X-Men '97 Star Rewatches the Show Through Fans' Reaction Videos

Matthew Waterson explained why fans have "shifted" his understanding of X-Men.

By Jamie Jirak

The season finale of X-Men '97 is coming next week, and fans are eager to find out how things will wrap up for their favorite team of mutants. Following in the footsteps of X-Men: The Animated Series, X-Men '97 has been showcasing a lot of great characters, including Magneto AKA Eric Lehnsherr. In X-Men: The Animated Series, the Master of Magnetism was voiced by David Hemblen who passed away in 2020. In the reboot, the iconic villain is voiced by Matthew Waterson. ComicBook's Phase Zero podcast recently did a spotlight episode featuring Waterson, and the actor talked about having big shoes to fill. He admitted that he was worried some fans would say he "destroyed" their childhood, but the reaction to the series has been incredibly positive. In fact, Waterson revealed he watches the show through fan reaction videos. 

"The fan response has been unbelievable, because we've been making the thing for so long, and we are doing it in our own little cocoon, and we like what we're doing. But it's one of those jobs where, until it goes out into the ether, you have no idea," Waterson explained. "Are we just in a bubble and we're not sure, and we're wrong about this? Or are we right, and it's something that people are actually going to enjoy?"

"So being able to see people actually respond to it, and respond well, and the thing that I've never done before, but that I've been having a lot of fun is actually watching fan reaction videos to episodes," he continued. "I don't re-watch the episodes, I watch the fan reaction videos. And those are brilliant, because seeing people get really excited about individual things that they're picking up on, or seeing something happen, and they're like, 'I know what that is, oh, this is amazing,' is really, really fun. So that's actually been a part of it, that's been one of the parts of it that are the most enjoyable to me."

Matthew Waterson Explains How Fans "Shifted" His Understanding of X-Men:

"Well, one of the things that I was always aware of with X-Men was how allegorical the story was, and the characters were, and their situation was, and how much it represented any myriad of marginalized populations," Waterson explained. "So I understood, I knew that intellectually, but I have been in a fortunate position in my life. And I have not had to deal with that, by virtue of just who I was when I was born, the way I was born."

"And being involved in the show, which has such an incredible representation across the spectrum, of every spectrum in terms of the people who are making it, but then, interacting with fans and people who've seen it, and getting to see and to hear how it has landed with them, and how much, so many different people have sort of come up to me and said, 'This bit, and this bit, and that bit, is one of the first times that the X-Men that spoke to me, that I felt saw me, I've seen represented in, not just in one run of the comic books, but in a mass media representation.'" 

"That's been incredible," he continued. "That's actually shifted how I understand it, and how I look at it, and what I understand that it means to other people. Like I said, I had the intellectual understanding, but it wasn't quite as clear to me emotionally, or in terms of empathy or sympathies. And it's becoming much more clear."

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"So it sort of shifted my understanding of that, by the responses of people to it, which I had not experienced before. That was something that I didn't expect going in. I wasn't like, 'Oh, this is going to alter how I understand that other people need to see themselves and their situations represented in the media.' And it has. And that's been really, really cool," he added. 

You can watch our interview with Matthew Waterson here. The season finale of X-Men '97 drops May 15th on Disney+.

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