X-Men
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Trivia: Despite its guitar-driven sound, the theme song for this show was actually written entirely on a keyboard using MIDI technology. Composer Ron Wasserman attributed this to having hardly any gear to work with, which only consisted of a nice mixer board that had EQ in it, and one compressor. He even admitted to pouring a Coke into the first console so that they would buy him a new one.

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Days of Future Past: Part 1 - S1-E11

Trivia: After Bishop travels into the past, he hears one kid telling another that they will be playing the new Punisher game "Assassin." When the Punisher was first being developed, he was originally going to be called The Assassin.

Trivia: Following Disney's acquisition of Fox, the creators of this show pitched a revival to stream on Disney+. Producer Larry Houston has said he would come out of retirement specifically to work on this. The revival - titled X-Men '97 - was announced on Disney+ Day in November of 2021 for a 2024 premiere date, with much of the surviving original cast returning.

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A Rogue's Tale - S2-E9

Trivia: The man who attempts to steal Mystique's umbrella at the beginning of the episode is a caricature of series producer Frank Squillace.

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Time Fugitives: Part 1 - S2-E7

Trivia: When Beast is looking through the logbook detailing patients and their slide numbers, some of the names listed, such as Frank Squillace and Larry Houston, are people who worked on the show. (00:09:47)

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Trivia: At the end of the opening titles, there is a short bald man in a green outfit running with Magneto's crew. For years, fans had wondered who this character was, as he has no counterpart in the comics, and he only had a fleeting appearance in the season 1 episode "Slave Island." Series director Larry Houston finally revealed that the character is nobody in particular, and that he was mistakenly placed in the opening titles by the animation company AKOM.

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X-Ternally Yours - S2-E6

Trivia: This episode depicted Bella Donna as being Gambit's former fiancée. In the comics, the two were actually married. This change was likely made for the show due to it being too mature of a theme for a kids' show for Gambit to have both an estranged wife and an extramarital relationship with Rogue.

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Red Dawn - S2-E4

Trivia: When Wolverine is explaining Omega Red's back-story to Colossus, a picture of Captain America is briefly visible. This is a nod to the comic books, where Omega Red was the Soviet Union's attempt to create their own super soldier similar to Captain America. (00:14:05)

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The Dark Phoenix (2): The Inner Circle - S3-E12

Trivia: The main antagonists in this episode as well as the episode that follows it are the Inner Circle. In the comics, the Inner Circle are a sort of clandestine group of mutants that operate within an elitist social group known as the Hellfire Club. Due to censorship reasons, the Hellfire Club aspect of the group is not acknowledged. Its members are visually based on famous actors. Sebastian Shaw is based on Robert Shaw, Harry Leland is based on Orson Welles, Donald Pierce is based on Donald Sutherland, and Mastermind in his Jason Wyngarde persona is based on Peter Wyngarde. The White Queen/Emma Frost is based on the character Emma Peel from the British television series "The Avengers."

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Night of the Sentinels: Part 1 - S1-E1

Trivia: The beginning of this series sees a young mutant serving as a proxy for the audience, where they discover their mutant powers, try to elude sinister forces that are after them, and meet and later join the X-Men along the way. Showrunner Larry Houston claims director Bryan Singer borrowed this idea for the first X-Men film, substituting Rogue for Jubilee.

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Time Fugitives: Part 2 - S2-E8

Trivia: SPOILER FOR X-MEN '97: When Jean Grey scans Cable's mind, she sees an image of Cyclops, and seemingly herself as well, with her hair down (as opposed to her usually having it in a ponytail). Following the revelation in X-Men '97 that the Jean Grey seen in the first few episodes was actually a clone, producer Larry Houston revealed that he deliberately drew the Jean seen in Cable's mind to have her hair down, to suggest it was actually the clone who is Cable's real mother.

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Trivia: Lenore Zann originally turned down the role of Rogue, as she had no interest in working on a cartoon, deeming it not serious enough. Her agent eventually convinced her to audition. When she finally read for the part, the casting directors immediately told her that she was exactly what they were looking for.

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A Rogue's Tale - S2-E9

Plot hole: In the season one episode The Cure, when Pyro and Avalanche are in the bar on Muir Island waiting for Mystique to arrive, Avalanche says "This friend of yours better show up soon or I'm going back to jail, just for something to do!" Rogue then comes in and Pyro suggests to Avalanche that Rogue could be Mystique, to which Avalanche responds "What do you mean it could be? Don't you know what she looks like?", leading Pyro to tell Avalanche that Mystique is a shape-shifter. This dialogue implies that Avalanche has no idea who Mystique is, which is further substantiated when Pyro and Avalanche kidnap Mystique later in the episode while she is in the guise of Dr. Adler, and Avalanche didn't recognize Mystique when she revealed her true form. However in this episode it is shown that Pyro and Avalanche were both previously members of Mystique's Brotherhood of Mutants, so Avalanche should already know who Mystique is without Pyro having to tell him. Rogue was also a member of that group yet neither Pyro nor Avalanche recognize her.

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Question: Does anyone know why Gambit was featured less and less in episodes as the show went on? He was one of the most popular characters in not just X-Men, but all of Marvel Comics around the time this series first aired, so unless it had something to do with his voice actor's contract, it seems odd they wouldn't have utilized him more.

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Answer: Chris Potter, the original Gambit voice actor, did indeed quit the role in the 4th season. His last episode was The Phalanx Covenant Part 1 so it seems reasonable that Fox would limit the use of the character even though it was recast. It doesn't appear that Potter left the role due to animosity, he stated in an interview that he wished to play Gambit in the first live action X-Men film.

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