The Reel Rejects - X-MEN '97 | Meeting Directors of Gambit "Remember It" & "Tolerance Is For Extinction"

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Starting point is 00:00:53 So whether you're sharing the streaming password in the family chat We're trading those late-night voice messages that could basically become a podcast. Your personal messages stay between you, your friends, and your family. No one else. Not even us. What's up? Message privately with everyone. I'm Coy Johnro here with The Real Rejects, and I'm sitting down with two of the directors of X-Men 97,

Starting point is 00:01:17 Emmy and Emmaira and Chase Conley. How you doing today, folks? Good, good. I watch your channel. Oh, I appreciate it, man. Thank you. I... My favorite reaction videos, so that's cool.

Starting point is 00:01:27 I'm honored in advance, already my favorite interview. It's such a weird, horrible. Of, like, celebrating X-Men and not knowing who's on the other lens and then realizing it's all us just celebrating the X-Men together on the Internet. Right? We're all famous. That background, immaculate work. I'm personally 57 issues from every X-Men run in Prince,

Starting point is 00:01:46 and then I have a complete run since the beginning. So I love to see it. Oh, man, that's impressive. I admire it. We're close. We're close. That's that. I do want to dive in right at the top.

Starting point is 00:01:54 I love how this utilized comic lore in a way that would kind of mislead diehard fans and also make casual fans feel like they were in a way and in the joke like the Operation Zero Tolerance mislead. In my opinion, the onslaught mislead. How conscious was that? And were there any arcs that you found particularly inspiring thematically you didn't use in the show? Oh, man. Way to come in with a hard question. No, that's one. I mean, you know, what's great is that this is such a collaborative process and, you know, we're still working with Marvel. You know, it's like Sometimes we'll get ideas and we'll take it in a direction. And it's really all up to the writers.

Starting point is 00:02:28 You know, the writers really dislay a lot of wonderful groundwork for us. And then as fans, we get to kind of just add to it and go, well, if you've got to do that arc, I would love to see this. You know, it's all teamwork. And at the end of the day, because we are also dealing in a modern age where everyone's going to look at everything microscopically, it's kind of like, well, then why not bait some things in just to keep people guessing? Because it's fun. I enjoy the speculation as a fan. You know? So I think it's just, it's great to kind of get people thinking and wondering. And also, I heard that the comic sales went up. So if we can even just put it back and support the comics, I love that. I love that people are going to jump into it. It's great. And you guys sold out that X-Men 97 comic, like every week it dropped. That book sold out everywhere. And I thank you for getting comic fans back in comic stores. Chase, I got to know, you helped board one of the most iconic comic things. I wouldn't even say intros. I just think in comic books, the X-Men opening is,

Starting point is 00:03:24 probably the most iconic singular moment in media outside of comics. What was it like adding to something so historic like that? Well, it's cool, it's cool, but it is a slightly, slightly terrifying. I mean, you know, one, the most amazing thing that we had an opportunity to do was to work with Larry Houston, who boarded and directed the original intro sequence, right? And not only that he was able to bring in his storyboards on paper that were just chilling in his garage, like, like, like magic. magic, these magic items, you know what I mean, that he brought into the studio, and we've got a

Starting point is 00:04:00 chance to see some of the shots that, mainly because we were able to rotate, you know, things in and out of the lineup as far as like the little vignettes that we showed, things that he was not able to put in because of time and or things where his intent was different from what he got back from the actual vendor. So we were able to kind of embellish on those things. Like one of the main shots was when Rogue throws the Sentinel. you know whenever the tentacles grab her and she tosses them essentially that was supposed to be one camera move but the studio overseas just made it into two shots

Starting point is 00:04:34 without his consent you know and they were just trying to get it done so he was so we were like well we'll do that for you you know so being able to do that and honestly just kind of honor his legacy because he's a legend so you know and then also the beauty of being able to rotate those things for episodes specific things for you to look for. You know, we love Easter eggs,

Starting point is 00:04:57 and it just shows our attention to detail and turn to, like, tea and stuff up for later. So, yeah, it's an amazing experience, for sure. And you've seen our reactions. We love that opening of, like, who's going to be there, who's going to not? And we also, I think that'll be really good for where I assume season two is going

Starting point is 00:05:11 as far as deciding who's in what episode and teasing right at the top, what timeline you're in. It's such a genius use of something so important to us. And then on the other side, Emmy, I love your work, not just here, but also you're a part of some of my favorite DC animated stuff, like Batman versus Turtles, I adore.

Starting point is 00:05:26 I think it's my favorite DC animated thing. You work with Constantine, who I think is the most slept-on comic character. Like, I just appreciate your love for everything comic. Is there anything from the big two that you would either like to adapt yourself or as a fan want to see Adaptive that hasn't been yet? Oh, man. I mean, oh, that's so hard because there's so many. And what I'm really enjoying is that actually in this modern age, we are getting a lot.

Starting point is 00:05:50 because I'm really also just a, I'm a huge Vertigo fan. You know, like I love Preacher. I love Sandman and the fact that, oh, yeah, we've got those now. That's awesome. I would always love to just continue doing animation. I think animation is just one of the coolest mediums to work with. And if I could just keep jumping into those worlds and get my hands on them, I mean, I'm also, I'm always going to be a huge Batman fan. I mean, look at this guy.

