X-Men ‘97 Supervising Producer Jake Castorena Gushes Over Getting To Draw The Biackbird

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Summary

X-Men '97 revisits the iconic 90s era with a direct continuation of X-Men: The Animated Series, bringing back popular mutants and villains.
Supervising Producer Jake Castorena emphasizes the importance of honoring the 90s visual style while staying relevant and pushing the medium forward.
The X-Men '97 team focuses on enhancing the visuals of mutant abilities with HD updates, ensuring that new audiences and longtime fans are satisfied.

X-Men ‘97 Supervising Producer and Head Director, Jake Castorena, details the deep work that went into bringing the technical elements to life in the Marvel animated series. Disney+ is releasing X-Men '97 this week, marking both a new and familiar era for the Marvel audience. With the X-Men rights finally back at Marvel Studios, their first venture into the mutant mythology is revisiting one of the most defining properties in the Marvel media legacy.
Serving officially as a sequel to X-Men: The Animated Series, X-Men '97 will be continuing right after where the series finale, "Graduation Day" left off nearly three decades ago. With Professor X no longer with the team, Cyclops and the remaining X-Men must continue on without their fearless leader in a world that still fears and resents mutants. But as X-Men '97 re-explores old territory, the animated sequel will also expand upon this great legacy, as a a new audience gets introduced to the popular mutants.

Related 10 X-Men: The Animated Series Episodes To Watch Before X-Men '97 In preparation for Marvel’s X-Men ’97 revival, several episodes from X-Men: The Animated Series are essential viewing to understand the new series. Screen Rant recently interviewed Castorena, who spoke in depth about the honor it was for him to land a gig on one of Marvel's hottest properties. Castorena also explores the challenges that came with honoring X-Men: The Animated Series' technical elements while also attempting to keep a sense of modern visuals for X-Men '97.
Jake Castorena Previews Marvel Animation's X-Men '97 Close Screen Rant: I've been waiting over two and a half decades for this show to return, and when I saw it, I felt like I was a kid again. It was incredible. You're not making an X-Men show, you're making THE X-Men show. Can you talk about tapping into the timeframe between 96 and 98 and how that timeframe influenced the look and action of the show?

Jake Castorena: Yeah, absolutely. I love answering that question. The visual aspect is definitely what I was brought on for, to help guide and work with the team to give us the show that we remember 30 years. There's so many things in animation right now - not just animation being pushed as a level of storytelling [in] the children's medium - but just the bar of what can be done in TV and feature animation. We got to stay relevant, but it's got to feel in that sandbox of the 90s. One of the things that I was able to bring to the table was, what were we looking at? What were they filming between 96 and 98? What were the cinematic styles, what was being done in animation, what was being done in TV animation, what was being done in feature animation? What kind of lenses were they using? How were things being directed?
How were a compressed lense coming in versus a dynamic wide lense? Who's standing next to who? Staging is super important. It's been 30 years, so there was an abundance of riches to pull from. Then you look at all those common denominators of when you're watching something, 'You go, 'Yo, that makes it feel like dated because of X,' finding that commonality and then starting from there. It's not done by one person, we have a huge team. I gotta give it to Ashley Phillips, Jeremy Polgar, Anthony Woo. They're our leads when it when it comes to animation, compositing and production design. It's literally us on a couch for hours in front of a TV tweaking, honing, it's all hand done. It's a big, monumental group effort to make it feel like that, but to still be high octane. So the fact that that's what fans are tuning in for, that's great.

The Power Of Time Periods For X-Men '97

As the story progresses, will you continually look at the same influences in popular movies and filming techniques? Let's say we go to '99.

Jake Castorena: That remains to be seen. I got plenty to worry about, as well as the team on X-Men '97 season 1. We got plenty to focus on, I should say. But it was definitely a product of its time; it was definitely unapologetic about where it was in the timeline of things, and we have that now to look back to. That's where the nostalgia and fondness comes in. True as it is ingrained into the DNA to be sort of a period piece, X-Men '97 needs to do the same.

Can you talk about finding that fine line between '90s nostalgia and staying relevant and pushing the medium forward?

Jake Castorena: What I can speak to is the visual aspect of that. It was very early on, what's too clean? What's too HD? You got to stay relevant for the new audiences coming in, watching everything in 4K HD, but then if you go too clean, you're not [getting] that 90s feel. Where's that balance between HD and potato? That is something that our team just kills in spades from color palette. What was the color palette that the show was using at the time to what were the compositing and, at the time, digital effects?
Even down to the transitions that they were using, pulling digital life or overlay, back when they had the Dark Phoenix Saga, they actually overlaid real fire over Jean's transformation. It's both cool and tactile and fun. We have so much to play with in our sandbox. But we all check each other's math, it's got to stay relevant to you, so it's just a fun balance, it really is.

