Transcript

Taylor: Hey there and welcome to Sisters Assembled, your center for all things MCU and the biggest news in the MCU right now is that X-Men ‘97 is premiering in just a few days. It is our first, I was going to say it’s our first show of 2024, but it is not our first animated show. It’s been a minute, though. It’s been like two months since we had a show.

Katie: But honestly, I know it’s the first animated show, but considering we ended the year with What If? it doesn’t even feel like we’ve been that far out.

Taylor: True. I also think it’s weird because Echo dropped all at once, so I’m used to it being like an era of time, and instead, we just covered it for like a couple of weeks because we had like so many episodes at once. But anyway, long intro, long way to say we are covering X-Men ‘97 predictions this week because we are prepping for the first two episodes to release on March 20th, which is super, super exciting. So without any further ado, and making this intro any longer, I’m going to turn it over to Katie to get us started with the episode.

Katie: Yeah, man, I’m so excited. First I just need to clarify to the listeners, I am about halfway through Season Three of the original part of the X-Men show from the 90s. So if there is something dumb I say because I didn’t get to finish it yet, I have plenty of time before the new stuff, but not before we had to record this episode. If I say something dumb, ignore it. It means I didn’t get there yet and I don’t know it happened, so I just want to preface that.

Taylor: I’m going to second that because I’m actually further behind than Kate and I’m only like midway through Season One. I did read an episode-by-episode synopsis that Marvel has online, so I have some general idea, but I kind of skimmed it because it’s long and there are like 76 of them, so they all kind of ran together. But I did my best to try to be as prepared but I’ve still got like a week so give me a minute to try to get all caught up.

Katie: No, I mean, like I’ve been hardcore binging this to try. I was like, you can make it by the time we have to do predictions and then as we just got closer, I was like, doing the math, I think Sunday night in bed and I’m thinking, okay, they’re 20 minutes, 20 times three, you know, that’s your hour. I was doing the math off of what I knew I had left and it was 27 hours still and I was like, oh, we’re not going to be able to do that by Tuesday. So I had to accept defeat but I am, I think on Episode 13 or 14 of Season Three so I’m a good way through. I’ve been watching the trailers that have been coming out. I’m very excited. I think it’s going to be really fun to visit this world again, and I think we should just jump right into something that anybody who’s been a fan of this, or who has been seeing this or watched this as a kid kind of knows was a topic for a good bit; is Jean Grey and Cyclops having a baby finally.

Taylor: Yeah, we’re getting a really popular MCU romance that’s fleshed out for the first time ever, unless you’re Tony Stark and Pepper Potts. They are the only MCU couple that truly was allowed to mature and not like they were immature but their relationship grew, it evolved, they got married, and they had a kid. They did all those kinds of more traditional steps that a couple does. And then you look at some of the other very popular couples and you look at Wanda and Vision, and they didn’t last super long because they died.

Katie: They had kids kinda. 

Taylor: Yeah. 

Katie: And got married kinda.

Taylor: Yeah but it didn’t last very long. And so, you know, a lot of these couples, I’m like blanking on some of the other ones, but like, they don’t last long.

Katie: Gamorra and Peter.

Taylor: Another one that didn’t last long.

Katie: That didn’t reach a good ending. I’m trying to think off the top of my head now. We don’t really get a lot of romance in the MCU now that I’m thinking about it.  

Taylor: We don’t. And I mean think about, Steve and Sharon. I’m pretty sure they’re married in the comics, right? Someone told me that once. I don’t know that I don’t read a lot of Cap comics.

Katie: If not, they have a very serious relationship. But yeah, they never came through. I just had another one. Oh, Scott and Hope, they’re together.

Taylor: Yeah, that is true. That is true. But even if you think about, you know, T’Challa and Nakia, obviously for so many reasons, that didn’t work. But then speaking and bringing you back to X-Men, who the heck does he marry in the comics? None other than Storm, which is never going to happen now.

Katie: I wouldn’t say never.

Taylor: I mean, you’d need like a 20-year time jump for little T’Challa to grow up.

Katie: Dude, listen, as far as Secret Wars exists on the slate, I say anything is possible.

Taylor: You’re not wrong. I’m not taking it out of the full realm of possibility. I just can’t even think about them taking me 20 years into the future when they’re still messing with me after five. So I just don’t want to, like, entertain that idea right now. But bringing you back to what you were originally saying, yes, it is exciting to see their relationship, move to the next level and evolve, especially because they are such a popular couple in the comics. I also, even already in Season One, the whole love triangle with them and, and Wolverine is already set up. I haven’t gotten to a place past Season One where that’s either evolved, continued, or been resolved, whatever. But you know, that is something that I’m pretty sure was in, if I remember correctly, because it’s been a minute, was even in the original 2000s X-Men, which is where I get a lot of my references from because I’ve only watched one of the new ones. So yeah, I’m excited. Any time we get something that’s a canonical storyline like that or really popular in the comics, and we get to play it out fully like that, I’m all for it.

