TV SERIES · 2000– · USA
X-Men: Evolution
47 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (47)
- #001
In this version, Nightcrawler does not appear Catholic or religious.
- #002
The third season introduced X-23, a new original character. X-23 was the creation of Craig Kyle, a producer on the series at Marvel. One day he pitched the idea to the producers and writers and asked them to include her in the show. Like many other characters who originated in media adaptations of the comics, X-23 was later adapted into the mainstream X-Men comics, debuting in NYX #3, published by Marvel Comics and released on December 10, 2003.
- #003
The character Spyke is not part of the comic-book-based Marvel Universe and was created solely for this series. Unlike X-23, he was never later adapted into the comics.
- #004
The writers of the series admitted they were big Buffy fans. Using Shadowcat as the catalyst, the two shows Buffy and Evolution are eerily similar: a young girl with superpowers fights bad guys while attending classes in high school. Buffy/Shadowcat has first a school principal and then a mayor set against her. Coincidentally, Joss Whedon, the creator of everything Buffy-related, admits to being an X-Men fan and created the character Buffy inspired by Shadowcat, even giving her the surname of Shadowcat's team leader: Summers.
- #005
According to producer/writer/director Boyd Kirkland, the Acolytes provided new and bigger challenges for the heroes to face. The theme of the series was growing up; it began with these men discovering their powers and then learning how to use them while trying to get along with the "normal" world. By season 3, according to Kirkland, they knew they had to raise the stakes. The Brotherhood had not become the kind of team Magneto wanted, so he recruited Gambit, Colossus and Pyro. The first two were very popular X-Men characters in the comics, and Kirkland and his colleagues wanted them in their show. However, they already had far more heroes than villains, so the writers and producers thought it would be fun and more surprising to break with tradition and introduce Gambit and Colossus as villains. The two would, however, disagree about what they were doing and eventually join the X-Men. According to Kirkland, this is one of those stories that should never be told.
- #006
Although it is not stated in the cartoons, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse bear the names Death, War, Famine and Pestilence. Professor Xavier represents Death, Magneto War, Storm Famine and Mystique Pestilence.
- #007
Jean chooses Genetics as her major, as in the film X-Men (2000); she had a doctorate in the field of genetics.
- #008
Boyd Kirkland always intended Spyke to play a "tragic" role, because his powers would disfigure him and prevent him from blending into normal society. The channel did not want them to go there in the first few seasons (the theme was too dark for them). As a reader in the '60s, one of the recurring themes in Stan Lee's Marvel stories was that great power often comes at great personal cost. He wanted to show this in their series, and Spyke's story was a powerful way to do it. It also gave his character more depth, and he was far more interesting when he returned after joining the Morlocks.
- #009
In the original comics, the founding five X-Men were first shown as teenagers, as the series depicted most of its X-Men as young. In the show, Cyclops, Iceman and Jean Grey are shown as teenagers, while Angel and Beast were the only two shown as adults.
- #010
The first season was very restrictive. The channel felt that action programs like Batman: The Animated Series (1992) had become too dark and mature for the child audience they were trying to reach, so they kept this series on a really tight leash. After the first season aired and became a big success, the channel loosened the reins a little more each season. According to producer/writer/director Boyd Kirkland, the good side of this was that he always wanted the series to be character-driven rather than mainly focused on big action stories, so the restrictions actually helped with that. The riskier periods later in the series became genuinely more meaningful and touching because the creators were allowed to spend so much time letting the audience get to know and empathize with the characters.
- #011
The WB Television Network felt that the drawbacks of serialized storytelling outweighed the benefits, so they did not allow it except in season finales. In season 3 they loosened the reins a bit, so the writers gave more weight to stories with continuity.
- #012
When they first developed the series, the first X-Men (2000) film was still shooting, so no one working on this show could really reference it. Only Avi Arad knew what it would be, and he did not share much of it with the rest of the crew (everything was very secret). He gave them some guidance on things like Wolverine's hairstyle, Sabertooth's look and the design of Xavier's chair. Beyond that, they were almost on their own. The film, released during the second season, influenced some things, such as the addition of new cast members.
- #013
The romantic storylines of this series were one of the areas where the network really squeezed the writers because of Batman Beyond (1999). The writers thought this kind of character development was very important and consistent with the fact that these X-Men are teenagers in high school, but the WB Television Network thought boys aged 6 to 10 (the target audience) would find it "icky." Often the team had to convey such things visually without writing them into the script, or they would not make it into the show. They kept pushing for it, and the WB Television Network kept saying no even though they knew it was popular with "tween" viewers.
- #014
Wolverine has two motorcycles. He uses one while in uniform (the stylish blue one) and one while in street clothes (the red one).
- #015
Rahne and Jubilee were cut from the New Mutants. They are unlikely to return (episode 3.03 "Mainstream"). We see them in Professor X's vision taken from Apocalypse at the end of episode 4.09, "Ascension II." Magneto "tosses" a golden metal ball toward Rahne, and we see the back of Jubilee's head beside Amara next to Bobby's ice slide. This is probably a training session for the New Members.
- #016
Steven E. Gordon was never happy with the original Mystique design. Gordon felt it had a very dated feel, but the clock was ticking and he was running out of time. The second design was influenced by the X-Men (2000) film and also reflected a better understanding of what Mystique should be as a character. Gordon admits that if they could have gotten away with the naked look from the film, they would have had it, but the WB Television Network was not very ready for that. He also tried to make her physically more imposing and more like a female weightlifter; she looked more like an Adam Hughes character. However, this did not work very well, and he settled on a more slender version.
- #017
In the comic, Avalanche's name is Dominic Petros and he is of Greek origin.
