Marvel just recast 9 major X-Men characters for new Marvel Studios project

The X-Men will soon enter the mix at Disney+ with X-Men '97 finally receiving a premiere date, one that's much sooner than many fans anticipated! Disney+ has announced that the upcoming X-Men: The Animated Series revival will be premiering on March 20 which means we're just over a month away from the show's return.

In announcing the news, Disney dropped a first look at the upcoming series which shows all of our beloved X-Men heroes coming together again for a new series of adventures. The promo recaptures the magic of the original series with the theme playing in the background in a moment that is sure to give fans of X-Men: The Animated Series chills. Check it out below:

All of our favorite X-Men heroes are back as are many of the original voice actors from the original series. However, in a surprise twist, it seems that nine key roles from the show have been recast with new voice actors stepping in to take over the roles of Cyclops, Jean Grey, Gambit, Jubilee, Cable, Morph, Bishop, Magneto, and Professor Xavier!

As confirmed by Entertainment Weekly, these nine roles will be taken over by new actors who have been tapped to voice the iconic heroes in the new series. Here's a look at the seven actors taking over these key roles in the new series:

Ray Chase as Cyclops/Scott Summers
Jennifer Hale as Jean Grey
AJ LoCascio as Gambit/Remy LeBeau
Holly Chou as Jubilee/Jubilation Lee
Chris Potter as Cable/Nathan Summers
JP Karliak as Morph
Isaac Robinson-Smith as Bishop/Lucan Bishop
Matthew Waterson as Magneto/Erik Lehnsherr
Ross Marquand as Professor Charles Xavier

A few of these casting choices were not surprising as we knew new actors would be needed for Cylops, Magneto, and Xavier, as the original voice actors of Magneto (David Hemblen) and Cyclops (Norm Spencer) passed away in 2020 and the original voice actor for Xavier (Cedric Smith) retired from acting in 2018. So the recasting of these two key characters makes perfect sense and was no surprise.

The recasting of Jubilee is one we most certainly welcome as the recasting will now see an Asian actress voicing the character, ensuring that there is more authentic representation behind the scenes for the iconic and beloved character.

What is surprising is to see Jean Grey, Gambit, Cable, Morph, and Bishop will now be voiced by new actors instead of the original actors who voiced the characters in X-Men: The Animated Series. It seems this was a creative decision made by showrunner Beau DeMayo, but fear not the original actors behind the characters are coming back just in different roles.

Chris Potter, who once voiced Gambit, will now be voicing Cable/Nathan Summers; Catherine Disher will go from voicing Jean Grey to voicing Dr. Valerie Cooper; Lawrence Bayne, our original Cable, will now be voicing Carl Dentil/X-Cutioner; original Morph actor Rob Rubin is set to now voice President Robert Edward Kelly; and Alyson Court, the original Jubilee, will now be voicing Abscissa.

It's going to be interesting to see how the new and old voice actors come together when the series premieres on March 20, but we're definitely excited to see all of our favorite characters and actors back in the mix -- even if some will be playing new parts!