Katie: Well, and I’m so excited for them because for one, I know the conversation takes place for them talking about if we have kids, they’re going to be mutants. They’re going to grow up in this world where half the people hate mutants. I think that’s such an interesting conversation because there are a lot, as I’ve been watching the series, there’s actually a lot of relationships as in parental relationships that you don’t realize. And I’m going to also be transparent, we grew up more on the Avengers side of things than the X-Men side of things. I feel like at a young age, you just, like, choose accidentally what side you’re on and not side, but you know you pick a group you gravitate to. 

Taylor: You pick a lane.

Katie: Yeah, and I think Spider-Man was just, like such a direct way in for us into the, you know, more Avengers side of everything. So not that we don’t like the X-Men, but I don’t remember a lot of things, and I don’t realize a lot of the relationships and to your point, a lot of what I have to go off of are those first three X-Men movies. So rewatching this, I’m learning so much about people’s relationships with each other like we do see eventually Cyclops’ father. We kind of weirdly also accidentally see Cyclops’ and Jean’s baby from the future, which is weird because like, now we might see the baby actually get born, so that’s a weird thing. Mystique and Rogue obviously have a weird mother-and-daughter relationship, so it’s definitely interesting. I’m excited because of who the baby is and because we’ve seen the baby already grown up. I think that’s going to be so cool.

Taylor: Yeah, I was actually when I was going through the episodes, I was surprised at how much time travel was in a kid’s animated show. I was going through and they were like, yeah, we did the Days of Future Past storyline, which like, I mean, that’s a movie now. That might be the one I’ve seen actually, to be honest.

Katie: I don’t think I’ve seen any of the new trilogy, not fully.

Taylor: I saw the one where Magneto accidentally shoots Charles in the back, which is why he’s in the wheelchair, so I saw the first one. Anyway, that story has been adopted now since this show came out for the movies, so it’s a very popular storyline, but it has to do with time travel. And I was shocked at how many different storylines are like, yeah, and then they went to the future or this character came back from the past and I was like, oh, so even in the kid show – and I say that loosely, but a lot of us watched it as children – even in a show that was originally made for children, I can’t escape the time travel.

Katie: No, honestly, it’s funny you bring that up though, because when they started time traveling, I was like, oh, Taylor’s not gonna this. But also there are a few times I’ve had to because sometimes I just put it on as background because I don’t think I need to focus on it that hard and then I’m like, oh my God, what is happening? I actually have to go back and rewatch it all because they’re traveling to different dimensions, and then they’re in the Savage Land and I’m like, what’s the Savage Land and how did we get here? And it’s like, and then we keep revisiting the Savage Land and I still don’t really understand the Savage Land.

Taylor: I haven’t even gotten there yet.

Katie: Oh, I mean, we go there often, but yeah, there is a lot of time travel and I got it for the first time when Bishop came in and then Cable started coming in. But then I’m like, is Cable here? It was so confusing because I was like, is he here from the past when he first starts appearing or is that current Cable, but that doesn’t make sense. So he’s been traveling from the past throughout the whole series or from the future to the past, and you lost me. Cable lost me as soon as that started happening.

Taylor: Well, and also with Cable, I get stuck because my only reference for him is Deadpool, was it 2 or 3? Whichever one he’s in.

Katie: Well, 3 hasn’t come out.

Taylor: Yeah, yeah, sorry. That’s my only reference for him, so him being a time-traveling character, that makes sense because that’s how I was introduced to him, so I’m like got it. Then to your point, it’s like when he’s introduced I’ve only seen him now once when he was fighting the guy who used to be the Colonel who had the Sentinels on Genosha, and that one, it’s like not super clear that he’s from the future. 

Katie: That’s what I mean. 

Taylor: Because he’s talking about, oh, well, I fought in your army and you didn’t bring democracy like you said you would like you turned out to be a despot and all this stuff, and, like, he very much seems like he’s from the present at that moment, but yet his weaponry is definitely advanced, so it’s like, I’m so confused. 

Katie: Okay, that’s what I meant, because in the first season and I think the first half of the second season, he very much is like, I think he’s just a character. I’m not realizing he’s from the future until way later on when they do a whole episode about him being in the future and going back to the past. Then I was like, oh, so we could have made that a little more clear because I didn’t get that at all and it was so confusing because I was like, so what version of Cable is this then? And it was the same one the whole time. But not to digress, the reason, honestly, Cable’s getting brought up here is because he is their son, which is why when I was saying this is kind of a weird thing, it’s because we’ve seen him already and every time he’s interacted with them, he’s older than his parents. Although I also need to add the caveat that while he is Cyclops’ son, he’s Jean Grey’s clone’s son, which might be things I haven’t gotten to yet, or they’re just writing that out of the X-Men part, and it’s just Jean Grey the whole time, but just want to put that out there that it’s not actually technically Jean Grey. Her name is Madeline Prior, it’s Jean’s clone that’s actually his mother.