Starting point is 00:06:13 That if I could, you know, it's fun boarding on those. But if I ever got my hands on it as a director, I think I would just go absolutely insane and probably hopefully in a good way. As far as storylines go, I think I would jump on almost anything because I think what's fun about being a creative storyteller is then honoring the source material, but then finding ways to just find the love. What's the point of this? What story are we kind of trying to tell here? And I just, I love kind of getting to put my own little stink on it in that sense while still honoring it. And, you know, I'm a Cuberts school graduate. So comics are always going to be in my guts. So, especially with the Cuberts. So you feel that you

Starting point is 00:06:50 love here especially. I love how long they've been part of the X-Men family and how it feels like this show. And that brings me the next question. I have writers like Claremont and Morrison and those arcs feel like them. And then you've got artists like Joe Mad and Jim Lee and Silvestri that are so unique from this timeline you're adapting.

Starting point is 00:07:06 But since they're so unique, how do you play the equalizer and the levels to make it fit your show while dealing with such disparate creators back in their original source? Well, I think the key is just what their intent was. It's, it's easy to really kind of the only difficulty in that is like is is is probably the aspect ratio so it was

Starting point is 00:07:27 mainly about trying to figure out what the intent was as far as like sequential storytelling goes why they chose this shot and try to figure out how to translate that panel pacing you know there's a lot of time paneling if you think about comics i mean they even function like pans you know when you have like long vertical panels especially if there are things that are that are revealed and towards the bottom of a page, you know, would you learn in the, like, what's it, the Scott McCloud, how to draw a comic book? I think, I think I still have a copy of that somewhere. So, yeah, it really, it really is about, it really is about that in terms of just making sure we figure out what that intent is. And then, you know, we supplement those moments with

Starting point is 00:08:10 more modern cinematography in order to just kind of grounded and make sure that it is cinematic so that when we build to that shot, that it feels iconic. like a big splash page would feel and you know styles aside they're still human characters right so as long as we're kind of translating that and I think because we work in animation we have the tool and the medium to be able to maximize on the same things that each one of those individual artists can maximize on especially as far as it goes with like perspective forced perspective and stuff like that it's not going to break your immersion if you have a very super stylized shot

Starting point is 00:08:51 because it's full of stylized shots but we just try to make sure that it's not gratuitous in the same way that you would with a splash page that you're building to it because a splash page has no impact if every page is a splash page, right? Yeah. Storytelling in the same way.

Starting point is 00:09:06 If everything's an Avengers level of it, nothing is. I love that. And it shows, man, you guys made the space between the panels absolutely sing and that's the art of reading a comic and I really appreciate. A couple more questions. I know your time is limited

Starting point is 00:09:16 with the glory of this finale. but spoiler warning for the finale and we'll put a visual up so I promise they'll know but with the end of this being such deep cut references I did not expect to ever hear a Scotty son

Starting point is 00:09:27 or anything of that world reference or a feral wolverine actually translate is there anything you want people to read between season one and season two that would help enhance their experience much like having certain knowledge going into this wood

Starting point is 00:09:39 that we both make this face Kevin Faggy snipers are on you I know it's something you You see this red dot right here. You know, I always want to encourage people to just go ahead and read the comics anyway because we're fans of the comics and it's like, and there's just so much out there. It's like, yeah, you could probably do a quick Google search and find what issues are linked to these storylines, but I'm also a person who just enjoys the ride. And so, you know, while I don't really want to give people homework, like I know kind of happens, I really hope that because the, even the original animated series did add up. but in different ways. I kind of hope that while we are basing it off of, you know,

Starting point is 00:10:22 comic book storylines, we are going to do kind of our own flavor. So there is a little bit of prep that you guys could do, but also maybe just enjoy and see what we're going to bring you, you know? Have fun. I love that answer because it's absolutely how it feels. Well, this show is honestly, and I don't say this in hyperbolic way or it not meaning as much as it means. It is, I think, not only my favorite representation of the X-Men, but I also think now my favorite animated series adapting my favorite medium thank you i grew up with these cats that means i read with them thank you so truly what you've made the love is all there so thank you seeing kitty pride at the very end i i just there's so much potential and i really appreciate the detail you guys put in

Starting point is 00:10:59 thank you so much recording stopped amazing team oh that we'll keep talking to them so they know too i'll keep yelling it for rooftops such a pleasure to meet you both i appreciate it i'll check out your review your your watchdown of the finale i seriously watch you every every i Your reaction, I'm not just buttering you up. I watch your reaction before I watch the episode just to see you with you to. Oh, I'm so honored. I put on my algorithm in the morning. When I turn my TV on, I took the other YouTube.

Starting point is 00:11:27 Dude, this one was by far the most like sounds not found in nature. I think I admit it during like certain key sequences. And then we talked for as long as the episode after. So you did the work. And I really appreciate you both. And everyone else. Thank you so much. Have a great one guys.

Starting point is 00:11:42 Enjoy some downtime. Thank you. Bye. Thank you.

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The Reel Rejects - X-MEN '97 | Meeting Directors of Gambit "Remember It" & "Tolerance Is For Extinction"

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