Disney+ Messes Up Episode Order of X-Men Animated Series
Disney+ launched to a bunch of fanfare this week and people are finally getting into the service [...]
Disney+ launched to a bunch of fanfare this week and people are finally getting into the service and binging their favorite shows. But, for X-Men: The Animated Series might have been a little confused when they sat down to watch on the platform. It turns out that the series is out of order on Disney+ and people were left scrambling to figure it out. One reporter on Twitter stepped up to provide some direction in everyone's time of need and has the answers to all these burning questions. It turns out that the series is listed in script order rather than the broadcast order. Most of the early episodes are where they are supposed to be, but as soon as you get to the third season, things start to go off the tracks. So, things get even more complicated when you take into account that the best way to watch the show isn't even the airdate order either. At the end of the day, you've got a very confusing ordeal on your hands.
To add insult to injury, this same sort of situation sprung up around Ducktales just a day or so ago. People had their questions around optimization of Disney+ before the launch happened and there were reports that users were having serious trouble logging onto the service on day one. Twitter accounts flocked to the social media app to post the real order that Ducktales was supposed to be in. That is not a great look at all for the service in the first week and there are more weird glitches being discovered every day.
X-MEN PSA: The episode order on Disney+ is NOT correct. It's not the airdate order. It's not the script order. It's a different order. Everything lines up until episode 3x07, and then it goes wildly off the rails.
— Brett White (@brettwhite) November 15, 2019
Another strange occurrence on launch day was The Simpsons making it's way to Disney+ in the wrong aspect ratio. That omission actually dilutes some of the visual gags that make the series so enjoyable. If that weren't enough, the Season 3 opener, "Stark Raving Dad," isn't available on the streaming service at all. The 1991 episode is, of course, a stranger watch now as the allegations against guest star Michael Jackson have only intensified in the following years. As you navigate the service, Season 3 begins with "Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington" instead.
Back in X-Men territory, the show has become a beloved item among people who came of age in the 1990s. 2017 brought the show's 25th anniversary and showrunner Eric Lewald imagined what a sixth season might be like.
"I had honestly never thought about it for all these years, but now that you mention it, an idea for a season just came to me: The five-season series ends with a dying Charles Xavier being whisked away to space by Lilandra, where she can maintain his fragile body, but where it seems he will be gone forever from his beloved X-Men. It's like a death," Lewald explained. "Season Six could open, months later, with the X-Men in disarray – a few gone, the ones remaining at each other's throats. They miss their leader. Then somehow they are called to – and transported to – an existential crisis on Lilandra's distant world. The team grudgingly reunites 'for Charles,' heads off to space, solves the crisis, and a somehow-healed Charles Xavier is either able to return to Earth with them or, if he can't, his heroic final sacrifice heals the team's wounds and they return to Earth as the proper X-Men again."