When X-Men ’97 arrived on Disney+ in 2024, most of the conversation was about what the show was doing: picking up the 1990s cartoon mid-stride, killing off characters people had loved since childhood, taking a Saturday-morning property seriously. With its second season now wrapped and streaming on Disney+, it’s worth looking at the Black talent behind the revival. Far less of it went to the Black talent who helped make the revival what it is — in the recording booth, and behind the script. Three of them are worth knowing by name.
The Voice of Storm
Ask who has voiced Storm over the past thirty years and the answer, almost entirely, is one woman. Alison Sealy-Smith, a Barbadian-born Canadian actress born in 1959, took the role when X-Men: The Animated Series began in 1993, held it through that show’s entire run, and returned for X-Men ’97 — with a stop as the character in Marvel’s What If…? along the way.
Her Storm has never been wallpaper, and the revival makes that impossible to miss. In the first season, Storm takes a depowering blast meant for Magneto and loses her weather-controlling abilities, and the season follows what she does next — the grief, the ordinary life, the slow climb back. Sealy-Smith carries that arc with the same authority she brought to the role in the 1990s.
Sealy-Smith carries that arc with the same authority she brought to the role in the 1990s.
The New Voice of Bishop
Bishop comes with history attached. The time-traveling mutant — from a future where Sentinels hunt mutants into extinction — was voiced in the original series by Philip Akin, and in X-Men ’97 the role passes to Isaac Robinson-Smith. Taking over a character another actor defined is its own kind of test: the voice has to be recognizable to people who grew up on the 90s show without becoming an impression of it. Robinson-Smith manages that balance, and the handoff itself is worth noticing — these roles are being passed between generations of Black performers rather than reinvented from scratch every few years.
The Writer Who Built the Revival
X-Men ’97 exists because Beau DeMayo built it. He created the series and served as its head writer, and its themes are inseparable from his experience as a Black gay man. The X-Men are about walking into a room and realizing nobody there is like you — that’s how DeMayo has described them — and the show treats that feeling as the engine of the whole franchise, not a subplot. He wrote “Remember It,” the Genosha episode that became the revival’s most talked-about hour.
The X-Men are about walking into a room and realizing nobody there is like you.
His story comes with a complication that can’t be written around. Marvel says it fired DeMayo in March 2024 after an internal investigation into misconduct, and later removed his credits from the second season; he disputes the company’s account, has spoken against Marvel and Disney publicly, and has sued. The claims are contested on both sides, and this isn’t the piece that settles them. What isn’t contested is the credit: the revival is his, and season one is his writing, “Remember It” included.
More Than Nostalgia
The easy description of X-Men ’97 is a nostalgia play, and nostalgia is clearly doing plenty of work. But it doesn’t explain why the Lifedeath episodes land, or whose point of view shaped the writing. Storm has been one of the most recognizable Black characters in comics for longer than much of the show’s audience has been alive. Knowing the names behind her — and behind Bishop, and behind the script — is part of appreciating what the revival actually is.
Common Questions About X-Men ’97
Who voices Storm in X-Men ’97?
Alison Sealy-Smith, who originated the role on X-Men: The Animated Series in 1993. She is the character’s defining voice across more than thirty years of Marvel animation, with a return appearance in What If…? along the way.
Who voices Bishop in X-Men ’97?
Isaac Robinson-Smith, who took over the role from Philip Akin, Bishop’s original voice actor on the 1990s series.
Who created X-Men ’97?
Beau DeMayo, who also served as head writer and wrote the first season, including “Remember It.” Marvel terminated him in March 2024; the circumstances are disputed by both sides.
Why was Beau DeMayo fired from Marvel?
Marvel has said only that the termination followed an internal investigation into misconduct. DeMayo disputes that characterization and has pursued legal action. The full story isn’t public, so anything stated beyond those two facts should be read carefully.
Is X-Men ’97 a sequel to the 1990s cartoon?
Yes — a direct continuation of X-Men: The Animated Series, picking up after that show’s finale rather than rebooting the story.
Where can I watch X-Men ’97?
Disney+, which also streams the original 1990s series.
