X-Men: The Animated Series Recap: Previously on X-Men…

Episodes of X-Men: The Animated Series began with the words: “Previously, on X-Men…” Now, decades after the show went off the air, Marvel Studios Animation has revived the retro recap for X-Men ’97. The all-new animated series — a revival of the original Fox Kids Saturday morning cartoon that aired 76 episodes between 1992 and 1997 — picks up right where The Animated Series left off, with the mutants facing an uncertain future without their leader (the Cedric Smith-voiced Professor Charles Xavier).

If you need a quick refresher — or a dose of ’90s nostalgia — Marvel Studios has released an official X-Men: The Animated Series recap. The video, which you can watch below, rewinds the VHS all the way back to 1992’s two-part “Night of the Sentinels” series premiere up through 1997’s “Graduation Day” series finale.

X-Men: The Animated Series Recap

Here are five major takeaways from the recap to remember before watching X-Men ’97:

X-Men ’97, Explained

The Sentinels are giant robots that target and hunt mutants. Bolivar Trask (Brett Halsey) and Henry Peter Gyrich (Barry Flatman) of the Mutant Control Agency created the Sentinels to apprehend unregistered mutants — mutants like Jubilation “Jubilee” Lee (Alyson Court), who was rescued by the X-Men in “Night of the Sentinels, Part One.” 

With anti-mutant hysteria growing nationwide, and Senator Robert Kelly (Len Carlson) decrying the “growing menace of mutant violence,” the Sentinels’ attack exposed Xavier’s X-Men to the public: Cyclops (Norm Spencer), Jean Grey (Catherine Disher), Wolverine (CalDodd), Storm (Iona Morris / Alison Sealy-Smith), Rogue (Lenore Zann), Gambit (ChrisPotter / Tony Daniels), Beast (George Buza), and Morph (Rob Rubin).

Magneto is Xavier’s friend-turned-foe — and the X-Men’s archnemesis. Eric Magnus Lensherr (David Hemblen), the mutant master of magnetism named Magneto, met and befriended Xavier after World War II. When remnants of the army that once brutally occupied Magnus’ home country returned and attempted to retake it, he emerged as Magneto: a mutant supremacist who used his magnetic abilities to wage war on humankind.

Xavier — believing that mutants must use their gifts to fight for peaceful coexistence with humans — stopped his old friend from carrying out his attacks on human society to pave the way for a mutant takeover. By the time the mutant leaders met again in “Enter Magneto” and “Deadly Reunions,” Xavier had formed the X-Men, who thwarted Magneto’s plans to launch a nuclear missile in the name of “mutant liberation.” Deeming those who opposed him as “traitors to mutantkind,” Magneto declared: “If Charles Xavier dreams of peace between human and mutant, his vision will soon become a nightmare.”

Magneto established a mutants-only colony on Asteroid M. “The liberation of mutantkind has begun.” In “Sanctuary, Part One,” Magneto’s mutant scientists built Asteroid M, a mutants-only asteroid “where any mutant may live apart from humanity, free from its cruelty.” Declaring his mission a peaceful one, Magneto urged a mass mutant exodus to the asteroid where he ruled with his Acolytes: Fabian Cortez, Amelia Voght, Marco Delgado, Chrome, Carmela Unuscione, Frenzy, and Burner. But when Cortez betrayed Magneto, his mutant sanctuary was ultimately destroyed.

Mister Sinister is a Victorian-era scientist who performs experiments on mutants. The episode “Descent” revealed the origins of Dr. Nathaniel Essex, who was transfixed on Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species and his theories on natural selection. Decades after his sinister experiments created Jack the Ripper — a serial killer who assisted his research on mutated humans so that Essex could end hereditary disorders, disease, and give man “complete mastery over his own body” — the mad scientist returned in the modern age as Mister Sinister. 

As the leader of his own group of evil mutants — Gorgeous George, Ruckus, Hairbag, Slab, and Vertigo — he vowed to destroy the X-Men. However, Sinister usually interfered with the personal lives of married couple Cyclops and Jean Grey, believing their genetic material to be the foundation for the master bloodline of an unbeatable race of mutants that he would then enslave.

Professor Xavier was mortally wounded by Gyrich and taken off-planet for life-saving treatment. Xavier, already weakened from weeks of battling legislation of Gyrich’s Mutant Containment Bill, was left comatose after Gyrich fired an energy disruptor attuned to the telepath’s brain waves. As the X-Men sought the help of Moira McTaggert on Muir Island, Magneto took advantage of mutant uprisings across the globe to rally like-minded mutants to go to war with humankind. Cyclops, Jean, and Wolverine made their way to Genosha to face Magneto’s mutant army and preserve the Professor’s dream of coexistence with humans.

When the trio of X-Men informed Magneto that Xavier, his only equal, was dying, Cyclops convinced Magneto to help save his old friend. With Xavier beyond the help of medical science — but not beyond the aid of the Shi’ar’s alien technology — Magneto used his powers to supercharge Xavier’s abilities to telepathically communicate with Empress Lilandra. Under Shi’ar care, Xavier would survive, but could never return. In the final scene of the “Graduation Day” series finale, Xavier bid a final farewell to Magneto and his X-Men, telling them: “My spirit shall remain among you, where it was always meant to be.”

Read our X-Men: The Animated Series character guide and our guide for everything else you need to know about X-Men ’97. The new series is streaming March 20, with new episodes airing on Wednesdays on Disney+.