X-Men ’97 directors Chase Conley and Emi Yonemura open up on whether or not they would direct the MCU’s upcoming X-Men movie reboot.

Kelsey Grammer as Beast from The Marvels with Hugh Jackman as Wolverine

With the Marvel Cinematic Universe set to reboot the X-Men movie franchise, X-Men ’97 directors chime in on if they would like to jump into the world of live-action. As X-Men ’97 season 1 is already off to a smashing success at Disney+, it’s raising the excitement for the upcoming MCU reboot of the beloved mutants. With X-Men: The Animated Series – and its sequel series – regularly being sourced as the best adaptation of the iconic Marvel characters, many have expressed wanting to see the creative team perhaps have an involvement with the live-action re-imagination.

In an exclusive interview with S.R, Chase Conley and Emi Yonemura, who directed several X-Men ’97 season 1 episodes, were asked if they would potentially be interested in taking part in the upcoming X-Men movie for the MCU. While no discussions have yet taken place, Conley and Yonemura shared the following about potentially crossover from handling the X-Men in animation to live-action:

Chase Conley (Director of episodes 2, 4, 6): If that’s a call that we get, at some point, I’m gonna pick the phone up, for sure.

Emi Yonemura (Director of episodes 3, 5, 7, 9): I would never say no to that phone call because I love a good challenge, and I love trying new things.

X-Men ’97 Directors Discuss Why Animation Works Better Than Live-Action

x-men 97 to me my x-men

While Conley and Yonemura are keeping the door open for the possibility of doing something with the X-Men in the MCU, the directors also revealed to S.R why animation works better in their opinion. Both Conley and Yonemura added that animation is a medium that is limitless, with the former mentioning how “we can just do things that you cannot do in live-action, if you do, [it] is really expensive.” Yonemura meanwhile stressed to “look at the response to episode 5, look at the emotions that we can still pull out of people and those are drawn faces. It’s to get people to connect the characters and it’s not an actor’s face, which is a lot easier for us to connect to.”

Conley described how X-Men ’97 vs live-action films “are just mediums that both have their pros and cons,” adding emphasis that there are “certain things that you can do in animation, I feel, speak to the subconscious because of your ability to manipulate hand drawn frames and things of that nature you can do a little bit more in terms of [the] emotional impact of, even if it’s with action.” Another crucial point Yonemura is hoping “what our animated series is proving is that animation is a medium, but it should be almost held as in as higher regard as live action,” looking at how viewers responded so powerfully to X-Men ’97 episode 5.

At the end of the day, Conley and Yonemura stressed that they’re definitely happy with working in the world of animation, with the latter saying that “I do think that animation is in my blood.” While X-Men ’97 may not be tied to the MCU, the reboot will likely look at what has worked with the animated adaptation, given how it set the foundation for the mutants in the world of media. But for now, time will tell if any X-Men ’97 creative members will board the X-Men movie for Marvel Studios.

New episodes of X-Men ’97 season 1 release every Wednesday, only on Disney+.