‘X-Men ’97’ delivers an animated blast from the past – and maybe Marvel’s future

(CNN) – “X-Men ‘97” at first seems like narrowly pitched made-for-streaming fare, reviving a cultish animated Saturday-morning series launched more than 30 years ago, basically picking up where that show left off.

Look a little closer, though, and “X-Men” could offer clues, and signposts, as Marvel pivots into a next phase that hinges on incorporating that popular property and Fantastic Four, two staples of Marvel Comics that have returned to its cinematic fold after decades under the stewardship of 20th Century Fox.

Marvel parent Disney’s 2019 acquisition of key Fox entertainment assets, including the rights to X-Men and Fantastic Four, has fueled excitement about where those titles will go as they’re incorporated into Marvel’s interlocking universe. That’s perhaps especially true of the latter, after two stabs at “Fantastic Four” movies that generally underwhelmed fans.

The animated “X-Men” series pulled off that delicate high-wire act, notably, eight years before the movies began with Hugh Jackman’s breakout role as Wolverine, with another eight passing before “Iron Man” launched Marvel’s “cinematic universe.”

Despite playing on Saturday mornings – a window predicated, in terms of advertising, on ratings among children under 12 – the show shocked executives by attracting plenty of teenagers and young men, who, after years of disappointing comic-book adaptations, embraced one they could enjoy for its ambitious storytelling and fidelity to the comics.

As Eric Lewald, the head writer on the original series, wrote in his book “Previously on X-Men: The Making of an Animated Series,” back in 1992, “almost nobody in Hollywood believed that an X-Men TV series could possibly work.”