The Animated Series's Iconic Theme Took 13 Attempts To Get Right

Summary X-Men: The Animated Series' iconic theme song took 13 versions to perfect, showing the dedication to capture the excitement and punch needed.

The theme song of X-Men: The Animated Series became instantly recognizable, contributing to the show's enduring popularity.

The importance of a distinct and strong theme song for X-Men was emphasized by its creators for immediate show identification.

One of the most iconic elements of X-Men: The Animated Series is its theme tune, which took 13 tried to perfect. X-Men: The Animated Series first aired in 1992 and ran for five seasons. Since then, the show has become iconic and has continued to inspire upcoming Marvel TV shows. The primary way in which the show's legacy has endured is through X-Men '97 season 1, a modern continuation of the original story.

After its debut, the highly-ranked X-Men animated show ran for five seasons. X-Men '97's title comes from the fact that X-Men: The Animated Series was canceled in 1997, a reality that disappointed many who were fans of the show. Despite its cancelation, the show has become one of the most popular iterations of the X-Men, as has The Animated Series' theme tune. The MCU has included Easter eggs to this iconic theme even before X-Men '97's debut, with recent revelations proving that trial and error was the key to perfecting a theme synonymous with the titular mutants.

Related The MCU's 2 X-Men Animated Series Easter Eggs Explained & Where To Spot Them X-Men: The Animated Series is instantly recognizable by some trademark elements, and the MCU aptly included them for fans of the 90s cult classic.

X-Men: The Animated Series's Theme Took A Lot Of Tries To Get Right

The Theme Would Not Have Been As Iconic Without Its Lengthened Production

In the aftermath of X-Men '97's record-breaking success for Marvel, a Disney+ documentary has been revealed looking at the production of the show. This has been the case for every Marvel Disney+ show thus far, yet Assembled: The Making of X-Men '97 offered even more by giving insight into the production of X-Men: The Animated Series too. One of the producers and directors of X-Men: The Animated Series, Larry Houston, was interviewed in the documentary, giving an insight into all aspects of the original show, including its theme song.

Houston mentions that the storyboards for the intro were animated before the music was composed, leading to a lengthy trial-and-error process to perfect the now-iconic theme tune. As Houston recalls:

"I think it was, like, maybe the 13th version of the music until we said 'Yeah, that's it.' Because the first 12 it was like, 'No.' It didn't have the punch, it didn't have the excitement, and so, it took time. And then it magically merged together, and everything worked out just fine."

As evidenced by Houston's comments, iconic theme tunes do not just spawn out of nowhere. Without the constant revisions and rewrites of X-Men: The Animated Series' opening theme, the intro that became so recognizable would not have been the same. While the animation is a big part of the show's opening credits, the theme has stood the test of time as one of the more iconic ever crafted for a superhero project, primarily due to the 13 compositions that strove for perfection.

Why X-Men: The Animated Series Needed Its Final Theme Song

The Theme Song Was Important For X-Men: The Animated Series' Iconicity

Concerning the primary reason why X-Men: The Animated Series' theme song was so important, Houston provides an insight into this too. Even without Houston's comments, music has always been an integral part of film. Franchises like Star Wars, Jaws, The Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter owe a large part of their popularity to iconic music. The same can be said for superhero franchises like Spider-Man, The Avengers, and, of course, X-Men: The Animated Series.

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Houston knew this going into production on the original show and outlined in the X-Men '97 documentary why the theme song was so necessary for the show. Houston explains "In terms of ID'ing a show, I mean, it's so important." Houston mentioned that a show can be identified by two or three notes and that he and his team knew X-Men: The Animated Series needed a theme that was distinct, strong, and immediately iconic. This proved to be the case, largely thanks to the dedication of the team in recreating the final theme song over 10 times.