Exclusive: X-Men ‘97 supervising producer Jake Castorena reveals how two obscure 90s artifacts influenced the Disney+ series.
This articlecontains spoilers regarding the first two episodes ofX-Men 97.
Both children of Generation X and Children of the Atom have rejoiced with the early success ofX-Men 97.
Among those adults is supervising producer Jake Castorena.
With that resume, Castorena brought a lot to this new X-Men project.
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Two major factors contribute to my love for the X-Men, Castorena says.
One is definitely the OG show.
Audiences have already seen major swings in the power dynamics of the team.
It was also the original Konami game.
Thats actually where I was able to trace back my love of Storm, he says.
While this writer personally always chose the heavy in Colossus, Castorena gravitated towards the Windrider, Storm.
Her power to just do a tornado that wipes out the whole map… that was awesome.
Castorena in much of his early career was a storyboard artist.
When asked how the team created such dynamic sequences, Castorena offers one word: Meticulously.
Its the reason why I genuinely feel our action scenes slap the way they do.
Once again, everyone should bow down to the gods of VHS.
It wasnt even the original broadcast.
That was my intro.
I watched Morph die over and over and over, he says.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to story over everything, Castorena says.
I genuinely feel our action sequences continue to push the narrative forward.
Im proud of what our team brings to the action scenes.
Not just choreography, but keeping you excited, keeping you jazzed, thats important.
I will say, if you love the action, youve seen the slowest episodes so far.
The show does not let up.
New episodes of X-Men 97 premiere Wednesdays on Disney+.
