X-Men '97 has received rave reviews from fans and critics alike, and all signs currently point to it going down as Marvel Studios' best TV show (in terms of both its live-action and animated projects).
We know season 2 is on the way and, chances are, season 3 as well. Beyond that, a live-action X-Men movie is in the works, but what about a big screen animated adventure for the iconic mutants?
Inverse recently caught up with X-Men '97 directors Chase Conley, Emi Yonemura, and Jake Castorena and asked if they'd like to bring the X-Men to the big screen.
"First off, it would be a slam dunk," Conley says. "I think that would absolutely be something the audience would want to see, and we would want to be a part of."
He'd add that the benefit of an episodic format means the creative team can get through "a lot of adapted comic runs," but acknowledged that a movie budget would allow them to "do as much as we can and spend a lot of time massaging each shot."
"With animation, the more time and money we get, the better it will be," Conley explains. "That's just a fact."
Yonemura, meanwhile, already has lofty goals for a potential X-Men animated movie. "It feels like we're already making movie-level animation and events. But just to have that budget and time then to make it a full feature, and to kind of do what Spider-Verse and the recent animated Turtles movie did."
"One of our influences was ‘80s and ‘90s Japanese animation," she continued. "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."
Castorena concluded by saying, "Seven seasons and a movie. Let's go! If the love and the demand is 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."
Ending X-Men '97 with an animated movie would be nothing short of awesome, though it could clash with Marvel Studios' live-action plans (and competing X-Men features in theaters at the same time might not be wise).
If nothing else, we'll take a feature-length finale to the series when its run ends. Given the apparent popularity of the X-Men: The Animated Series' revival, it's possible those plans for a three-season arc will eventually expand, anyway...