Taylor: Oh, interesting. Okay, so my question for you, as someone who is further along on this show than I am, and you may not have gotten here either, but in the show, is it that they have the baby with the clone? 

Katie: That’s my reigning question because in Season Three, we see Jean Grey become the Phoenix. And then I know because I’ve seen some of the previews of the next ones, I was like downloading them to save onto my phone, I know there is a Dark Phoenix storyline that comes up because that’s obviously a huge storyline so I do know they play that out. I don’t know if somewhere in the future like before what I’ve finished, they do have a clone of Jean Grey, or if it’s Jean Grey.

Taylor: Yeah, because when I was going through the synopsis last night to try to get myself caught up on the episodes I haven’t yet seen, I saw that they did Dark Phoenix. I was like, well, in the movie she dies.

Katie: That’s what I mean so I wonder if it’s Phoenix-related and that’s when Madeline comes in.

Taylor: Yeah, because I was and then I saw that she was in the show and I was like, as far as I know, which again, working on it, she’s dead.

Katie: Yeah, that’s my understanding. It is very interesting because as I said, to tie this all into a bow, the baby they’re having, we’ve seen in the show several times and we’ve actually seen in live-action played by Thanos, so weird little net there.

Taylor: What a tangled web we weave.

Katie: I know, but that’s going to be probably a pretty prominent storyline. I also, if they do go the Madeline Pryor route, meaning there is a clone, again, I can’t confirm that because I haven’t yet finished watching the show and I don’t know if they do that, but she kind of has a very interesting storyline once she realizes because she doesn’t know she’s a clone of Jean Grey. So she has a very interesting storyline past that. Knowing that they want to do more seasons and that apparently Season Two has already pretty much been written, I’d be intrigued to see where that goes.

Taylor: Yeah, I mean, same. I think clones are such an interesting narrative choice. As a Star Wars fan, clones are great. I know a lot of people really hate everything about clones when it comes to Peter Parker and Spider-Man, so clones can go either way. I think it could be interesting to see how this plays out with this character, if that is the direction they’ve gone, to find out that you’re not the original and I’m also curious, you know who cloned her? I don’t know if that’s something that we’ll get to in our rewatch as we prep for the show and get ready for it to premiere for season, I guess technically Season Two, but like the first season of X-Men ‘97 next week, or I guess it would be six.

Katie: True. Technically, Season Six, but it’s Season One of ‘97.

Taylor: Yeah. So all that to say, maybe, as you know, we’ll be answering our own question as we do this rewatch, but also it could just be interesting to see how this all plays out. If that is the clone, I would definitely be into it because I think that’s not something we’ve done yet in the MCU, which is weird because we’ve been doing this for over 15 years, and cloning is like it’s a big thing in all superhero mediums, as far as I’m aware.

Katie: Oh yeah, it’ll be interesting. Actually, before we move on to the next big topic of the predictions of what could happen, I also just want to say I am impressed watching this, how many of the huge storylines they shove into this show. Because holy crap, when I was doing, I don’t know, I was doing something related to the X-Men and I was reading like some of their big, like stories and I’m like, wow, this show sitting here is hitting them all and I really kind of appreciate that they did not pull their stops whatsoever.

Taylor: Yeah, honestly, it’s kind of a good primer if you’re not going to read the comics to basically be like, these are the highlights that you need to know. I mean, I’m only on Season One and they already have Genosha on there, and I’m like, okay, that’s a big deal. And to your point, when I was going through and I was seeing Dark Phoenix, Days of Future Past, and just some of the characters that they bring in, you know, having Juggernaut. Juggernaut? I can’t even say that. 

Katie: Juggernaut.

Taylor: Yeah. Having Juggernaut in there, you know, and and all those characters and Sabretooth, who we’ve seen in the Wolverine movies and things like that, like having those characters make appearances the way that they do is amazing. The twins are in it in later seasons. So these characters who are incredibly important and the storylines that are intrinsic to the X-Men and their identity in the comics, this is such a good intro, and I’m so glad that this is happening and I’m being forced is the wrong way to say it, but I have a reason to go back and watch the original animated series, because now when we do officially get an X-Men movie, and I don’t know that they’re necessarily going to adopt all of these storylines because a lot of them have been done already because they are the iconic X-Men storylines, to still have that background already is going to be super helpful. I love a little cheat sheet and I’m here for it.

