When one thinks of X-Men: The Animated Series, one of the best animated TV shows of all time, the first thing that comes to mind beyond its starring cast of characters is that iconic theme song. More than three decades after the show premiered on Fox Kids, those opening credits are still a joy to watch, and now new life has been breathed into them thanks to X-Men ’97, which is now airing on the 2024 TV schedule exclusively to Disney+ subscribers. This time around though, The Newton Brothers have put their own spin on the theme song, and the composers talked with CinemaBlend about what that entailed, as well as why it would have been “a little sad” if the music hadn’t been available to use.
Although my conversation with John Andrew Gush and Taylor Newton Stewart ended with the duo expressing interest in scoring for Marvel characters like Doctor Doom and Daredevil next, to kick off my chat with them, I asked what X-Men: The Animated Series’ theme song meant to them going into X-Men ’97 and how they went about putting their own unique stamp on the music. Grush answered:
I mean, the theme meant a lot to us. It’s iconic, as you know. Yeah, it’s everything it needs to be, it’s a perfect piece of music, not only for the show, but it’s memorable hummable, it’s cool, it’s dynamic, Ron [Wasserman]’s version is. When we came to the table, we wanted to make sure we didn’t screw that up. Taylor has said we wanted to treat it as if we were looking at it from the outside, what wouldn’t we want as fans, you know? And a lot of that involves removing our ego from the equation and coming at it from a standpoint of like, ‘Ok, let’s not screw it up.’ And in doing so, we wanted to honor that and try a lot of things. So we tried things we knew probably wouldn’t work, and that was correct. All orchestra, that didn’t work. All synthesizer, that didn’t work. A few middle ideas, we did about seven or eight ideas, and there were two middle ideas that were sort of a hybrid, and those felt like the right journey. And then with the Marvel team helping to steer the ship, we made our way down those paths and ended up with the version that is in there now, that is very similar to the original, it’s just updated. There are minor differences, but for the most part, it carries the same journey of the original.
Winding our clocks back to a time when X-Men: The Animated Series was the most prominent media portrayal of the Marvel mutants outside of the comics, and the X-Men movies wouldn’t get underway for a little under a decade, Ron Wasserman wrote the show’s theme song composed it with Haim Saban and Shuki Levi (the trio also composed Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers’ theme song). As far as The Newton Brothers were concerned, X-Men’s theme song was perfect, so it was up to them to find a right balance between honoring what came before, yet still adding enough new elements to make this revised version sound unique. You can hear how the final result sounds below.
Interestingly enough, X-Men ’97 getting to use the X-Men: The Animated Series theme song wasn’t automatically guaranteed. In fact, in 2022, Eric Lewald, who developed the original show with Sidney Iwanter and Mark Edens, said that Marvel had to pay what believed was a “heavy price” in order to obtain the rights to the song. Keeping this in mind, I wondered how The Newton Brothers might have approached composing an entirely new theme song for X-Men ’97, and if they might have even played around with that before working on the original theme. This time Taylor Newton Stewart responded, saying:
Great question. Yeah, that was sorted before we came on, as far as my knowledge is concerned. We were never asked to come up with a new theme. That would have been a different challenge, obviously, and Andy and I definitely love challenges. But I think it also would have been a little sad because the thing about this show is that I remember watching it as a kid, so I think I myself just as a fan would be super bummed [if the original theme couldn’t be used]. I think they knew that that was the case. I think it’s public knowledge that Kevin [Feige] said one of the things that needed to happen before this show was started was that they agreed to the original main title. And it makes sense because as a fan, I know he’s a fan, you want that. That’s what makes you go back to that time.
His comment lines up with how X-Men ’97 executive producer Brad Winderbaum told me that the theme song, along with as many original cast members as possible, were the two things that “needed to happen” in order for this Marvel TV show to move forward. So by the time The Newton Brothers came aboard, any issue with the song had been settled, and they wouldn’t have had it any other way. That’s not to say X-Men ’97 wouldn’t have been well received by critics if the song hadn’t been present, but there’s no shortage of fans who join the Brothers in being jazzed about its presence.
New episodes of X-Men ’97 drop Wednesdays, and it already looks like this is a strong contender for one of the best Disney+ shows. While you’re here, be sure to also read about supervising director Jake Castorena being “flabbergasted” by the fan reaction to a very specific moment from the X-Men ’97 trailer.
