With so many X-Men characters in the 20th Century Studios films, it’s safe to say that many mutants will be left out. For example, Shawn Ashmore told us that he won’t be returning in Avengers: Doomsday. The actor first portrayed Bobby Drake, aka Iceman, in X2 (X-Men 2).

As for another X-Men actor, Caleb Landry Jones, who played Banshee in X-Men: First Class, said that he would be open to returning as Banshee in the MCU during the red carpet premiere of Dracula. The character was killed off-screen in X-Men: Days of Future Past, but with the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the multiverse, anything is possible.

“Yeah, I’d be down to fall out of a window again,” Jones said about returning as Banshee and referencing his scene in X-Men: First Class. “I’m positive that my wife and I will be in the theaters to go see [Avengers: Doomsday], absolutely. Probably on opening day, if there’s still a ticket.”

Audiences can see Caleb Landry Jones as Count Dracula in Luc Besson’s Dracula, which is now playing in theaters nationwide.

About Dracula

Synopsis: When a 15th-century prince (Caleb Landry Jones) witnesses the brutal murder of his wife (Zoe Bleu), he renounces God and damns heaven itself. Cursed with eternal life, he is reborn as Dracula, an immortal warlord who defies fate in a blood-soaked crusade to wrench his lost love back from death, no matter the cost. On the verge of reuniting, Dracula is hunted by a relentless priest (Christoph Waltz), sworn to end his immortal reign.

The film is written, directed & produced by Luc Besson. It stars Caleb Landry Jones, Christoph Waltz, Zoë Bleu, Guillaume de Tonquedec, Matilda de Angelis, Ewens Abid and Raphael Luce.

The post Caleb Landry Jones Says He’d Be Open to Returning as Banshee in the MCU appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

Remy LeBeau and Rogue are two popular X-Men superheroes and have had on-again, off-again relationships. In the first season of X-Men ’97, their relationship was put to the test with the appearance of Magneto, who has taken over as the leader of the mutant superhero team.

“I think that Remy, Gambit, is her soulmate – is Rogue’s soulmate,” Zann tells Nerd Reactor. “And you know, in season one, in episode five, when I have that dance with Magneto, and I’ve told Remy that I’ve decided I’m going to go with Magneto to try and create a better world for mutants. And because she, you know, she can be touched by Magneto, which you can’t blame a woman for wanting to have that. But once she has it, she realizes, and she says verbally, she kisses him, and she says, ‘Thanks for the dance, sugar. But Remy was right, some things are deeper than skin.”

Zann portrayed Marilyn Monroe in a rock opera called Hey Marilyn! when she was 19 and got to play as her again over the years. As someone who portrayed a sex goddess and had a lot of sexual energy, she talks about who she had romantic relationships with.

“Keanu, Louis Gossett Jr, Andy Gibb, who is the younger brother of the Bee Gees,” Zann said about who she has dated. “I mean, yeah, I’ve had a life. I’ve lived. And you know, when you’re in your 20s, you know, you’ve got a lot of energy there, and a lot of sexual energy there. And I was never really afraid. I mean, I played Marilyn Monroe at the age of 19, you know, this great sex goddess.”

Thanks to her role as Marilyn, Zann caught the attention of Steven Spielberg, who was looking for someone to play Wilie Scott in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Ultimately, Kate Capshaw got the part, but Spielberg helped Zann with getting cast for another project.

“And we, I guess we had shown our pictures and the reel to some casting people who must have then contacted Steven Spielberg, who was looking for someone who could play a cabaret singer, sexy kind of cabaret singer in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” Zann said. “And so we were sitting at the Polo Lounge, having, you know, afternoon cocktails in their afternoon cocktail hour. And I hear my name called over the loudspeaker or whatever to pick up a phone at your booth.

“‘Ms, Zann, there’s a phone call for you.’ We picked up the phone, and it was the roommate of my agent’s friend, saying, ‘Hey, Steven Spielberg’s office just called and they want to meet Lenore.’ And we were like, we thought he was joking, but he wasn’t. He was serious, and they wanted to meet me that afternoon. So we just hightailed it over to the lot, and I went up the stairs and ran into Mel Gibson coming down, and Sly Stallone was coming out of the office room after a meeting. I was just like, amazed, you know, not star-struck, but just, ‘Wow, this is how it all happens.’

