X-Men ’97 shakes up the formula this week with Season 1, Episode 4 “Motendo / Lifedeath – Part 1.” While the main cast is all present, the episode is split into two halves. Meaning most of the X-Men ’97 voice cast gets the week almost off while the focus turns to Jubilee (Holly Chou) and Roberto Da Costa (Gui Agustini) in one half; and Storm (Alison Sealy-Smith) and Forge (Gil Birmingham) in the other.
Spoilers past this point, but in the first half of the episode it’s Jubilee’s 18th birthday, and she’ll cry if she wants to. Or rather, she’ll be annoyed that Magneto (Matthew Waterson) wants the team to train instead of going to the mall to play video games. That’s when Mojo (David Errigo) returns with a Motendo — Mojo Nintendo, get it? — which lets Jubilee relive some of her darkest moments and biggest wins.
Roberto, meanwhile, still refuses to use his powers. And thanks to Jubilee taking them through the throwback video game against his will, he almost dies. That is until they’re saved by a digital version of an older Jubilee, named Abicissa, played by Alyson Court, the voice of Jubilee from X-Men: The Animated Series.
They escape, learn life lessons, and most importantly, smooch. Smooching! Yeah! Happy birthday, Jubilee!
In the second half, Storm has been depowered in Episode 2, “Mutant Liberation Begins,” and Forge has promised to power her up again. They eat some chili, ride some horses, and Forge reveals that he created the tech behind the depowering collars that have plagued the X-Men for the past few episodes. And then a giant owl called The Adversary attacks her. Cliffhanger!
That’s the recap; let’s jump into the voice cast. We’ve already covered the majority of the cast changes in our breakdown of the X-Men ’97 Episode 1 and 2 voice cast and the X-Men ’97 Episode 3 voice cast. But with a bunch some new villains and new settings, there’s still plenty to talk about.
X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 4 “Motendo / Lifedeath – Part 1” Cast: Who’s Who In The Cast?
We’ve already covered Forge’s recasting here when he first popped up last week, but to reiterate Gil Birmingham is picking up the role from Marc Strange, who passed away in 2012.
Jubilee, Roberto, Magneto, Gambit, Rogue, Beast, Morph, and Wolverine are all played by the same folks who have voiced them in previous episodes. In addition, the Sentinels that pop up in Mojo’s game are also voiced by the same guy: Eric Bauza, who recently made news replacing Ezra Miller on Invincible.
Let’s talk about a big spoiler for next week’s episode, “Lifedeath – Part 2.” You might have figured this one out, but The Adversary, aka the big owl who bites Forge and threatens Storm, is voiced by Alison Sealy-Smith. Sealy-Smith also voices Storm. Storm is wrestling with her loss of powers, and despite Forge inventing a machine to give them back, it doesn’t seem to work. What can be preventing Storm from accessing her powers? What is the Adversary? I don’t know, look in a mirror, why dontcha?
That out of the way, let’s move on to the voices of the Mojoverse. The big one here, as noted above, is the return of Alyson Court, who voiced Jubilee on X-Men: TAS. Here she plays an older digital version of Jubilee who has played Mojo’s game many, many times, and it rules.
Mojo is back, but has a new voice. In the original series, the villain was voiced by Peter Wildman. Here, he’s voiced by David Errigo, who has done more voices than I can count, but is probably best known as Ferb from Phineas and Ferb.
Similarly, Mojo’s right-hand(s) woman Spiral returns. In the original series, she was voiced for two episodes by Cynthia Belliveau. In X-Men ’97, Abby Trott takes over. Trott has also voiced a ton of roles, mostly in anime series like Demon Slayer and Shaman King.
Bizarre credit of the week goes to Anniwaa Buachie, who joins the cast as “Digital Alarm.” She’s appeared on Starz’s Survivors Remorse, done a voice on Archer, and appeared on two episodes of Eastenders, among other credits.
X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 4 Cast List:
Here’s a full cast list from X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 4, “Motendo / Lifedeath – Part 1” if you prefer to read it in list style instead of written out, as above:
Jubilee…Holly Chou
Forge…Gil Birmingham
Roberto…Gui Agustini
Storm / The Adversary…Alison Sealy-Smith
Mojo…David Errigo
Abscissa…Alyson Court
Magneto…Matthew Waterson
Gambit…A.J. LoCascio
Rogue…Lenore Zann
Spiral…Abby Trott
Beast…George Buza
Morph…J.P. Karliak
Wolverine…Cal Dodd
Digital Alarm…Anniwaa Buachie
Sentinels…Eric Bauza
Additional Voices: David Collins, Terri Douglas, Robin Atkin Downes, Arthur Ortiz, Michael Ralph, Helen Sadler, Matthew Wood, Shelby Young
X-Men ’97 Season 1 Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
X-Men ’97 doesn’t have a one-a-day schedule like What If…? Season 2, or all-at-once like Echo. Instead, the series is getting a more traditional release schedule of two on premiere day, then one a week thereafter.
The release time is also typical. Versus what has now become a run-of-the-mill primetime “early” release for big movies and TV shows, new episodes of X-Men ’97 will be released on Wednesdays at 3 am ET / Midnight PT.
Here’s the full list of episodes in Marvel’s X-Men ’97 Season 1, and when they premiere:
- Wednesday, March 20, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 1 – “To Me, My X-Men”
- Wednesday, March 20, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 2 – “Mutant Liberation Begins”
- Wednesday, March 27, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 3 – “Fire Made Flesh”
- Wednesday, April 3, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 4 – “Motendo / Lifedeath – Part 1”
- Wednesday, April 10, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 5 – “Remember It”
- Wednesday, April 17, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 6 – “Lifedeath – Part 2″
- Wednesday, April 24, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 7 – “Bright Eyes”
- Wednesday, May 1, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 8 – “Tolerance Is Extinction, Part 1”
- Wednesday, May 8, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 9 – “Tolerance Is Extinction, Part 2”
- Wednesday, May 15, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 10 – “Tolerance Is Extinction, Part 3” *Season Finale*
