Rangers fans should also thank Loesch, as she made a similar pitch for that series.)
Houston closed out the panel with a slideshow of the cast members on X-Men: The Animated Series and X-Men ’97. He paid special tribute to Norm Spencer and John Colicos, who voiced Cyclops and Apocalypse on the former show. Finally, a special preview of X-Men ’97 Season 2, which originally previewed at Comic Con Revolution, featured more of the X-Men’s quest through time.
Time might have passed, but Larry Houston remains a true force in superhero animation.
Photo: Marvel
Season 2 of X-Men ’97 premieres on Disney+ on July 1.
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