Marvel Studios Considered Making X-Men 97 Part Of MCU's Sacred Timeline

Marvel Studios has swiftly expanded the MCU on Disney+ since Avengers: Endgame ended the Infinity Saga. The animation What If...? felt mostly autonomous despite its Multiverse ties, while WandaVision and The Falcon and The Winter Soldier had a stronger impact on movies.

In the middle of a Multiverse Saga, it's startling to think about, but animated series production takes time, making crossovers difficult. However, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness had a Captain Carter Variant, while What If...?'s season 2 finale briefly depicted Loki's new Multiverse.

Today, X-Men '97 director Emi Yonemura strongly suggests that Marvel Studios contemplated adding the show to the MCU's Sacred Timeline.

"That has always been something we know was on Kevin Feige’s mind, do we make this part of the MCU? Do we not make this part of the MCU?" she tells Inverse. "It’s actually gone back and forth quite a few times, and I think we did land in a smart place because [X-Men: The Animated Series] was its own thing, and I think that to continue it we needed to be our own thing."

Jake Castorena adds "We’re getting the X-Men in this format and we’re doing it justice not just by ourselves, but also other fans as well, and we’re starting to get a resurgence of the X-Men in film again. I love that. And I think it’s great that we can have different things, let them be different."