Before Marvel and FOX produced X-Men: The Animated Series in the 90s, Marvel made another attempt to make an X-Men cartoon series in 1989 with Pryde of the X-Men. There was a pilot episode that was produced, but nothing happened with it beyond that. That pilot was developed by the Japanese animation studio Toei, who also worked on Dragon Ball Z.
The story would have centered around Kitty Pryde, a young girl who discovers that she has mutant powers when she starts phasing through objects. Soon after her powers manifest, she is approached by Professor Charles Xavier, who invites her to join his school for gifted young mutants.
Once at the X-Mansion, Kitty, now codenamed “Sprite”, meets characters Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Dazzler. They serve as Professor X’s students and team of superheroes.
The main villain of the pilot is Magneto, along with his Brotherhood of Mutants, who consisted of the White Queen, Pyro, the Blob, Juggernaut, and Toad. Magneto aimed to divert a comet to strike Earth, which would cause chaos and pave the way for mutant domination.
The X-Men, with the help of Kitty, confront and battle the Brotherhood in order to prevent Magneto’s plan from succeeding. It’s a shame this series never happened, it actually looks like it would’ve made a great X-Men cartoon! I actually like the animation and art style more than what we ended up getting in X-Men: The Animated Series. It looks like a more dynamic series.
One of the notable things about the project is that Wolverine, interestingly, had an Australian accent in this version, which was a departure from his typical Canadian background. His voice was provided by Patrick Pinney. The other voice actors included John Stephenson as Professor X, Michael Bell as Cyclops, Neil Ross as Nightcrawler, Dan Gilvezan as Colossus, Kath Soucie as Kitty, Earl Boen (Dr. Silberman from Terminator) was Magneto, and Skeletor actor Alan Oppenheimer voiced the Blob.
The pilot was supposed to launch a 65-episode syndicated series. The pilot aired in 1989 and it was also released on VHS but it never got picked up. The series also later served as the foundation for the X-Men arcade game by Konami.
You can watch the entire pilot episode below. If you’ve never seen it, I hope you enjoy it!
Despite the fact that this particular version of the X-Men did not move beyond the pilot, the early 1990s saw the production of X-Men: The Animated Series, which became a massive hit and introduced a lot of kids to the world of the X-Men.
