The Reel Rejects - X-MEN '97 | Original Series Vs. New, Reviving Deleted Scenes, Opening Titles W/ THE DIRECTOR!

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Starting point is 00:01:17 Oh, dude, that is my favorite DC anime. That's how I'm opening this interview, man. Thank you. Hi, I'm Coy Jondro, and I'm sitting down to the director of X-Men 97. First of all, man, I want to thank you for Batman versus Teenage Mutantins and Turtles, because that is to this day my favorite DC animated film, and I am so excited you're handling the beauty of this world. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that.

Starting point is 00:01:42 It is truly a magnificent blend of worlds, and I feel like you're doing that really well with X-Men 97. I want to kick it off with this is a blend of world between the X-Men 90s show we all know and love, but modernizing it today. But in that modernization, I feel like you really found the voice of Storm as a goddess. you really found the leadership in Cyclops as the man who can command to me my X-Men. I want to know what were key elements of those characters you really wanted to take on when you took on the show.

Starting point is 00:02:07 Great question. And look, one, I love, I love the support and the love that, you know, these characters are getting, you know, now that fans and audiences are able to start seeing them. I got to give a shout to Bodomeo in his initial vision, because that was just incorporated his understanding of the characters and just the foundation of what the Bible stood for and just that being ingrained in the show from day one. That was all decided well before I was brought on board, but to get to come on board and to further embellish that

Starting point is 00:02:35 and find out what the visual language of that looks like, right? And it is unfortunate that we don't live in a world where we can put the beautiful words of a script on screen and let the audience just go to town, right? The audience, they want to feel, they want to hear that script, but they want to see the X-Men and to work in tandem with the stories and to try to find, you know, what is that delicate balance of? It's the show you love and remember, right? It's relevant and in HD and 4K.

Starting point is 00:03:04 Yeah. But it's also if it's too relevant in HD and 4K, that's kind of bad. So if it's too potato, that's kind of bad. Like, where is that, you know? Because bottom line, man, just the medium of animation is being pushed, especially in the state of age. From all of the, you know, feature films, TV, animation, what fellow peers and constituents and friends are doing in the industry,

Starting point is 00:03:22 the bar is just being raised, constantly for not only as this being a medium to tell for further tell stories right not just the children's medium but also what it can visually accomplish we have to stay relevant with that we have to you know not compete but just you want all the eyes you can get right you want you know we're making things for audiences right now you know so you have that but then you also have that wonderful nostalgic you know sandbox that is the 90s of uh too many bells and whistles things weren't figured out yet you know uh there was just techniques we didn't know about yet. There was language in the industry that we didn't know about yet. Yeah. And so finding that right balance of fresh but familiar, uh, working in tandem with the team. That's, that's, that's been awesome. And that's, it's all planned. Nothing's that happened. And I love that you bring up animation as a medium because I totally agree the, the idea that animation is a genre is finally fading. And I also think that's happening in comic books. I do feel like comic books for years have gone through this ebb and flow of like

Starting point is 00:04:24 they're for kids, they're for adults, they're for everyone, and we're finally getting at the point where it is a blend. And I feel like this show has love letters to ease for extinction, to life, death, which I think is coming, too. I definitely feel some gifted in there. And there's a lot of my favorite storylines, if you can't tell, I love the comics themselves, that are beautifully rendered in this new medium,

Starting point is 00:04:41 that are translated into this media of animation. What elements, when you read a comic, do you personally want to pull into your medium that you think the strength of animation allows to tell? And is there anything you can tease that we should read now? Now, that'll be even cooler later. Well, as far as anything I can tease, you'll just have to watch the show to figure out. Fair.

Starting point is 00:05:00 And what I can say to that is, look, as fans, because, again, you're dropping some good knowledge here. I want to be able to nod and happily weak and smile to all the things, but I can't give any allusion to any storylines at all because, you know, fans. Marvel Snifers, I respect it, man. I get it. But to that, what I can say is, fans, we all know what the comic books give us, right? We all know what the stories are, right?