- #018
When designing Wolverine's costume, they tried to use colors closer to the brownish uniform he wore in the comics.
- #019
One of the stories producer/writer/director Boyd Kirkland always wanted to tell but could not get the channel interested in was how Professor X lost the use of his legs and how he met Magneto, to give the background of these two characters. Kirkland thought the comic-book version of Xavier's story was not that good and that he could come up with something better.
- #020
The New Mutants were a tribute to Jack Kirby's original "jumpsuit" look.
- #021
In the first episode, all of the main X-Men (except Nightcrawler) appeared in the original X-Men film. The adult X-Men in the film consisted of Professor X, Wolverine, Storm, Cyclops and Jean Grey. In the first episode these five were already residents of the Institute, along with Nightcrawler's newcomers. Interestingly, all the villains from the first X-Men film appear in the second episode. Magneto, Mystique, Toad and Sabretooth form the Brotherhood in the films. Magneto, Mystique and Toad appear in the first episode, while Sabretooth appears in the second.
- #022
Wolverine's costumes in later seasons are based on the costume he wears in the "Ultimate X-Men" comics, because unlike the mainstream universe, Wolverine never wore a mask in this version.
- #023
In the comics, some time after leaving The Brotherhood, Wanda joined "The Avengers" alongside Captain America, Iron Man and Thor and became one of the team's pillars and core members.
- #024
Pyro in the X-Men comics was an Australian named St. John Allerdyce. When he was not hanging around with whatever villainous mutant group of the day, he made his living as a journalist and writer of worthless romance novels.
- #025
One of the episodes featured the original five X-Men (Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Angel and Iceman) working together from the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby days. Producer/writer/director Boyd Kirkland was a fan of the Kirby-era X-Men and thought it would be nice to pay tribute to it. Having Iceman among the new members and having already introduced Angel into the series gave them this opportunity, not just the original five X-Men in the comic series. These five characters are also the original five members of another mutant team in the comics called X-Factor. The character Apocalypse, whom this X-Men team tried to prevent from being freed, first appeared in the X-Factor comic series.
- #026
Iceman was originally planned to be the eighth X-Man, but Spyke was created instead of him in order to build a more diverse cast. Iceman would later be introduced in the episode Growing Pains.
- #027
Starting from season 2, Kurt's fingers changed even in his "human" form. In season 1, in addition to the index and middle fingers, the ring and little fingers were always fused together just as they appeared in their mutant form. However, from season 2 onward they appear as separate digits while in human form.
- #028
The name Alex adopts throughout the series made for this show is Alex Masters. In the comics he is Alexander Summers and is Scott's younger brother (except in Ultimate X-Men, where he is Scott's older brother). Over all his comic years, Alex had only one other name, and that was Alex Blanding (only in X-Factor v1 #-1).
- #029
There is now a character named Spyke in the comics: First Appearance: X-Force v1 #121. Last Appearance: X-Force v1 #128. Powers and Abilities: Extend the fine spikes on his skin to various lengths or fire them away from his body at high speeds.
- #030
In the comics and the old cartoon show, Storm became the leaders of the Morlocks. Some time earlier in the comics she had given up her leadership role among the Morlocks.
- #031
Many fans speculated that Risty Wilde was based on Psylocke because both are British and have purple hair.
- #032
Toad's name (known in the comics as Mortimer Toynbee) was changed to Todd Tolensky.
- #033
In seasons 3 and 4 the series opening was completely redone and now also included Beast.
- #034
X-Men: Evolution (2000) aired on The WB Television Network. Warner Bros. owns DC Comics, the long-time rival comic book publisher to Marvel Comics, which publishes X-Men. The WB Television Network aired both DC and Marvel animated series on the same network. However, this was not the first time. Years before X-Men (1992) and Spider-Man: The Animated Series (1994) aired on the Fox Network alongside Batman: The Animated Series (1992).
- #035
Spyke's first draft was very different from this. His name was Armadillo and he had black hair. In the second drawing he had black cornrows but was still called Armadillo.
- #036
In the comics, Mastermind was a member of Magneto's first Brotherhood.
- #037
This series premiered in 2000, the same year as the live-action film X-Men (2000).
- #038
When designing Angel's costume, the team tried to achieve a look similar to the comic book version.
- #039
The first opening title sequence was a mix of original animation and clips from the series. The video also spotlighted each member of the X-Men and showed a short clip of their powers. The only one missing was Professor Xavier, who was removed by the network because he was considered too old for the target audience. A new opening was made for the third season, likely to also include the glut of newly introduced characters. A remixed version of the original theme was also used.
- #040
When designing Beast, the team tried to make him more gray than blue.
- #041
The show was produced in the United States, while the voice cast was Canadian. During the first season, the producers attended the voice recording sessions in Vancouver every week. Eventually a direct digital line was connected between Film Roman Productions and their studio, so that I could "sit in" on the sessions without being there.
- #042
This animated series takes place in the Earth-11052 version of the Marvel Comics multiverse.
- #043
It celebrated its 25th anniversary on November 4, 2025.
- #044
This animated series marks the first appearance of Laura Kinney/X-23.
- #045
Marvel Comics published a nine-issue tie-in comic book written by Devin Grayson and drawn by UDON Studios.
- #046
The first Latin American Spanish dub, made in Venezuela, belongs to Warner Bros. Discovery, while the second Latin American Spanish dub, made in Argentina, belongs to Disney Entertainment.
- #047
The faces of Jean Gray, Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat and Ororo Munroe/Storm resemble Princess Odette from The Swan Princess (1994) and its sequels because the main character designer was the same person, Steven E. Gordon.
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
Sources for the entries on this page
- IMDb IMDb kaydı
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work