“And then I spent about a good hour with Steven Spielberg, chatting about things in life and my work so far. I mean, I was only 20, showed him the pictures of me as Marilyn and stuff like that he’s already seen the reel which is why he wanted to meet me. I didn’t get the part, but I noticed that Kate Capshaw was wearing a red sequined dress in the scenes, which was the same kind of dress that I wearing in those pictures, which I thought was interesting. But I didn’t get that part, and then she ended up marrying him, but he did then tell these other casting directors about me, and then they had me go to New York and do a screen test for a TV series called Love Sydney, which I got. And then it was taken away at the 11th hour because they had to rewrite the script, which I talked about in the book as well.”

Published by Nimbus Publishing, Lenore Zann: A Rogue’s Tale is now available to pre-order on Amazon.

The post Rogue Voice Actor Lenore Zann on Gambit, Her New Book, Dating Celebrities & Meeting Steven Spielberg appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

Spoilers ahead for X-Men ’97 Episode 5 “Remember it.”

This week’s episode has turned things up a notch, and the last few minutes were pure chaos with death and mayhem on the island of Genosha, the haven for mutants. In the last moment, Gambit is injured by a dangerous and unique Sentinel with three heads, and in the end, he sacrifices his life and uses his powers to blow up the giant robot.

Fans have been going nuts over the new episode, and here are a few reactions.

Beau DeMayo, the creator of X-Men ’97, gives fans an update on what to expect for the rest of the season.

“My plan was the first half of the season is the OG audiences pre-9/11 days, rife with nostalgia and comfort,” DeMayo said in a Tweet. “Then 9/11 — like Tulsa and other mass tragedies — turned the world upside down and reminded us the whole world unsafe.”

About X-Men ’97

Synopsis: Storm and Wolverine try to continue the X-Men. Magneto comes in and wants to step up for Charles Xavier. Sinister comes in to try to end the X-Men once and for all.

The revival series is created by Beau DeMayo and is based on the X-Men created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

The voice talents are Jennifer Hale as Jean Grey, Ray Chase as Cyclops, Lenore Zann as Rogue, Call Dodd as Wolverine, George Buza as Beast, J.P. Karliak as Morph, Adrian Hough as Nightcrawler, A.J. LoCascio as Gambit, Alison Sealy-Smith as Storm, Matthew Waterson as Magneto, Holly Chou as Jubilee, Isaac Robinson-Smith as Bishop, and Gui Agustini as Roberto Da Costa.

X-Men ’97 premiered the first two episodes on Disney+ on March 20th, with the eight remaining episodes released weekly.

The post X-Men ’97 Creator Beau DeMayo Compares Second Half of Season to Mass Tragedies appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

You can check out the X-Men ’97 theme song below:

The Newton Brothers are comprised of Andy Grush and Taylor Newton Stewart, and their credits include Universal Pictures’ Five Nights at Freddy’s, Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House, The Fall of the House of Usher, and more. Since the two have been working together for years, they have evolved to the point where they don’t need to talk to each other every day to understand each other’s music.

“We’ve spent years sort of perfecting this process that’s always sort of evolving, but we’ve gotten into a place where, technically, if we don’t have time to talk in a day, we don’t need to,” Andy Grush tells Nerd Reactor. “I can ascertain everything I need from like, if I’m working on a character that Taylor has been spending most of his time on the theme for, I’ve got that theme on my computer already. Our machines are constantly syncing. So we’re pretty good about keeping track of everything. And especially in this project, there are scenes that abruptly change so quickly, so many times within an episode, so we’d have to be hyper-aware.”

“Like if I’m starting a queue, typically Taylor and I will sort of divide and conquer, but then it all sort of comes together in a bit of a soup,” Grush explained. “I might start a queue. Taylor might finish it. But it’s tricky because we kind of have to pay attention to see if I’m starting to queue and Taylor’s already started the queue before it, I need to see what he’s done so far to make sure I’m not starting in a weird key or that he’s not ending with like a drum break. Then I’m coming in at a different tempo. So we kind of have all that technical stuff kind of locked down. That doesn’t mean it always works once in a while. It’s like, oh, there’s a bit of a train wreck between cues, but you know, it’s all pretty, pretty fixable.”

To make the music of X-Men ’97, the composers use digital workstations from Avid.

“Yeah, so we use Pro Tools and Logic,” Stewart revealed. “We typically do a lot of writing, everything kind of is written in Logic. And then everything gets recorded or sent to Pro Tools. But Andy and I are sharing Logic sessions and Logic files. Andy is definitely really good with color coding and that kind of stuff. But I’m not quite as clean in that fashion. But yeah, we have organized setups and lists and sort of a whole execution of strategies that we use when working together that makes it very easy and you don’t have to think about it. It just kind of naturally happens.”