Starting point is 00:05:25 We just don't know how they're going to happen. I like that. I like that. I solely support that both Marvel Sniper answer and a real answer. I thank you. Go ahead. I was just going to say, and I feel like that's the beauty of adapting versus translating. You're adapting stories so we can experience them in a new way.

Starting point is 00:05:45 Exactly. And again, that's been in the mission statement from day one. We are a spiritual successor. We are a revival, right? we're a continuation we take off like we take we start off where graduation day season five ended you know and so in order for us to be a true successor a true a true uh revival there's just certain things ingrained in the ogy show's DNA that we should adhere to in this show the original show pulled from the books they pulled from the source material you know they told their own

Starting point is 00:06:16 original stories but they also pulled from the books you know and in order for us to do that too We, you know, we must do the same. We must follow suit. And, again, those decisions were decided well before I was brought on board. So to come into that knowing, oh, this is the playing field? Yeah, sign me up, sign me up. You know, not only that, but it's encouraged to embrace the IP, right? So, yeah, no, no, that was fired.

Starting point is 00:06:38 You know, and again, shout out to Bo for the initial vision, as well as, you know, Marvel just encouraging us. Yeah, no, go to the books. What do the books say? Go to the O.D. show, dude. Makes me so happy that go to the books was said. Yeah. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. now the original show does feel like an absolute love letter to the medium of comic books themselves it's one of the things i point to and people say like oh the the comics just it's so overwhelming and i was like look if you got time to breathe into these worlds you really do get that adaptation and i feel like um the x-men and batman and the animated series coming out around the same time really changed comic books themselves but i read and heard that you actually took deleted scenes from the original show 30 years ago and modernized them and did elements from those original story books but i read and heard that you actually took deleted scenes from the original show 30 years ago and modernized them and did elements from those original story

Starting point is 00:07:22 towards, thus giving us some deleted scenes from the OG. Can you talk about that? I absolutely can't talk about that. So just for clarity, that actually goes in tandem with our opening titles. The main, their original opening titles. Yes, the theme song, but also the high octane. Everything is moving across the screen. There isn't a single held frame for a frame.

Starting point is 00:07:41 We brought back OG man himself, Larry Houston, who did the original titles, who worked on the original show, brought him back in to help spearhead and supervised over our main titles in tandem with our episodic directors, Emmiani Murat and Chase Conley. They were the ones that really took the reins. I supervised over all of that, and especially when we started getting stuff in post and whatnot, right? When we had our initial conversation, our day one of, okay, cool, we're doing this. Let's get everybody in a room. Larry brought in his OG storyboards from over 30 years ago in a folder, not in a glass case, not white glove, not protected. Just like, hey, yeah, I still have these. Come check these out. And we just stopped the

Starting point is 00:08:22 meeting for like almost 20 minutes and we're just opening oh my god oh my oh my god oh my god oh my and so and it was just like we're touching original storyboards and back then they had to cut stuff for time back then too there was an original like two three two minute 30 minute narrative for the original opening titles and how to get cut down for due to broadcast right just as an artist myself because i i could only hope to be so lucky x amount of years from now let alone being relevant years from now, to watch Larry as an artist, as a fellow artist, as a fellow storyteller,

Starting point is 00:08:59 get to use his storeboards that he didn't get to use from over 30 years ago to bring them back in and just say, here, let's use them, let's put this here, let's go this here, let's embellish the credits here, let's do that. Just as an artist, I can't even imagine what that must have felt like.

Starting point is 00:09:13 That 30-year, you know, came back around, and I didn't even have to draw anything new. A gift for everyone. That is incredible. That what a moment. And so, yeah, it was working on the opening titles is just, I mean, look, it's those opening titles. It's that theme song.

