Marvel Studios has gotten thousands of fans pretty excited by launching its first-ever panel centered around a growing slate of animated content.
The presentation and expansion comes after the studio’s inaugural series, What if…?, garnered three Emmy nominations. The response to the show saw Marvel greenlight the second season and announce series from last year such as Spider-Man: Year Onea revival of the 1990s X-Men cartoon titled X-Men ’97and a series of short films, I am Groot. All of these series were showcased during the panel, drawing oohs and aahs from the cheery devotees.
“When we did the first season of What if…?, we realized we wanted to do more,” said Brad Winderbaum, head of streaming, television and animation at Marvel Studios. The longtime Marvel exec, who started out in the studio’s live-action division, said growing up animation was his gateway to film and comic books. “It just means a lot to expand the MCU into new areas. Animation is a great way to do this.
Next to him was another longtime Marvel-ite, head of visual development Ryan Meinerding, who had a sizzle reel focused on his key work in the live-action sphere. With Meinerding on stage, Marvel emphasized that he takes directing the animated series just as seriously as his other endeavors.
“It’s not that different,” Meinerding said. “We meet with filmmakers early on, researching comics to find the most iconic things to shoot.”
With preliminaries completed and key creative players highlighted – Bryan Andrews, director of What if…? and executive producer of Marvel Zombies; AC Bradley, writer and executive producer of What if…?; Beau DeMayo, writer and executive producer of X-Men ’97; Kirsten Lepore, writer, director and executive producer of I am Groot; and Jeff Trammell, writer and executive producer of Spider-Man: Year One — Marvel entered the presentation.
I am Groot will be a five-part short series featuring the adorable guardians of the galaxy character engaging in a variety of hijinks and dancing through new worlds. The CG-animated shorts debut August 10 on Disney+, and executives announced during the Friday noon panel that the second batch of five episodes is already on the way.
A hero of few words returns. 🌱#IAmGroota collection of five original shorts, begins streaming August 10 on @DisneyMore. pic.twitter.com/byL1nVD8bV
—Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios) July 22, 2022
Spider-Man: Year One will see Peter Parker in high school with a new team of friends and a cast of villains, including Chameleon, Rhino, Unicorn, Doctor Octopus, and Scorpion. Doctor Strange will make an appearance in the Disney+ series, as will Daredevil, who will be voiced by actor Charlie Cox, who plays the live-action version of the character. Whereas First year won’t debut until 2024, a second season has been announced, aptly titled Spider-Man: Year Two.
While no footage was shown, Marvel did reveal plenty of character designs. The Influencer was Steve Ditko-meets-Alex Toth and featured a diverse and reimagined cast of supporting characters. For example, Parker’s best friend on the show will be a girl named Nico Minoru, also known as a character from the Marvel Runaways hero band. Spider-Man’s costume is homemade and isn’t the look that audiences recognize the most because the producers wanted to “give him a place to grow.”
What if…?, which was the MCU’s first animated series, reimagines great MCU moments with multiple possibilities. It was announced that the second season would arrive in 2023, with a third season already in the works. Captain Carter, Scarlet Witch, Iron Man, Black Widow, and Doctor Strange will appear in the second season alongside new MCU entries like Shang-Chi. The second season will feature a medieval episode set in 1602 and a racing episode with Valkyrie and Iron Man on the trash planet Sakaar of Thor: Ragnarok.
Marvel Zombies comes from a What if…? Season 1 episode featuring undead superheroes. The series will include zombie versions of Hawkeye, Captain Marvel, Scarlet Witch and Captain America cut in half, while living heroes include Yelena from Black WidowKatie from Shang Chi and Jimmy Woo of Wanda Vision.
Perhaps no series has received a more enthusiastic response than X-Men ’97. The original series, a big Saturday morning cartoon hit, was a precursor to the wave of live-action comic book movies that emerged in the early 2000s – and Marvel, by showing a reel featuring the cast of the original voice and show makers, is acutely aware of its legacy and impact.
“It’s a huge legacy,” acknowledged executive producer De Mayo. He also noted that the series will be the first onscreen content featuring the group of alien mutants since Disney acquired 21st Century Fox.
The first look at X-Men ’97, which is due out in fall 2023, showed Wolverine, Rogue, Gambit, Jubilee, Cyclops, Storm, Jean Grey, and Beast in programming outside of the Xavier Institute. A second image showed Cable, Bishop, Forge, Morph, Nightcrawler, and Sunspot. It was revealed that in the new animated series, Magneto will be the new leader of the X-Men while Mister Sinister will take over as the main villain. Season two of X-Men ’97 is already in preparation, with the Newton brothers (The Haunting of Hill House) marking the series.
De Mayo said the show would retain its ’90s identity as much as possible: “It’s a great soap opera. It’s about who wants to kiss who, who looks at who awkwardly. … That’s who they are at the base.
He also said that the show will always address themes of prejudice, which the world unfortunately still has to deal with. “I am a gay, adopted black child who survived living in Florida. This show taught me to be who I am. For the best or for the worst, [X-Men] are timeless. And the world has a lot to learn from them.