One of the biggest, most impactful moments of X-Men '97 Season 1 was when Gambit sacrificed himself and died when destroying one of Master Mold's Wild Sentinels in order to save all of Genosha. Not only were the characters in the show crushed, but audiences around the world felt that loss just as deeply.
But, we all know comic books—how long do these characters ever really stay dead? In fact, in the original X-Men: The Animated Series, Morph dies in the first episode. However, since so many people loved the character, the powers that be made the creatives find a way to bring him back to life.
The Direct sat down with X-Men '97 executive producer Larry Houston, who revealed that they are aware that bringing Gambit back to life is "always an option"—Something that might already be teased with the title of an upcoming Season 2 episode.
Gambit Could Be Revived, Just Like Morph Was
Reviving Gambit Is Always On the Table.
- The Direct: "Obviously, one of the biggest moments was the death of Gambit. Given how often comic books revive people, I was wondering, with this show's admiration of the source material, how hard is it simply to just not revive him immediately?"
Larry Houston: Well, that's always an option. I mean, compared to when I did my original series, we killed the character off in the first episode, and he was, Morph, was supposed to—he was dead, and he was supposed to remain dead. But when we got to pick up a Season 2, they did a focus group with these kids, we said, what's their favorite character? All the kids said, 'It's Morph!' They love Morph. So, we got to... figure out a way to bring Morph back from the dead, and he was supposed to remain dead, so we... had to figure out how to bring them back.
So when X-Men '97 rolled around, Houston made sure they went up the chain of command to get sign-off so their choices could stick if they wanted them to.
Houston: Yes, they do. And so when they decided to kill Gambit, we said, "Look, he's got to go out in heroic fashion, he's a hero, and also you got to go up the chain of ladder, boss, have them sign off on it, and come back down, so there's no blowback, so you don't get some [mad] executive or whatever... Inform them first!
Larry Houston isn't unfamiliar with killing a character only to have them be forced back into the land of the living. In fact, it's happened to him in the X-Men, GI Joe, and Transformers universes.
Houston: I was involved in the directing of the GI Joe movie, [where] we killed out the main character, and the blowback from the toy company that they got from the parents, we had to unkill him in my movie, and it's like same thing with Transformers, they kill off the main character, the toy company had to go backward, oh, he's still alive. I don't care, but just get them to sign off, okay?
For Houston, one of the benefits of X-Men '97 is that they know where they're going to end up, so every choice they make has its future story points and consequences mapped out and predetermined.
Houston: We know where we're going to start, where we're going to end up. You don't just kill someone and then try and figure out what happens. Figure out repercussions all along two or three years shows, and basically my main thing is like, okay, then do something, have a destination, have a reason, have a destination, where you're going to land the plane. Yeah, those characters are dead. What happens? Where is it going to end up? As long as you know where you're going to end point storyline
