X-Men ’97 Fans Discover Marvel Villain Easter Eggs

X-Men ’97 latest episode introduced a new big bad. But, fans are noticing that Bastion has been hiding in plain sight for most of this series. Yes, “Bright Eyes” revealed that the X-Men had an unseen threat gunning for them in the guise of a “normal man.” But, Bastion is a fusion between the sentinels and other technology. He’s incredibly dangerous, and already plotting something with Magneto as a hostage. It turns out the villain has worked with Forge in the past and actually was seated with the United States government earlier in the series too. 

The fans are constantly amazed at how X-Men ’97 weaves all these storylines through. Supervising director Jake Castorena talked to ComicBook.com’s Phase Zero podcast about that amazing pace. He argues that building these comics stories at this rate is something inherited from The Animated Series.

[SPOILERS]………………..

They were giving us hints of Bastion since the second episode…#XMen97 pic.twitter.com/G50RDS1W89

April 24, 2024

“Again, full credit to the scripts and, the writing team and Beau [DeMayo], because that pacing is in the script. When you have 1100 characters you got to cover, and they all have poignant moments and they all have arcs,” Castorena argued. “You have to really prioritize what story! You lose time for process. So, you have to cram all that stuff in. Again, it’s something that I really respect about the stories and the scripts in the writer’s room is: we only have 10 episodes to work. I would say everything has to slap. We don’t have the luxury of, ‘we’ll get it later on in the season.’ No, get episode one.”

“The mission statement was, because by episode five, ‘we’re gonna challenge stuff’ and hold a mirror. So, we had to know how that escalation would work. But, you can’t escalate unless you know where you’re starting from. Then, you know where you’re going,” the director continued.

Did you catch these references in this week’s episode? Catch all of our pop culture discussion at @ComicBook on social media!