Katie: No, I agree. Also, I’m waiting for my queen to show up. Her brother’s already shown up for me, but I’m waiting for her. It’s okay Gambit is holding me over, but I will now put us to the next topic so that we don’t waste any more time just raving about this and everything else. No Professor X question mark?

Taylor: Yeah, that has been my biggest unclear moment when it comes to this show, because they made it super clear for anybody who doesn’t remember watching the series finale, he died.

Katie: No he didn’t.

Taylor: Well, he’s not around. Let’s just put it that way.

Katie: Yes, let’s clarify that before we get into anything crazy here with any theories. He is, let’s say dead to Earth, I’m using quotations, but he’s actually alive in space. He’s with Lilandra, who I think makes her appearance in Season Two if not early Three. Kind of is his girlfriend, go Professor X. Pretty much he found out like he was dying and the only way for them to save him is for him to go to her home and stay there. So, yes he’s like dead to earth, but he’s not dead. And so my question is like, will he ever come back? Could we see that?

Taylor: I think he has to. Well, it’s hard because one, you don’t want to undo a character’s death and make it meaningless unless you’re in the Multiverse, in which case throw the rulebook out the window right? But at the same time, I don’t know how you continue to tell X-Men stories without Professor X himself. That’s really tough. He is the reason they came together. He is the center. He is the one who uses Cerebro to find other mutants and yes, I think Jean Grey has access to it and everything with her telepathic abilities but when you think of Cerebro, you think of Charles Xavier. When you think of the X-Men, you think of Professor X and you think of his arch nemesis, Magneto and obviously we’ll get to that portion of X’s, you know, leaving Earth in a minute. But I just don’t know how you tell an entire one soon-to-be two seasons of TV without one of the most iconic mutants in your show when you’ve got really the rest of the strong roster.

Katie: I agree. I do wonder if that’s going to be a storyline somewhere having him return, especially because I guess you can’t really have these two conversations apart. As you mentioned, Magneto, he’s in the show. They’ve already shown that. And not only is he in the show, but he apparently seems like he could be a possible leader of the X-Men. He could be stepping into Professor X’s role. Now, how exactly he plans to lead is up for debate, but clearly we’re seeing that and I think that’s very clearly painting a picture to me, a conflict in which Professor X feels the need to have to return. How? Listen, we time travel, we go to a dimension where they’re in TV like they can do it. I’m sure they can figure it out. I do think you have to for your reasoning but along with the idea of it’s the show, Magneto is his like back and forth friends to enemies, enemies to friends kind of person. I feel like you have to have Professor X in there or you know, if we are doing three seasons, four seasons, five, who knows? Are you going to never have Professor X come back?

Taylor: Yeah, I think that’s too far-fetched to even go that route. I also think, you know, when you were talking about the friends-to-enemies thing with Magneto they’re really two sides of the same coin. If you think about what the mutants are a metaphor for, which is basically anybody who’s not considered mainstream in culture for whatever reason. They’re the two extremes, not extremes, but there’s the two ways of looking at it. You have Magneto’s point of view, which is, well, we’re simply the next step in evolution. We are better than non-mutants because we have evolved to something greater. Then you have Professor X who just thinks mutants are cool, but we’re not any better than everyone else, we are just like everyone else. We just happen to have, you know, different abilities. And so I think that is so much of the core of the thematics around X-Men storytelling and to not be able to tap into that at all is just kind of a loss. Also, I just don’t know how you do that for multiple seasons. I mean, it’s like I said, it’s so intrinsic to who they are in their storylines.

Katie: Even the times that the X-Men might not be with Professor X and again, I’m blending between Season Two and Three, it’s somewhere in there when Professor X and – I think it’s Season Two – and Magneto go to the Savage Lands for the first time and they’re stuck there. I think it’s interesting because it’s like, yeah, we see the X-Men functioning just fine. Scott, aka Cyclops, steps up, continues to be the leader, and steps into that role so it’s not like they can’t function. But it definitely I mean, even in those moments though, like we’re looking for Professor X, we can’t get to the Professor like it’s still there. And so yeah, I’m not really sure how you tell the story without him there at all. And then as we kind of transition into Magneto, it’s like his ideas didn’t change. You’re not going to change Magneto and his thought process, he believes that the mutants are a superior race at this point, and that is what he wants everybody to know. Now he just inherited, which I’d love to understand Professor X’s thought process. He just inherited the X-Men, who I’m going to assume are still being led by Scott, who is pretty much, you know, Professor X’s right-hand man. That’s the teacher’s pet right there. I’m going to be very intrigued to see this dynamic because they clearly have worked with Magneto, they fought with him, but they’ve just as much fought against him.

