X-Men The Animated Series S2E1 Thru S2E5 Review and Producer Will Meugniot Profile (A Marvel Comic Universe Podcast) LoS414

February 27, 2022 Stargate Pioneer Legends of S.H.I.E.L.D.: A Marvel Studios TV & Film Fan Podcast 0 Comments
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The Legends Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Michelle, Consultant Chris, and Producer of the show Director SP discuss the 1992 Marvel Entertainment Group X-Men The Animated Series season two episodes “X-Ternally Yours,” “Time Fugitives: Part 1,” “Time Fugitives: Part 2,” and “A Rogue’s Tale.” They also discuss the top Marvel Studios news stories of the week including Patrick Stewart’s statement on the Superbowl Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness trailer, where the Marvel Netflix Defender series will be streaming in mid March, and Deborah Ann Woll’s new project. The Team debriefs you on World Bartender Day, a profile on X-Men The Animate Series Supervising Producer Will Meugniot, a Legends Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Previously On in honor of X-Men The Animated Series, episode synopses, Mutant Time Loops, a proposed Legends Of S.H.I.E.L.D. X-Men The Animated Series Shirtless Mutant Counter, a vague recollection of X-Ternals, what watching the Mutant plague in the age of a COVID-19 pandemic is like, how long Wolverine colds last, SP fanboys out over the Rogue and Carol Danvers revelations, and Xavier and Magneto episode absences. Stay tuned after the credits for a few minutes of Legends Of S.H.I.E.L.D. bonus audio.

 

THIS TIME ON LEGENDS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.:

 

  • Marvel Entertainment’s X-Men The Animated Series As Shown On Disney+
  • Discuss the 1992 X-Men Animated Series season 2 episodes 6-9
  • Some background into Supervising Producer Will Meugniot
  • Weekly Marvel Studio News
  • Patrick Stewart’s Statement on the Multiverse of Madness Trailer
  • Where you have to move to in order to see the Marvel Netflix Defender shows in March
  • Deborah Ann Woll’s New Project

 

X-MEN THE ANIMATED SERIES S2E6 – S2E9 [6:07]

 

X-Men The Animated Series Supervising Producer and Storyboard Artist Will Meugniot

 

