Marvel Studios’ Head of TV, Streaming, & Animation, Brad Winderbaum, chats about the massive X-Men ’97 season 1 finale and the future of Marvel Animation. 2024 marked a new beginning for X-Men: The Animated Series as Marvel Studios finally launched their first X-Men-produced product in the form of X-Men ’97. Serving as a sequel to the original series, X-Men ’97 continues the adventures of the ’90s version of the Marvel mutants.

As the legendary mutants took on Bastion once and for all, they had to do it at a price. While defeating Bastion, Professor X, Magento, and several X-Men ’97 characters ended up getting sent back and forward in time. While one half is stuck in 3960 A.D., the other half got stranded in Ancient Egypt during 3000 B.C, ending the season on quite the cliffhanger.

Following the release of X-Men ’97 episode 10, Screen Rant recently interviewed Winderbaum to get some answers on what is next for the series as they head into season 2. Throughout the interview, Winderbaum also teases where Marvel Animation may go next, as the X-Men ’97 universe is full of potential ideas. In addition to that, Winderbaum also discloses some updates for the MCU, including the new Disney release mandates.

Brad Winderbaum Breaks Down The X-Men ’97 Season 1 Finale

Screen Rant: First of all, congratulations on a phenomenal season of television with X-Men ’97, I’m still picking up the broken pieces of my heart because of this emotional roller coaster that y’all put us through. Have you all been looking through the reactions and taking in the response from the finale yet?

Brad Winderbaum: The fan reactions are really important to me, I count myself among their ranks and seeing the audience embrace this show and feel the same ownership over it that we do on the inside creating it is the best reward you can imagine.

With so much that you wanted to wrap up in this finale, were there any plots or cameos that you couldn’t get in?

Brad Winderbaum: Yeah, tons! What’s amazing about the X-Men, but also the Marvel Universe, and aso being able to use a version of the Marvel Universe from 1997, is that there’s boundless ideas you could bring to the table. There’s a lot of amazing characters and guest appearances and cameos. You could try to get them all in and you’ll never succeed because there’s just so many things you would want to see on screen.

Could The Marvel Animated Cinematic Universe Be On Its Way?

I’m almost feeling that we’re getting this startup like the Marvel Animated Cinematic Universe, MACU, I guess, but is that something you guys keep in mind of being able to play with all these tools that didn’t exist back during this era?

Brad Winderbaum: Well, I think to me, X-Men ’97 is the window into the 90s and into that universe. We can see how much that window expands over time perhaps. But there is a value to focusing on that era because it unlocks you from any other show. You get to explore this universe from this one perspective, which is basically what every episode of What If…? does to a certain degree. But those are one-and-done ones, an anthology, this is actually a universe that gets to exist for multiple seasons, which is one of the things most exciting about it.

The Return Of Spider-Man: The Animated Series

We saw Peter and Mary Jane finally back together, whose idea was it to finally resolve this cliffhanger after all these decades and what do I have to do to get Spider-Man ’98?

Brad Winderbaum: It is amazing to see them back on screen together, I wish we could tell that whole adventure with Madame Web and figure out how exactly he did it! [laughs] Maybe one day, we as fanboys could certainly dream.

Will Spider-Man ’98 Ever Happen?

So is that a plot you guys already have mapped out in your head, in case you want to do tell [Spider-Man ’98] or is it more like, ‘We will get to it when we get to it?’

Brad Winderbaum: There is always potential, right? I don’t want to close the door on anything. But I think that for now, for the foreseeable future, X-Men 97 will own the 90s and how much we bring in guest stars or tell stories from other Marvel characters from that era is TBD, but it will be seen through that lens of the X-Men.

Bob Iger’s New Release Mandates For Marvel Studios

The question that many of us are asking is, when are we getting X-Men ’97 season 2? I know that Bob Iger has talked about condensing to two or three movies a year and two or three shows a year [in terms of new MCU releases]. How does that apply to animation?

