X-Men '97 Director Addresses Spider-Man Finding MJ
X-Men '97 brings in Spider-Man and MJ from the beloved animated series.
X-Men '97's director talked about what went down with Spider-Man's Mary Jane Watson in the finale. ComicBook's Phase Zero podcast interviewed Jake Castorena to unpack all the chaos from those final moments. Fans watching at home were absolutely shocked to see Peter Parker and MJ just randomly turn up in the 11th hour. But, it seems clear that showrunner Beau DeMayo had designs on giving some Spider-Man: The Animated Series fans what they've been asking for. While that's all very exciting, Castorena did also joke about The Clone Saga and Spider-Man's penchant for missing out on Mary Jane. Hopefully, this one was the genuine article. But, you can never be too sure…
"Honestly, I think that came down to, one again, Beau was a fan. We're all fans. We're all nerds," Castorena clarified. "I think there was something that Sony was like, 'MJ and Peter? Ok.' You know, it just worked out. And, I'm pretty sure, I'm like 99.9% sure, it's real MJ. I don't remember off the top of my head. But, I remember talking to Beau and it was like, 'Well, if we're gonna do it, we're, we're gonna do it! Let's give the bump. And, so it's not a clone, I'm pretty sure it's end game. I'm 99.9%."
X-Men '97 Uses Previous Animated Series To Make An Impact
All these various cameos were the icing on the cake for X-Men '97. Castorena was quick to point out that the Marvel nods are in the series DNA of the original show. He had to give props to X-Men: The Animated Series director Larry Houston. That team worked very hard to sneak in cameos for the current '97 gang to include this time around. Including Marvel heroes was forbidden back then. But, without that spirit of mischief, a lot of current MCU fans might never have been introduced to some of their favorites beforehand.
Castroena smirked, "Well, I mean, like one look we had, we had good scripts to work off of. Cameos and the universe expansion. That again, that's ingrained in the DNA of the original show. Except when Larry Houston did it, all of those cameos were illegal. So, thanks for all the contingencies we have in place. We can't do that these days. I love telling that story and I love reminding Larry. Like, 'Thank you, Larry.' He just laughs and it's funny."
Do you think that's the original Mary Jane? Check out the wild moments down below!