  • IMDB Credits
    • 46 Writing Credits since 1979
  • Background
    • Also worked on the failed Pryde Of The X-Men pilot
  • Did NOT have creative control
  • Knew the comic book history of the comic books
  • DID have creative control of X-Men TAS
  • Designed the opening credits with Larry Houston under the supervision of Sidney Iwanter
  • Names flying in were his idea
  • Fought the character design fight with Marvel
  • Jim Lee style was out – Jim and others were leaving Marvel for Image Comics
  • Handed in a 1970’s version Hanna Barbera style
  • Marvel went back to the Jim Lee designs
  • Fought the merchandise “product placement” battle
  • Australian McDonald’s Marvel deal
  • Marvel insisted to insert those bad designs in every episode
  • Walkie Talkies glued to heads, X-Men drapes in the Mansion, Wolverine sleeping in his own jammies
  • Will threatened to quit or get fired over it
  • Marvel finally backed down – it was illegal believe it or not
  • The Stan Lee Crisis:
  • Stan wanted to voice over the intro explaining the characters and the lesson of the episode
  • Will flew over to South Korea to review animation production
  • Pulled back to “Consultant” after season one because he was over committed with other series (ExoSquad/Conan/etc)
  • Eventually worked with Graz Entertainment overseeing Conan and X-Men animation
  • /interfaced with South Korean AKOM Animation company
  • Meugniot notably served as both storyboard artist and supervising producer for X-Men: The Animated Series, playing an instrumental role in how the show ultimately came together.
  • Marvel Animation Age (MAA): First off, what do you think makes the X-Men such an appealing property to animate?
    • Will Meugniot (WM): It’s all about the characters. X-Men in almost every incarnation has enjoyed a great blend of likable, unique heroes. Plus the subtext of young people who are finding themselves is of great appeal.
  • MAA: How do you think all three X-Men shows compare in terms of animation, storytelling and X-team line-up? Which one do think has the leg up over the others?
    • WM: In terms of animation, I’d have to go with Boyd Kirkland’s X-Men: Evolution series, though I always liked the pilot’s Toei animation as well. As for character line up, the Fox Kids version is my favorite. All three of them have strengths and weaknesses, but on the whole, admitting that I’m biased, the Fox X-Men is my favorite.
  • MAA: With which X-Men show were you the most comfortable working on? Which one gave you more opportunity to flex your muscle?
    • WM: The Fox Kid’s was the most satisfying to me, and the one which allowed me the most creative control.
  • MAA: Of all the many different Marvel Comics-based shows you have worked on, which was your favorite?
    • WM: Undoubtedly the Fox X-Men. Both for the show and the people I got to work with on it. Larry Houston, Eric Lewald, Rick Hoberg, the Edens Brothers and Sidney Iwanter have all proven to be life-long friends and collaborators.
  • MAA: To go off-topic for a moment, you worked on the unaired Captain America cartoon. Why was the show never finished? How much work was actually done on the show? You mention casting on your site, scripts and a promo film. When was the show originally intended to air, and who was involved?
    • WM: For anybody who wants to really understand what was going on with Marvel during that period and why all their animated shows stopped production, I’d recommend reading Comic Wars: How Two Tycoons Battled Over the Marvel Comics Empire–And Both Lost by Dan Raviv.
  • MAA: To wrap this up, and given that this will be featured on the X-Men: The Animated Series site, do you have any favorite moments – both off and on the screen – concerning this classic series?
    • WM: The evening before the premiere of the first episode on Fox Kids, I’d been to Toys R Us and they had mounds of those sorry looking X-Men Bendies and early action figures which were not as nice as their later versions. A few hours after the show aired, I re-visited the store and to my shock, found they only had a single X-Men toy left, a Wolverine Bendie with a chewed up backing card. That?s when I knew the show would be a hit.
  • https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/x-men-animated-series-story-90s-cartoon-hit-1052263/
    • Will Meugniot, artist/producer: Larry had presented a version of it that was amazing and wonderful and in some ways better than what we wound up with. Because Larry was such a solid fan of X-Men and he knew the show was going to run 65 episodes and eventually everybody was going to show up in it, he put everybody in the title. Fox freaked out. They were already worried we had too many characters in the show. 
    • Meugniot: Sidney Iwanter, our Fox supervisor on the show, phoned me and said, “what can we do about this?” [The opening two scenes]  We discussed it and we both agreed that Larry had done a great job, we just needed to save what we could. While we were talking, I did thumbnails of the individual character introduction shots. Larry already had the one of Wolverine where he’s slashing a Sentinel and sitting on top of a pile of rubble. I built out from that and worked out rough staging from the individual shots.
    • Meugniot: We thought we’d have the logos fly in so everyone would get an intro. In the end, we ended up using about 80 percent of Larry’s stuff. It was just that I was on the phone with Sydney, I did thumbnails and charts of where we’d use the existing stuff Larry had done, where he put in character specific shots and logo flybys. When I gave it to Larry, he totally got it and we were done.
    • Meugniot: Our show demonstrated that the Marvel universe, as a whole, had commercial value far beyond what anybody estimated. X-Men was getting primetime numbers on Saturday morning. In our time slot, we were doing business nobody had done since the ‘70s. Fox had this 1, 2, 3 in ratings. Batman as a daily show lit the fuse for them. They hadn’t been doing very well as a network until they got Batman and Animaniacs and those shows. Then X-Men kind of kicked it to the next level, by giving them a big, solid weekend show.
    • Meugniot: There was merchandise threat that almost shut down the production. They had made a deal with a fast food franchise to do some X-Men giveaway toys in Australia. And whoever had negotiated the deal had promised the Australian food franchisee that those toys would appear in the show. They were some of the most God awful designs possible.  So I said no, and the situation festered for a few days. At home one night I got a call from Jim Graziano, who was the head of Graz, the production company I was working for. Jim just said, “Look, Marvel is threatening to pull the show from us if you don’t cave on this.” He goes, “If you think it’s important, we’ll back you. But think very carefully, because there will probably be consequences.” I said, “We can’t cave on this, or we are going to have to cave on everything.” And Jim backed me and it was a really tense few days and we prevailed.
    • Meugniot: What I think people don’t understand is X-Men wasn’t canceled. It had actually been scheduled to be 65 episodes and had been extended past the original order. When it was done, it was like “well, contract fulfilled. We did it.”
  • X-MEN ANIMATED SERIES 25th ANNIVERSARY PANEL
  • Previously on X-Men: The Making of an Animated Series

                                 

PREVIOUSLY ON LEGENDS OF S.H.I.E.L.D…. [19:38]

 

X-Men The Animated Series Season Two Episodes 1-5 Premiered on “Fox Kids”

  • (Episode Order As Shown On Disney+, Premiere Dates As Shown On Fox)
    • S2E6 “X-Ternally Yours” Saturday December 4th, 1993
    • S2E7 “Time Fugitives: Part 1” Saturday December 11th, 1993
    • S2E8 “Time Fugitives: Part 2” Saturday December 18th, 1993
    • S2E9 “A Rogue’s Tale” Saturday January 8th, 1994
  • Produced By:
    • Will Meugniot
    • Larry Houston

           