Updating X-Men: The Animated Series' Power Set For X-Men '97

Speaking of the visuals, X-Men: The Animated Series gave you guys a great blueprint for how the team's power sets look. How does X-Men '97 enhance the visuals of those power sets? Who was the most updating you had to do character-wise?

Jake Castorena: You gotta give a shout out to Chris Graf, our lead effects animator that makes this stuff pop. What are those mutant abilities that we love and we've seen before, but what does that look like in HD? How much is too much? Graf and the team knocked that out of the park. We have some of the best artists in the game right now and everybody is bringing their A-game to this. Effects is absolutely no different, because the mutant abilities are just as much of a character and nuanced as the characters themselves. They are reflections of the character, so to be able to have a team to specialize in getting that...you'll see, you'll see it in the show. Lots of love and attention goes to those new capabilities.

Having The Pinch-Me Moment Making X-Men '97 Season 1

For a lot of fans that are about my age, they really got exposed to comic books through this show. This must be a dream job for anybody who saw that show growing up. Realistically, how long do you think this series can go for? when did you have your pinch-me moment of like, 'I'm working on X-Men '97!'

Jake Castorena: As far as the longevity of the series goes, I'm just hopeful for it. Being employed is great and getting to work with these characters is even greater. The fact that I and the team get paid to do this, that's pretty rad.
But my pinch me moment is taking me back [to] when I was working on episode 1. When I was working on the jet sequence that was in the script, when the the X-Men are flying in the Blackbird for the first time in the show. I was storyboarding that little sequence and I had just gotten done drawing the establishing cockpit shot of all of the X-Men, I just got done cleaning it up. That's when it hit me as I just draw the X-Men in the Blackbird, 'Yo, what?!' [laughs] I'm still getting goosebumps over that.
To bring it back to what you said before, it's one thing to be on an X-Men show, that's great. But it's another thing to be on this X-Men IP, the X-Men, who are the voices you hear when you read the comics. These are the moves and the characters you look to when you hear or somebody talking about the X-Men, right? That was it for me, getting to draw all the characters in the Blackbird for the first time on our show, that was cool.

Honoring Classic X-Men Storylines In X-Men '97 & Future Seasons

What are some of the storylines that you'd like to personally highlight from any classic X-Men tales, whether it be Onslaught, the Krakoa era, or the Mutant Massacre? What are some of the stories that you would like to see in the show?

Jake Castorena: I will have to say you'll have to just wait and see because some of them actually do get answered and the ones that don't... I don't want to give fans any false hype on anything. I will say is [that] fans will be satisfied. I've been satiated, I continue to be satiated.
In the original show, it was core to their DNA that they went to the source material to write. They pulled a lot from the Chris Claremont run and other books. But they pulled from the books, they had five seasons over, what [was it,] 30 episodes+ a season? They also had to embellish it and fill in a lot. But they always pulled from the books, they always pulled in comics. That's ingrained in the DNA of the original show, so that should be for our show, too.
Because we are a spiritual successor, we are a revival, it's not a reboot. We pick up right after "Graduation Day," the last episode in season 5. We pick up where that left off. In order for us to be a spiritual successor, to be in that same vein, we should follow core things that are in the DNA of the original show, pulling from the books and luckily, that was all done well before I was brought on board the team and I was able to just come in and help with the visual and I'm so stoked about that.

I'm a Cyclops guy, and you guys did right by me. I love his power display in this show, thank you so much for your time. Jake. The show is absolutely phenomenal. I can't wait to see all 10 episodes this season.

Jake Castorena: Thanks man, I appreciate it and on behalf of the team, just thank you so much everybody from top down1 Everybody's working hard, this is all planned, so thank you!

About X-Men '97 Your browser does not support the video tag. X-Men '97 revisits the iconic era of the 1990s as The X-Men, a band of mutants who use their uncanny gifts to protect a world that hates and fears them, are challenged like never before, forced to face a dangerous and unexpected new future.
Check out our other X-Men '97 interview with Brad Winderbaum.
The first 2 episodes of X-Men '97 season 1 premiere March 20 on Disney+.
Source: Screen Rant Plus

X-Men '97 X-Men '97 is the direct continuation of the popular 1990s animated series X-Men: The Animated Series. Taking up where the third season left off, Marvel's revival brings back famous mutants such as Wolverine, Storm, Rogue, Gambit, Cyclops, Beast, Magneto, and Nightcrawler, who fight villains like Mr. Sinister, the Sentinels, and the Hellfire Club.
Cast Jennifer Hale , Chris Potter , Alison Sealy-Smith , Lenore Zann , Cal Dodd , Catherine Disher , Adrian Hough , Ray Chase , Chris Britton , George Buza Release Date March 20, 2024 Seasons 1 Streaming Service(s) Disney+ Franchise(s) X-Men Writers Beau DeMayo Directors Jake Castorena Creator(s) Beau DeMayo

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