Taylor: Yeah. I mean, Scott is someone who, even in the little bit of the show that I’ve gotten to see in my prep so far, he’s someone who is very set in his ideals. I think that’s one of the reasons he’s such a strong follower of Professor X. I mean, think about how much he clashes with Wolverine. Teamwork, teamwork, teamwork, and Wolverine’s like, bro, you’re like, Boy Scout thing is not working for me, but Scott is very rigid in those beliefs. And so to your point, you get someone who believes so strongly on one side and then someone who believes just as strongly on the other side, and now they’re all supposed to be one big, happy family. I am so intrigued by how that dynamic is going to play out.

Katie: Oh yeah. And then like, it looks like they hinted at the return of the Sentinels again. It looked like that was being, every time I turn around, these big robots just show up and I’m like, oh, okay, but looked like that was being hinted at and I know that was handled very differently as well by both groups here, and I’ll be intrigued. I definitely am not sure because I also think from Scott’s perspective, from what I can think of, I would assume he expected to just inherit the X-Men. He pretty much already led them and made a lot of the choices and in those moments when Professor X wasn’t there, that was Scott pretty much doing his job with obviously Jean doing all the Cerebro stuff. So I would think there’s going to be some animosity there too, just because, I mean, everybody, whenever there’s a will, let’s just say it like, you know, there’s always going to be tension in a show where they’re like, the will doesn’t go the way that somebody thinks that it’s going to go. And that’s what’s happening right here. 

Taylor: And I have to wonder, how old is this piece of paper? 

Katie: It’s a book. It’s a book.

Taylor: Regardless of the form that it takes, how old is it? If it names Magneto, as head of the X-Men.

Katie: Or just in general of the school and everything else, yeah.

Taylor: I mean, like, that has to be, in my opinion, unless Charles really thinks incredibly optimistically, which I know he waffles. Magneto’s his blind spot, let’s be honest.

Katie: Yeah, exactly. I was going to say out of everybody, Magneto is always Professor X’s blind spot. They literally use that to get him to the Savage Land, they use Magneto. So I mean, I don’t know, maybe he thinks that with the team he’s built, they’re strong enough at that point to maybe change Magneto’s mind. He doesn’t think they’ll be swayed by him but think that they’ll sway him. I don’t know, but I definitely, yeah, is it old or is it cost? Not even cautiously optimistic, is he just, like, blindly optimistic? Like I don’t know.

Taylor: Yeah, yeah. Before we move on from Magneto, there is one storyline that has not, at least in my summary reading, been adopted. And you’re smiling, you know exactly what I’m going to say, that is really important to the X-Men and a really, really good storyline, which is, of course, House of M, and I can’t help but think with X-Men now being led by Magneto or him inheriting technically all of that, that we could be opening the door for that before Charles is ready to make his return. And that’s the way that we’re going to go, because, again, we talked about how many of the boxes they’ve checked in terms of major storylines, and House of M is one that just isn’t checked yet. Now they have this opportunity to tell this story in 2 to 3 episodes.

Katie: 2 to 3? That’s going to be like, that’s going to be the Phoenix one was like five.

Taylor: Okay, well, however many episodes they do, but I could see your doubting face a little bit because of course, the other question is, do they do it as a movie? But the caveat to that is this show, did Dark Phoenix before there were any movies which has now done Dark Phoenix storyline twice. This show did Days of Future Past before our movie did. It’s totally different to do it in animation on a TV show in 20-minute episodes than it is to do it in live action with the Scarlet Witch that you’ve had for almost ten years now, or at least a Wanda that you’ve had for almost ten years, a Scarlet Witch you’ve had for three. But I think that there’s an opportunity to do that as well and that could be really fun. Test it out, see how they’re going to play it out, then play it out differently in our universe. So many pieces of the multiverse or the idea of the Multiverse is that things play out the same way until they don’t, right? So the idea that there is a House of M going on across multiple universes, could happen. Now, I just brought up a thought and you’re going to hate this, but isn’t the Scarlet Witch only supposed to exist in one universe, she’s a nexus being, so how do we have multiple Scarlet Witches?

Katie: So, okay, wow. Hold on. 

Taylor: I know I just spewed a lot. 

Katie: You spewed so much so quickly. So first and foremost, I would love to see House of M. One of my concerns you did talk about, is the possibility of it being done on the big screen, which I believe it should be.

Taylor: Agreed.

Katie: A full-blown advocate of it. On the other end of that, my other concern was kind of the ending there. We have a Scarlet Witch. Also, do you want to mix – I don’t know, she’s not a very prominent character in the original X-Men animated series, so I don’t know if they want to bring her, I don’t know. However, I’m gonna add a nice little just like this can be the icing on top of the cake. To my knowledge, they have been saying this show is in no way related to the MCU. That is what I’ve been seeing is that this is just kind of its own little thing they’re doing. It’s not going to feed into the MCU in any way, that is what I have been seeing online.

