WonderCon 2025: World Of ‘X-Men ’92’ And ‘X-Men ’97’ Panel Highlights Creatives’ Journey To Iconic Franchise

A massive conference room in Anaheim, CA, filled with people rushing to their seats at WonderCon 2025. The fans were there to see X-Men ’92 producer/director Larry Houston (Captain Planet and the Planeteers, RoboCop: Alpha Commando) moderate a panel with some of X-Men ’92 and X-Men ’97‘s most adored talent. The energy was palpable with frequent applause, cheering, and roaring laughter. Panel members included: series writers Eric and Julia Lewald (Young Hercules, Dream Defenders), character artists Rick Hoberg (Defenders of the Earth, Cyborg) and Mark Lewis (Duck Dodgers, The Incredible Hulk), and voice actors Cal Dodd (Goosebumps, Spider-Man: The Animated Series), Isaac Robinson-Smith (Voltron: Legendary Defender), and Matthew Waterson (Fallout 4, Doom Eternal).

The panel started with a video introduction of each character in the series. Houston then asked the panel members how they became involved in the X-Men TV series.  Story editor Eric Lewald offered a little advice: “Always do your best work because you never know what fruit it’s going to bear.” His wife, writer Julia Lewald, narrowed in on the show’s philosophy: “Treat this like a live-action one-hour drama,” she said with conviction. “You write up. You do not write down to this audience.”

Production designer Lewis shared that he dropped off his portfolio and got an interview with the head of the studio. Even though he had never worked in animation (he planned to solely work on comics), he “cleaned up” Mr. Sinister over the weekend. Despite not knowing the industry standards, the studio head was clearly impressed, and he got the job.

Cal Dodd, known as the voice of Wolverine, joked about having no idea what X-Men was when he was told to audition. He got a big laugh when sharing that he thought of an animal when he first heard the name of the character. Telling the story of his invitation to join the show, he sincerely asked the creators whether it was an animal cartoon. The question was met with, “No, they’re mutants.”

X-Men ’97’s Bishop, or Robinson-Smith, was more serious in his introduction, expressing, “There was this dormant part of my soul that was re-awoken.” Jumping off a comment Dodd made about voicing Wolverine like Clint Eastwood, Robinson-Smith said he also got a tip to act as a “black Clint Eastwood.”

After intros, Houston said CBS, NBC, and ABC all passed on the show because “they just didn’t get it.” He mentioned that when it didn’t get sold, they “fast-forwarded” until Margaret Loesch became head of Fox. According to Houston, she relayed, “We’re going to do this again and we’re going to do it right.”

An audience Q&A followed the panel discussion. A lineup of eager fans asked questions like, “Can we get more characters that couldn’t be name-dropped earlier?” Houston had to provide a disclaimer that they can’t speak about the next season of X-Men ’97.  “We all have NDAs here,” he (kind of) joked.  Right after, another audience member asked about death revivals. “NDAs” was the comedic response.

Season one of X-Men ’97 and the entirety of the original series are available to stream on Disney Plus.