Wolverine is a favorite character for many fans, and he’s so popular he even was leading his own show with Wolverine and the X-Men and the X-Men spin-offs including Logan, The Wolverine, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

“When I was a kid at that time, it was Wolverine,” Stewart said about getting into the X-Men during his youth. “I just love Wolverine. I was like, ‘Oh, this is amazing.’ I thought he was so cool with the claws and he was gruff and misunderstood. But then as you work on the show, and strangely enough as you get older, tastes change and characters change. And it’s it’s been fun to revisit those old characters and especially obviously now working on it, it’s definitely a labor of love.”

Grush’s love for X-Men began when he was a child. He had a paper route in Pasadena delivering the Star News when he was in the seventh/eighth grade. His parents wouldn’t buy comic books for him, so he would ride his bike to the bookstore, which is now a Panda Express.

“So I would go there and read most of them in the store,” Grush said. “And some of them I could buy, and then I would just keep to myself. This would have been like 86/87, so it was like Daredevil, X-Factor, X-Men, The Incredible Hulk, and I got super into it. And then the series came out years later, and that was really exciting because it was just even easier. I didn’t have to read as a kid. I mean, I love reading. But when it came out, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh,’ this is like I’m getting everything fully realized. So it was a really exciting way to be introduced to the show.”

You can check out the full interview below:

About X-Men ’97

Synopsis: Storm and Wolverine try to continue the X-Men. Magneto comes in and wants to step up for Charles Xavier. Sinister comes in to try to end the X-Men once and for all.

The revival series is created by Beau DeMayo and is based on the X-Men created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

The voice talents are Jennifer Hale as Jean Grey, Ray Chase as Cyclops, Lenore Zann as Rogue, Call Dodd as Wolverine, George Buza as Beast, J.P. Karliak as Morph, Adrian Hough as Nightcrawler, A.J. LoCascio as Gambit, Alison Sealy-Smith as Storm, Matthew Waterson as Magneto, Holly Chou as Jubilee, Isaac Robinson-Smith as Bishop, and Gui Agustini as Roberto Da Costa.

X-Men ’97 premiered the first two episodes on Disney+ on March 20th, with the eight remaining episodes released weekly.

The post X-Men ’97 Composers on Working on Animated Show: The Newton Brothers Interview appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

The cast and crew of X-Men ’97 are headed to WonderCon 2024 at Anaheim Convention Center, and they are Lenore Zann (Rogue), Matthew Waterson (Magneto), A.J. LoCascio (Gambit), JP Karliak (Morph), Holly Chou (Jubilee), Gui Augustini (Sunspot), Isaac Robinson-Smith (Bishop), and supervising producer Jake Castorena.

The 5th annual X-Men Fandom Panel will be held on Saturday, March 30th at 7 p.m. in Room 207. Chandler Poling and Chris Riley (X-Reads Podcast & The Uncanny Experience) will be moderating.

The cast and crew will be discussing their roles in the new animated series, and the panel will feature clips of the series and special gift bags courtesy of Marvel Entertainment to select members of the audience.

Check out our interview with J.P. Karliak where he talks about voicing Morph, his reaction to watching X-Men ’97 for the first time with a packed crowd, his favorite scenes, and why he prefers animated roles over live-action roles.

About X-Men ’97

Synopsis: Storm and Wolverine try to continue the X-Men. Magneto comes in and wants to step up for Charles Xavier. Sinister comes in to try to end the X-Men once and for all.

The revival series is created by Beau DeMayo and is based on the X-Men created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

The voice talents are Jennifer Hale as Jean Grey, Ray Chase as Cyclops, Lenore Zann as Rogue, Call Dodd as Wolverine, George Buza as Beast, J.P. Karliak as Morph, Adrian Hough as Nightcrawler, A.J. LoCascio as Gambit, Alison Sealy-Smith as Storm, Matthew Waterson as Magneto, Holly Chou as Jubilee, Isaac Robinson-Smith as Bishop, and Gui Agustini as Roberto Da Costa.

X-Men ’97 premiered the first two episodes on Disney+ on March 20th, with the eight remaining episodes released weekly.

The post X-Men ’97 Cast Heading to WonderCon 2024 for X-Men Fandom Panel appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

X-Men ’97, the revival of the ’90s X-Men animated series, debuted on Disney+ today with the first two episodes. It’s a return to form with many of the original voice actors reprising their roles and the iconic X-Men animated show theme song still exciting fans after all these years.

Morph is back, and this time the mutant shapeshifter is voiced by J.P. Karliak, whose credits include Wile E. Coyote in New Looney Tunes, Dr. Nefarious Tropy in Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, Boss Baby in The Boss Baby: Back in Business, Green Goblin in Spidey and His Amazing Friends and many more.