Taylor: But you have a Multiverse, just make it another universe.

Katie: Now, maybe in your brain, and maybe that’s what they’re going to argue is that, like if fans want to think that they can. But I have been and again, I’m not saying this is a confirmed piece of news, I’ve just been seeing it from a lot of reputable sources that this is not going to tie into the MCU, which is something we addressed ages ago, saying that we thought it could, this could be a cool way to maybe bring in X-Men. It doesn’t. I’m just saying it doesn’t appear that that’s how they’re going to go so I think in its own way, that answers the questions, because then you have the Scarlet Witch from the show because technically they already have the Scarlet Witch on the show anyway, she was in an episode or two. So I do think you could argue if it’s not going to really play into it, which is fine with me, because, to your point, this is pretty much like a nice little guidebook to the X-Men. Then knowing we’re getting them, like, I’m going to greatly appreciate having the ability to watch the show and then I watched it and I can go back and watch episodes when, say, they do the Phoenix and the Dark Phoenix storylines. If they do that, great. I can go watch the eight episodes that are about that, and I can catch up and be like, okay, yeah, that’s what happens roughly, and this is where we go. I’m going to put that out there because I think that just like, again, icing on the cake answers those questions and just allows us to move forward.

Taylor: Yeah, I kind of hate that because you have the Multiverse, so you have the perfect excuse, but fine. That’s fine, I guess.

Katie: I mean, I guess I just think it’s also I would have been an advocate and I said this before on our podcast somewhere because a lot of you are now current 20, 30, even 40-year-old fans grew up with this. We sat and I mean, like this came out before Taylor and I were both born and we’ve seen episodes ever growing up. So it could have been a really cool way to be like actually, these characters are transitioning to the big screen, these exact ones. It could have been cool, but I can also just see them being like, this is for nostalgia. This is to bring people back to the X-Men, and prepare people for getting a live-action X-Men because if you think about it, the first live actions didn’t follow the show that much. It was probably, what, five years, six years since the ending of the show happened that we got a live-action. So they weren’t far behind and just brought the hype back to the X-Men. I think it does its job both ways, personally.

Taylor: Yeah, that’s fair, I don’t disagree, I just you guys know how I am about rules and I want things to be uniform. And so it doesn’t fit in the pattern and that drives me nuts.

Katie: Jeez, Taylor. I mean, listen, I get it.

Taylor: I might actually have Cyclops’ personality.

Katie: Yeah, clearly. No, I get it, I do, but I think looking at it from it just being like a fun thing that we get to adventure with the X-Men again from our childhood. I think that’s just fun in its own way. I do want to see House of M. You brought it up because of Magneto, who clearly, well, although that’s disputed right now, whether Magneto is actually the twin’s father or not. So that’s its own thing because there’s also the whole storyline with Chython and I don’t know. So it’s weird. I would like to see them explore that, though, that could be really interesting. However, I want to rotate to the villain of the season because for those of you who are watching the show for the first time, rewatching it for the first time in a long time, or maybe you watch it all the time and you’re just you’re aware. We do have a good friend called Mr. Sinister, who continuously appears throughout the series as a villain, and rumor has it he has been the main villain and I say that with quotes because the show is kind of like, it’s like Agents of SHIELD if you’ve watched it. There’s a main storyline the whole time that culminates but like there are a lot of offshoots. He has been named the main villain of Season One, supposedly.

Taylor: Interesting. I haven’t gotten to Mr. Sinister yet.

Katie: Season Two you should.

Taylor: Okay, cool, so I’m sort of close. I do feel like we have brought him up in other conversations, so I’m excited to explore his character more deeply and also have kind of a focus on him because to your point, if we’re just kind of using this as a primer for the X-Men universe and understanding characters that we need to be prepared for as it relates to what we might see in live action. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I also don’t think that we’ve seen Mr. Sinister in live-action. I know we’ve gotten Apocalypse, you’ve got Magneto, and we’ve got Dark Phoenix, like those storylines. So he would actually be a new villain that if you’re looking at Marvel not wanting to repeat storylines when it comes to live-action, could be a good blueprint for something that will happen when we get them because he hasn’t been done before. So that’s something that I’m actually really looking forward to, is that focus on him to understand more about him and what those storylines might be if he does become a main villain or a main character in some sort of way for any X-Men-related movies, TV shows in live action that come out.