X-Men The Animated Series Main Cast

  • Cedric Smith                                        …         Professor X / Charles Xavier
    • 117 Credits, best known for X-Men
  • Norm Spencer                                      …         Cyclops / Scott Summers 
    • 31 Credits, best known for X-Men
  • Catherine Disher                                  …         Jean Grey / Phoenix
    • 122 Credits, best known for X-Men
  • Alison Sealy-Smith                              …         Storm / Ororo Munroe
    • 72 Credits, best known for X-Men
  • Iona Morris                                          …         Storm / Ororo Munroe
    • 101 Credits
      • Star Tek TOD (Little Girl)
      • Claudian Grant on Robotech
      • 2xStar Trek: Voyager
  • Lenore Zann                                         …         Rogue
    • 110 Credits, best known for X-Men
  • Cal Dodd                                              …         Wolverine / Logan
    • 34 Credits, best known for X-Men
  • Alyson Court                                        …         Jubilee / Jubilation Lee
    • 100 Credits, best known for X-Men
  • George Buza                                        …         Beast / Dr. Henry ‘Hank’ McCoy 
    • 163 Credits, best known for X-Men
  • Chris Potter                                         …         Gambit / Remy LeBeau
    • 58 Credits
    • The Pacifier
    • Heartland
  •  Don Francks                                       …         Sabretooth / Graydon Creed Sr. 
    • 191 Credits
    • Johnny Mnemonic
    • Heavy Metal
  • Brett Halsey                                         …         Bolivar Trask
    • 154 Credits       
  • Barry Flatman                                      …         Henry Peter Gyrich (works with Trask)
  • David Hemblen                         …         Magneto / Erik Magnus Lehnsherr
  • Lawrence Bayne                                   …         Cable / Nathan Dayspring-Summers
    • 127 Credits
  • Randall Carpenter        (She)                …         Mystique / Raven Darkholme (voice)
    • 13 Credits         
  • Lally Cadeau                                         …         Dr. Moira MacTaggert 
  • Stephen Ouimette                                …         Angel / Warren Worthington III 
  • John Colicos                                        …         Apocalypse / En Sabah Nur
  • Rick Bennett                                        …         Colossus / Piotr Rasputin / Juggernaut / Cain Marko (voice)
  • Philip Akin                                           …         Bishop (voice) (as Phil Aiken)
  • Marc Strange                                       …         Forge (voice)
  • Chris Britton                …         Mr. Sinister / Nathaniel Essex 
  • Ron Rubin                                …         Morph
  • Maurice Dean Wint                   …         Shadow King
  • Robert Cait                              …         Colossus / Piotr Rasputin
  • Tara Strong                             …         Illyana Rasputin
  • Robert Calt                                …         Blob / Frederick Dukes
  • Rod Coneybeare                        …         Avalanche
  • Jennifer Dale                             …         Mystique / Raven Darkholme
  • Graham Haley                            …         Pyro / St. John Allerdyce

 

NEWS [49:18]

 

UPCOMING MARVEL STUDIOS SLATE OF PROJECTS

 

 

 

  • Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (May 6, 2022)

 

 

 

  • Thor: Love and Thunder (July 8, 2022)

 

 

 

 

 

  • Ironheart is in development for release on Disney+
    • No date has been announced. 
    • Series confirmed on Disney+ Day 12 Nov 21

 

  • Armor Wars is in development for release on Disney+ but no date has been announced. 

 

  • Echo is in development for release on Disney+
    • Confirmed on Disney+ Day 12 Nov 21 but no release/premiere date given. 

 

  • Agatha: House of Harkness
    • Announced/Confirmed on Disney+ Day 12 Nov 2021

 

  • An untitled Wakanda series is in development for release on Disney+ but no date has been announced. 

 

  • X-Men ‘97 (2023)
    • Written by Executive Producer Beau DeMayo.
    • Announced Disney+ Day (12 Nov 2021)

 

  • The Marvels (Feb. 17, 2023)

 

  •  Marvel Zombies
    • Animated series announced on Disney+ Day 12 Nov 21
    • No date given

 

  • Also, we know there will be a Loki season two at some point.

 

  • Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (July 28, 2023)

 

  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (May 5th, 2023)

 

  • Fantastic Four  (???)

