X-Men '97
Produksi > Penulisan

Per April 2022, Lewalds telah melihat semua premis untuk 10 episode dan beberapa skrip komplit dari musim pertama, dan juga alkitab serial ini,:1:06:17–1:06:32 yang mengkonfirmasi bahwa—sama seperti serial original dan buku komik—etos kebangkitan utama adalah bahwa X-Men merupakan alegori bagi orang yang menghadapi prasangka dan diskriminasi. Eric Lewald menjabarkan bahwa X-Men '97 adalah sebuah tambahan bagi serial original as an extension of the original series yang tim Marvel Studios telah membuatnya sendiri, sementara Vasquez-Eberhardt mengatakan bahwa serial original "membawa aksi, opera sabun dan topik serius", dan kebangkitannya akan melakukan hal yang sama. DeMayo ingin menghormati serial original sambil membawanya ke dunia modern,:19:09–19:48 dan berharap dapat mempertahankan kesungguhannya, emosi kejujurannya, dan fokus pada menemukan keluarga sambil memperbarui komentar sosial untuk merefleksikan masyarakat kontemporer. Serial baru menjelajahi apakah impian Xavier mengenai keberlangsungan mutan/manusia dan fokusnya pada empati masih relevan bagi penonton modern, dengan DeMayo merasa bahwa isu penerimaan sosial telah menjadi lebih rumit sejak dekade 1990-an.
The revival begins a year after the loss of Professor X during the original series' finale. Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, Wolverine, Rogue, Beast, Gambit, and Jubilee return as members of the X-Men, now led by their former adversary Magneto. Joining the team in the first season are Bishop, a time-traveling ally of the X-Men; Morph, who rejoins after their death and resurrection in the original series; and Kurt Wagner / Nightcrawler. Winderbaum said fans remembered these three characters as being more important in the original series than they actually were, and the creatives wanted to make-up for that by elevating them in the revival. The X-Men question their future after Xavier's loss and a subsequent increase in sympathy towards mutants. Cyclops and Storm want to continue Xavier's dream but others, such as Jean Grey, want to build new lives. Magneto is moved by the growing mutant sympathy and wants to follow in Xavier's footsteps as the team's leader. The main antagonists for the first season are the returning Mister Sinister and the Sentinels, along with new villain Bastion.
DeMayo said the original series' melodrama and exploration of character relationships was key to its success and set it apart from other animated series at the time, which Marvel executives felt was a compelling approach to the material.:19:09–19:48 X-Men '97 also retains the campiness of the original series in its writing, such as Storm announcing her attacks and Rogue using "syrupy" Southern metaphors and analogies. DeMayo found it particularly difficult to write for Rogue, who developed in ways that he did not initially plan for throughout the first season; and for Jubilee, who was introduced as a representative for younger audiences in the 1990s and needed to remain relevant for younger audiences in the modern day. DeMayo was more comfortable writing for Beast, whose scientific terms are similar to the writer's work on the series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022–present).
As with the original series, various comic book storylines were adapted for the revival. The Animated Series was primarily influenced by Chris Claremont's run on the comics from the mid-1970s to the early 1990s, and X-Men '97 continues to adapt stories from that era as well as elements from later in the 1990s and into Grant Morrison's early 2000s run. "The Trial of Magneto" from Uncanny X-Men #200 (1985), by Claremont and John Romita Jr., is adapted in the second episode. The third episode is a condensed version of the comic book crossover event "Inferno" (1989). The "Lifedeath" storyline from Uncanny X-Men #186 (1984), by Claremont and Barry Windsor-Smith, is adapted in the fourth and sixth episodes; the fourth episode contains two mini-episodes, the first part of "Lifedeath" and also "Motendo" which is an homage to the 1992 X-Men arcade game.
Central to DeMayo's pitch for the revival was the idea that the original series was made in a "simple [time] of right and wrong, where questions about identity and social justice had relatively clear cut answers", but the people who grew-up watching the original had since experienced 9/11, a rise in populist movements, the COVID-19 pandemic, and other traumatic events. DeMayo particularly highlighted the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting which had personally impacted him as a gay man who had partied at that club. He wanted the X-Men to go through a similarly traumatic event and face "the realities of an adult and unsafe world" just like the audience of the original series had, which led to the attack on the mutant nation of Genosha in the fifth episode. This is based on the "E Is for Extinction" storyline from New X-Men #115 (2001) by Morrison and Frank Quitely, though the attack is not perpetrated by Cassandra Nova as in that comic. Following the fifth episode, the X-Men have to decide how they will change in response to the attack and whether social healing or social justice is needed.