Katie: Yeah, and I do like that. I think he could be a very interesting one to bring into live-action. I also think regarding the show, it’s very interesting because he has a very special interest in Cyclops and Jean Grey and their DNA because of his whole thing with like making the next generation of mutants. That’s like his whole agenda, but like in a weird and every time it happens in the show or he tries to do something, it’s just strange.

Taylor: Doesn’t he have ties to the villain from Guardians 3, who I’m blanking on? The High Evolutionary, right? Isn’t he tied to the High Evolutionary?

Katie: Oh, I’m not sure.

Taylor: I think that’s where we talked about him before and if you think about the High Evolutionary, what his goals were, they kind of align.

Katie: True, true because he was doing like the next generation.

Taylor: I feel like that’s where I read about him when we were doing that was the project that was tied to him where he kept coming up.

Katie: It’s possible. I feel like the Guardians make a good bridge, just because there’s actually a lot of space travel as well in the X-Men. So I do think that could be a very that was likely where we saw that. I’m not sure, I don’t remember, but I will say Mr. Sinister is very interesting because the reason the X-Men clash with him so much is solely because he wants Cyclops and Jean Grey’s DNA. Then later on, he is associated a lot with Madeline, who I brought up as Jean’s clone, and Cable, which is interesting because clearly he’s the product of those two people’s DNA, so I think he could be so cool. I’m excited to see if this season 1/6 tells more of that story now that you know, we are technically seeing Cable be born, maybe, or at least we at least see him in partial existence. I think it could be so interesting and to your point then you’re talking about leading him into a possible live-action that could also be super cool.

Taylor: Yeah, it definitely is interesting, especially because if you think about who is going to be leading the X-Men in this season in Magneto, those philosophies are not horrendously far off. Magneto thinks that mutants are already superior. This guy thinks that there’s an opportunity to evolve even further. So for a certain time, their interests may align, until which point Mr. Sinister is able to actually evolve mutants to the point where they are the better evolutionary choice than current mutants, in which case they could be in conflict. Or you can read it as Magneto views him as a threat, because if he thinks he’s the top dog on the food chain, meaning Magneto and all mutants, and this guy is trying to create mutant version 2.0, which would then supersede him. Maybe Magneto wants to stay top dog so it could go either way.

Katie: I agree. I think it would be a very interesting combination, and I think it’s super cool to bring him back to be the main villain of Season One. It’s very fitting because he does make so many appearances in the original part of the series. But my last thing I have is actually not the series itself, but like, it’s related, clearly but it’s not, I have nothing to say except about it, I guess. Theo James, y’all should know the name specifically, I know him from Divergent, although you might know him from other things. He plays for Four.

Taylor: White Lotus. 

Katie: Oh, I did not, I haven’t watched that. So I know him from the old-school Divergent to me, that put him on the map.

Taylor: Oh for sure, for sure.

Katie: But he has been named to be voicing a mysterious fan-favorite character in the show. Now listen, my fan favorite’s Gambit, as you will hear me fangirl over him for the next like ten weeks, 11 weeks but we already have Gambit being voiced. We have our main X-Men being voiced already.

Taylor: And many of them are actually the original actors coming back.

Katie: Right, so that’s why I’m like a fan favorite. Who?

Taylor: Who are we missing?

Katie: Well, I’m like, okay, it doesn’t have to be part of the original group to be a fan favorite but I would have to think he appears enough, so I don’t know.

Taylor: I definitely need to do a deeper dive on just the X-Men in general. It’s like the Avengers though. The roster is like there’s the iconic roster and then there’s like the 17 different variations, and then there’s the people who are only on for five minutes, and then it’s very difficult to be like, I can name you every single mutant, so it’s hard.

Katie: Well, and the hard thing here is to what you kind of just said before that statement, a lot of the original cast is returning to voice their characters. There are quite a few who aren’t, though. So my other thing is, he could be returning to play another character that we’ve seen already. It’s not necessarily somebody we haven’t seen in the original series, but he’s coming to voice them now.

Taylor: This is true.

Katie: So I don’t know, like, I’m not saying this to a say it, but like Juggernaut could show up and like he could be him, for all we know. He could be Colossus, for all we know. There are a lot of characters that are reoccurring in the series that he could play very easily, that he’s replacing somebody who used to voice them but there’s also, I’m sure many that have never been touched on.

Taylor: Yeah, I’m trying to think of like the cast from like the OG 2000s or like the roster. I don’t think we’re missing anyone.

Katie: I’ve been thinking a lot about that because as I’ve watched this series and I’ve seen Rogue and Gambit more, I’m like, why was Gambit not in the originals when he’s so prominent? Like, it’s so weird. Gambit erasure, as far as I’m concerned. I guess because I think a lot about this because of what’s his face, the ice guy, they call him Iceman, but I can’t think of his actual name, who is the love interest of Rogue at least in the first one? And he’s in it like he’s already been in the show, like so many have been touched on already that I really am like, I don’t know. That’s why I’m saying maybe he’s coming to play a returning character.