 

  • Guardians Of The Galaxy Holiday Special
    • Confirmed during Disney+ Day 12 Nov 21
    • Different from I Am Groot

 

  • Spider-Man: Freshman Year
    • Announced during Disney+ Day 12 Nov 2021
    • No premiere date given

 

  • Untitled (February 16th, 2024)

 

  • Untitled (May 3rd, 2024)

 

  • Untitled (July 26th, 2024)

 

  • Untitled (November 8th, 2024)

 

  • List of MCU films in production without premiere dates
    • Fantastic Four
    • Deadpool 3
    • Blade
    • Avengers-Level Team up to end the phase (not confirmed in development)
      • Could be linked to Russo Brothers story from last week
    • Captain America Sequel
    • Possible X-Men

 

  • Projects that have NOT been announced yet
    • Young Avengers

 

TOP NEWS STORY OF THE WEEK

 

Doctor Strange 2: Patrick Stewart Breaks Silence on Multiverse of Madness Trailer (Exclusive)

https://comicbook.com/marvel/news/doctor-strange-2-multiverse-of-madness-trailer-patrick-stewart-professor-x-voice/

The Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness trailer sent Marvel fans into a frenzy when it debuted. In particular, X-Men fans were abuzz over the scene that seemingly included the voice of Patrick Stewart returning in this role as Professor X from the X-Men movies. Stewart currently stars in Star Trek: Picard on Paramount+. While discussing the second season of his return as Jean-Luc Picard with ComicBook.com, he also commented on the apparent use of his voice in the Doctor Strange trailer. According to Stewart, that’s all that it was, someone else using his voice, which he’s experienced over the entirety of his storied career. 

 

“You know, people have been imitating my voice ever since I came on the stage 60 years ago,” Stewart said of the trailer. “So, I can’t be held responsible for that.”

 

Was that someone imitating Stewart’s voice in the Doctor Strange trailer? Or is this an evolution of the Andrew Garfield press playbook? That strategy saw The Amazing Spider-Man actor pointedly denying his involvement in Spider-Man: No Way Home until the movie opened.

 

Professor X’s presumed appearance in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness recasts the character as part of the shadowy Marvel organization called The Illuminati. Rumors have circulated about his return for some time. Previous to that, he admitted that he’d discussed reprising his role as Professor X with Kevin Feige. Ultimately he felt that Logan put too perfect an ending on the character’s story to tarnish.

 

“Here’s the problem… If we had not made Logan, then yes, I would probably be ready to get into that wheelchair one more time and be Charles Xavier,” Stewart said. “But Logan changed all that. Here’s a tiny anecdote. The first time that Hugh [Jackman] and I saw the film in public was at the Berlin Film Festival, which is where the movie premiered. Shortly after Xavier’s death scene, I found myself getting very emotional, but I had to keep a hold of myself because we were sitting in the middle of this cinema. And then I saw Hugh’s hand come up to his eye and wipe away a tear. I thought, ‘Dammit, the bugger’s crying. Oh, let it out, Patrick.'”

 

DISNEY+

 

https://www.cbr.com/marvel-daredevil-punisher-luke-cage-iron-fist-jessica-jones-disney-plus/

 

Deborah Ann Woll Launches New Ongoing Dungeons & Dragons Show 

https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/dungeons-dragons-deborah-ann-woll-demiplan-children-earte/ 

Daredevil actress Deborah Ann Woll will appear in a new ongoing Dungeons & Dragons live play series. Woll is a longtime D&D enthusiast. Woll previously developed and starred in the Geek & Sundry series Relics & Rarities, which featured Charlie Cox as a guest on “The Ascent of the Angler Parts 1 and 2.” Woll will serve as the Dungeon Master of Children of Earte (pronounced Air-tay). She’ll be joined by veteran TTRPG live play cast members Hope LaVelle, Alicia Marie, Adam Bradford, Lauren Urban, and Jennifer Kretchmer. Children of Earte launches on March 15th on Demiplane’s Twitch channel. A preview of the show will air on March 8th.


LInk to Relics and Rarities playlist on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcaxZbUjfaY&list=PL7atuZxmT954B-AtfJsw_YbULHL_L7J8z

 

OUTRO AND BONUS AUDIO [1:07:32]

 

We would love to hear back from you! Call the voicemail line at 1-844-THE-BUS1 or 844-843-2871.

                  

Join Legends Of S.H.I.E.L.D. next time as the Agents discuss the 1992 X-Men The Animated Series season 2 episodes 10-13 (As Shown On Disney+). You can listen in live when we record Thursday Evenings at 8:00 PM Eastern time at Geeks.live. Contact Info: Please see http://www.legendsofshield.com for all of our contact information or call our voicemail line at 1-844-THE-BUS1 or 844-843-2871

 

Legends Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Is a Proud Member Of The GonnaGeek Network (gonnageek.com).

 

This podcast was recorded on Thursday February 24th, 2022.

 

Standby for your S.H.I.E.L.D. debriefing —

 

Audio and Video Production by Stargate Pioneer of GonnaGeek.com.

About the Author
SciFi and Space aficionado. Dreaming of heading through the stargate or travelling via starship to new worlds to colonize them with the old pioneer spirit.

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