Starting point is 00:09:30 But, you know, so not only is it going to be rad to work on, but like just the actual process of working on it was super rad, super humbling. I got to give shout out to our composers, the Newton brothers, and everybody involved in music because they bring it with their composition of the main theme and fun tibbit for the rest of the world out there, you'd be amazed about how many times that these dudes can recompose the main theme in order to create nuance and supplement to the action or the emotion or whatever's going on on screen, magicians they are. And they're wonderful. And I can speak to that as someone that's seen some of the episodes. It is magic. Some of the sound cues and elements

Starting point is 00:10:06 brought in. And speaking of that, the 90s is a character in the film. We've talked a little bit about how it's basically another part of it. But I'm wondering for you as a what if, so it's spoiler free. If this was set today, same characters, the way, world's as tempestuous as ever. What elements of the story would you want to play with if this was a modern telling of these characters in 2024? Ooh. What would the X-Men look like doing everything from home? Like a Zoom interview? You mean? What if Charles...

Starting point is 00:10:41 Cerepro is just Zoom? Not through his telepathic, you know, power, right? But through a Zoom. Gambit's just cooking up hot pockets with his powers. And look, look, at the end of day, look, a lot of, there's a lot of great artists, a lot of great writers, a lot of good runs, you know, going on in the books right now. There's, you know, there's even a new, we're on the cusp of a newer age of X-Men coming out right now, right? What I can say is, and again, I'm going to try to avoid spoilers and storylines because anything I say can and will be used. I guess you're in a court of internet. Right?

Starting point is 00:11:15 Oh, he said this. They're doing this storyline. I'm like, no, but okay. So I don't want to give any false up to the fans, right? But, you know, misdirection is always fun when it's planned. But yeah, look, a lot of people are doing the X-Men in modern takes right now, and I think there's a lot of good to pull from. For myself, what I appreciate about the X-Men, why I think this era fundamentally works

Starting point is 00:11:39 for audiences over a global aspect, right, and over the test of time. One key factor, major key factor. X-Men is always has been and always shall be and always needs to be about prejudice. It needs to be an allegory about prejudice, always. Found family, found acceptance, self-acceptance, found thrive, you know, where do I belong? Who do I belong to? Being born different and being hated or feared because of such things, right? That's at the core fundamental of X-Men.

Starting point is 00:12:06 And I feel personally as an X-Men, when you lose that, it no longer becomes X-Men. You know, the X-Men, they should always be considered underdogs, which, which is why they practice. They have a danger. That's what separates them else, you know, different from any of the other Marvel teams. They practice.

Starting point is 00:12:23 Adventures just wing that shit. That's a great point. They're like, this is the attack plan, Delta 3. Go, gold team. Go here.

Starting point is 00:12:30 Blue team. Go here. Go here. You know, like they have team names for crying out of love. You know what I'm saying? Like they,

Starting point is 00:12:36 they plan this stuff and the fundamental allegory is about prejudice. And when you take those, again, when you take all of those facets away, way, it kind of pulls away from why the X-Men were created in the first place, you know. And so to see that to start to come back into the comics, you know, into the storylines and to see

Starting point is 00:12:57 that come to fruition with our show as well, while paying, you know, and it's not like, you know, we're coming out of theater and we are standing on the shoulders of giants, right, of the show that came before. So just to get to do that and stick true to those, those core fundamentals of X-Men. That's been awesome, too. You know, that's been a blast. And they say history rhymes. And I think, you know, it's beautiful to have history rhyming from X-Men 92 to X-Men 97. Also, from The Ashes might be a comic you want to read for the old one. And there's From the Ashes, the new one coming out soon. History rhymes.

Starting point is 00:13:26 But you saying all this means a lot because I can tell your love letter is in every frame of this. And hearing you speak about it, the love is there. So I so appreciate it, man. And thank you for your time today. Thank you, I appreciate you, man. Thank you for having me. And I'm just, again, on behalf of the team, we're really stoked that the fans and the audiences are a love and what we're putting out so far.

Starting point is 00:13:45 I can't gush louder. Thank them for me. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you. Peace. Have a good one.

The Reel Rejects - X-MEN '97 | Original Series Vs. New, Reviving Deleted Scenes, Opening Titles W/ THE DIRECTOR!

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