Brad Winderbaum: I’m not sure if it’s such a hard and fast mandate. To me, that speaks more to our aspirations and our focus on quality over quantity. We’re changing our entire development process where we are developing more shows than we make. And that means we’re looking at characters that have been on screen before, new characters, new ideas, old ideas, sequels, and trying to see if we can build something that we like on the inside, before we actually make the investment to produce it, which is a different philosophy for us.

Our approach early on for television was that we treated each show like a feature where we set a release date and when/how we would hit that date. Now, we’re taking a more considered traditional television approach of really making sure that we’re in love with the material that we produce, or that we continue.

Deadpool, Where Art Thou?

I saw on Twitter in regards to X-Men ’97 season 1, and apparently, someone you guys were not able to use this season was Deadpool. I was wondering if you could maybe elaborate more on what the specific reasons were because you have all the rights within your studio, so what was the creative reasoning?

Brad Winderbaum: I don’t know that it was like a hard and fast rule that we couldn’t use Deadpool. We would have had to have an insanely compelling reason to bring Deadpool in. Because we’re also developing the feature simultaneously. So, unless it was something that really was an undeniable creative idea, it seemed like, ‘Why would we do it?’

But also, I’ll say, the season is so chock-full of big, giant, amazing fulfilling ideas that throwing Deadpool in there almost feels like arbitrary at a certain point. Is there a potential for Deadpool to come in? Absolutely, he was in the original series, briefly as we all know, and certainly we’re all fans, so we’ll see what happens.

When X-Men ’97 Season 2 Will Actually Happen

I know you guys have been able to develop season 2 already early in advance, is there any way you can give us an idea of when next year we may get it or where are you right now in terms of production where we may get closer to getting that second season?

​​​​​​​Brad Winderbaum: Something we learned in animation, where I learned in animation that has been very well known for animators for decades, is that there’s a season one and two lag because the studio or network wants to see how successful the first season is before they greenlight the second season and it takes so long to make anything animated that it often causes a pretty significant delay.

In fact, Invincible did a great bit in their second season, they go to a fake Comic-Con and explain it to the audience which I thought was so hysterical. We were lucky enough to get a green light on the second season before we wrapped the first season because of the quality of the show. I wish it could come out tomorrow, the reality is it just takes time and we want to make it as good as it can possibly be.

Addressing Those Nova MCU Rumors

Since you’re the head of streaming and a character you and I apparently share a big love for is Nova. I know last time you were doing junkets, you caused quite the excitement online about it, and there have been some rumors lately that apparently we’re heading into Nova as a show, and the casting is supposedly going to focus on a younger iteration of the character, what can you clarify?

​​​​​​​Brad Winderbaum: It’s new territory for us, developing more shows than we produce. Nova certainly is exciting to us, we’ve got some great ideas simmering. I think there’s a lot of potential there. I love Nova, also, from the comics, especially the Richard Rider era… we’ll see what happens. Like you said, there’s only so many release slots in the schedule, but we want to make sure everything we make is as good as it could possibly be. But I will say that is a particular project we are excited about and excited about developing.

Winderbaum’s Dream Horsemen For Apocalypse

Finally, just as a little fun thing, because we saw Apocalypse at the end of the season. Who would you pick as the Horsemen for this Apocalypse?

​​​​​​​Brad Winderbaum: [Laughs] Who would I pick as the Horsemen of Apocalypse if I could pick four characters to be his Horsemen? Let’s see. Let’s go with Gorr the God Butcher, Wong, Titania and Moon Knight – I’m literally looking at my wall of Funkos over here! [laughs]

About X-Men ’97

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 X-Men ’97 other interviews here:

• Jake Castorena
• Emi/Emmett Yonemura & Chase Conley
• The Newton Brothers
• Brad Winderbaum
• Alison Sealy-Smith (Storm)​​​​​​​