Taylor: Yeah. Or it’s like a newer mutant, like someone who has been introduced in the comics in the last 30 years. I mean, 30 years is a long time and though I don’t pay as much attention to the X-Men side of the comics, like you mentioned earlier, they are introducing, they’re retconning characters. I mean, Kamala Khan’s a mutant now, and obviously Theo James isn’t going to voice Kamala Khan, but like, that’s a good example of a character who wasn’t a mutant before and now is or new characters are always being introduced. So that is also a possibility.

Katie: I’m going to throw – sorry, I was listening – but I’m gonna throw random little thing out there and it depends on rights but I guess because the X-Men are now owned by Disney, it doesn’t matter. I guess it just depends on what they’re trying to do. Theoretically, did we see Deadpool in the original?

Taylor: What do you mean?

Katie: Like in the original show from the 90s, did we see Deadpool, like, actually interact with Deadpool? I’m only in Season Three, but could it be Deadpool?

Taylor: Well, yeah. I mean, in the synopsis I read he was not in there. So yeah, I mean, I wouldn’t write it off.

Katie: Because that’s a fan favorite because I’m thinking, like, if you’re going to say fan favorite, it’s gotta be good, so I’m gonna throw that out there. I’m gonna go with that. I don’t know who else.

Taylor: Man, Theo James, those are some big shoes to play Deadpool before Deadpool himself goes on the big screen in a couple of months. That’s a tall order. 

Katie: Well, I don’t know who else it would be, because I’m like, looking up a list of the most prominent, in order, the most prominent X-Men. And it’s from, like the comics version of the most prominent and I’m sure it’s not like full proof. I’m sure anybody could argue one should be in a different position than the other but Deadpool came up and I was like, actually, that could work.

Taylor: Yeah, you’re not wrong. It could be interesting. It could be really interesting. As I said, it’s odd timing to give someone else the voice of Deadpool. Especially because the only person who’s ever played Deadpool has been Ryan Reynolds.

Katie: It is weird, but I will say this goes back to the conversation we had, if this is not related to anything, it doesn’t really matter.

Taylor: Right, I just think it’s odd, especially this year when the only MCU movie is Deadpool. 

Katie: No, I know, I know.

Taylor: The timing is just odd.

Katie: I am going to put it out there because I can’t think of who else that hasn’t already been, like iif we’re going with ones that I don’t think like an original new character, I’m going to go with him. He’s a fan favorite, for sure.

Taylor: I mean, are there many that are beloved more than Deadpool? I mean, outside of this original roster, right? These are the iconic names and then you’ve got Deadpool and it’s like, those are who everybody thinks about.

Katie: Right, so there you go, guys. That is my prediction on that one.

Taylor: I’ll be curious to see how that shakes out. I don’t know that I’m willing to put a line in the sand yet. I’m not there yet.

Katie; I mean, I’m just putting it out there because why not? Nobody can take it away from me. It could be, it could not be but I’m going to put it out there because why not? At least it’s better to take the shots and – what is it?

Taylor: You miss 100% of the shots you never take.

Katie: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. 

Taylor: Wayne Gretzky, Michael Scott. 

Katie: Listen, I will say exactly what you just said, and I took the shot. Maybe I’ll miss it, but at least I took it.

Taylor: Great. Anyway, on that note, we are going to end this episode for our X-Men ‘97 predictions. We are super, super excited by the time you’re listening to this, it is pretty much release week, so get ready if you haven’t rewatched the show, do that because we are also doing that, as you can tell, and it’s going to be a great time for the next 9 or 10 weeks because Episodes One and Two come out together so just keep that in mind. If you are excited to stick around with us for all things X-Men ‘97, make sure that you are subscribing to your podcast platform of choice, checking out the website for any updates on there, as well as the socials that Katie is going to outline for you in just a second.

Katie: You guys can give us a follow on Twitter at SisAssembledPod, Instagram, and Threads at SistersAssembled, and also subscribe to our YouTube channel where we are doing our weekly Sister Scoop news segments that are also under Sisters Assembled so you can find us there. Go ahead and follow, and subscribe, everything fun, just do it. And as Taylor said, I mean, we’re going in. I mean, I said it too. We’re all saying it. We’re going right into X-Men ‘97 for the next ten at least weeks, we will be doing X-Men coverage. We are so excited. Make sure you guys are watching the older show because it’s so good and also X-Men ‘97 is a continuation, so I highly recommend watching, catching up with the OG version of the show. And with that said, we will see you guys next week for the first two episodes of X-Men ‘97, our reactions as Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.