With voice acting, J.P. Karliak can morph into all types of characters in popular animated and video game titles including Family Guy, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Spider-Man 2, Starfield, Fortnite, and Minions: The Rise of Gru.

“When I started out in Hollywood, I was pursuing on camera and then also started pursuing voiceover simultaneously,” J.P. Karliak tells Nerd Reactor. “And while I found myself being typecast a lot with on camera in terms of… it was just a lot of like, ‘Hey, Mary,’ that type of those different roles. With voice acting, I was doing so many different things, like so many different roles. I mean, one of my earliest roles was with Skylanders, and I was playing an undead Australian werewolf rocker guy. And I was like, ‘Okay, yeah, there’s a lot more variety here.’ Yeah, that’s what I’ve really loved about it is that I’ve played so many different characters. One would argue that many of my characters have gone to a good college. But other than that, I’ve really gotten to play such a diverse group of people, which has been really fun.”

In X-Men ’97, Morph is the comic relief of the team and loves to joke around, especially in front of serious characters like Wolverine and Cyclops.

“Yeah, I love being the comic relief,” the actor said. “I’m a huge fan of that. He’s got some really fun one-liners and zingers and yeah, I really enjoy that. I also really enjoy that he is a collaborative character in that I play him, but then anytime I’m turning into somebody else, that other person who voices that character gets to do a version of me. Like when I turned into Jean and then Jennifer Hale gets to do me, I loved what she did.”

The animated X-Men title sequence is back in X-Men ’97, and there are new updates including Morph having his own spot. Karliak talks about seeing that for the first time in a packed theater during the premiere.

“But for me, the big shocker was the title sequence,” he revealed. “I didn’t think my character got to get the big dramatic reveal in the title sequence. And I mean, talk about iconic. My jaw was on the floor.”

Morph has dealt with a lot in the X-Men series, and that tragic backstory will play a part in the actor’s performance.

“He’s funny, there’s always the one-liners, there’s the comic relief element, but he does have that tragic backstory,” Karliak said. “I mean, you see it in that in that opening credits, in addition to the gorgeous reveal with the title with the name, there’s also that little cut of him shooting at something and then you see the eyes of Sinister appear and terrifying him. So he’s got that always in the back of his mind. So you want to make sure that that the humanity, that trauma, that heart still plays.”

X-Men ’97 features plenty of cool superhero moments, especially when the X-Men are kicking ass.

“Hearing Storm for the first time,” Karliak said about his favorite moments. “Hearing Alison’s iconic voice start to majestically speak the lines of Storm or to hear Rogue with that adorable scratchy Southern drawl. Just all those little iconic things; they just made me giddy hearing them. So yeah, those are some of my favorites. Obviously, I love Jen Hale playing me. Thank you.”

About X-Men ’97

Synopsis: Storm and Wolverine try to continue the X-Men. Magneto comes in and wants to step up for Charles Xavier. Sinister comes in to try to end the X-Men once and for all.

The revival series is created by Beau DeMayo and is based on the X-Men created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

The voice talents are Jennifer Hale as Jean Grey, Ray Chase as Cyclops, Lenore Zann as Rogue, Call Dodd as Wolverine, George Buza as Beast, J.P. Karliak as Morph, Adrian Hough as Nightcrawler, A.J. LoCascio as Gambit, Alison Sealy-Smith as Storm, Matthew Waterson as Magneto, Holly Chou as Jubilee, Isaac Robinson-Smith as Bishop, and Gui Agustini as Roberto Da Costa.

X-Men ’97 premiered the first two episodes on Disney+ on March 20th, with the eight remaining episodes released weekly.

The post Morph Actor J.P. Karliak on X-Men ’97, Favorite Scenes, and Hollywood Typecasting appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

X-Men The Animated Rogue 1/6 Scale Figure – Regular Edition (MSRP: $210) and X-Men The Animated Gambit 1/6 Scale Figure – Regular Edition (MSRP: $200) are both now available at MondoShop.com.

Rogue and Gambit are the popular X-Men couple, and the figures capture their ’90s animated series look with detailed paint and sculpt jobs.

“[Rogue has] been one of the most requested characters for our X-Men line,” Senior Creative Director Peter Santa-Maria tells Nerd Reactor during DesignerCon 2023. “So yeah, she’s a meme and then she’s standing on this base which is a destroyed sentinel head. The incredible thing is people keep coming here and asking us if we’re launching a statue line when they see her. I know that’s a fully articulated figure.”

Check out the Rogue and Gambit figures photos below.

The post X-Men Animated Rogue and Gambit 1/6 Figures Now Available from Mondo appeared first on Nerd Reactor.