The original theme song and opening credits for X-Men: The Animated Series are among the most iconic for any cartoon series ever. Composer Ron Wasserman came up with the theme song, along with the theme for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Both became permanent earworms for an entire generation. With X-Men ’97 picking up where the classic show left off, the first question everyone had was “Will it have that theme song?” The answer is yes, it most certainly does. And now Marvel has released the full X-Men ’97 opening credits with the re-recorded theme song, which you can watch right here:
The music and animation from the new credits are a perfect update to the original version. The music is basically the same, but with more texture and a bit more modern pizazz thanks to composers the Newton Brothers. As for the visuals, it’s mostly the same, but fans will notice some key differences. For starters, we now have the addition of Morph and Bishop to the opening credits. Also, the “marching villains” from the original opening credits have received an update. Thunderbird, the first X-Man to die in the comics, was inexplicably with the villains before. Emma Frost now takes his place. The oddest villain from the original credits was not even an X-Men bad guy, it was Gargoyle, a deep-cut Hulk villain. Lady Deathstrike runs in his place now.
The second X-Men ’97 episode updated the credits even further. However, describing those will give away some massive spoilers for how episode one ended. So you’ll just have to watch the series on Disney+ to see what those changes are. We’ll just say that they add in some characters, while deleting others. We hope the opening credits have slight tweaks and new Easter eggs for every episode. Not that we’d ever hit “Skip Intro” for X-Men ’97, but this gives us even more reason not to.