This week’s episode of X-Men ’97, titled “Bright Eyes,” finally revealed this season’s big villain, the guy who is behind it all. And respectfully, we called this at a previous juncture… It’s none other than Bastion, voiced on the show by actor Theo James. But who is Bastion on X-Men ’97? Who is he in Marvel Comics? And what does this all have to do with OZT?
Great questions, all, and exactly the sorts of questions we might answer in this very article, so read on.
Who Is Bastion On X-Men ’97?
You’ve probably been watching the series, but let’s give a little bit of a recap of what we know so far about the one-eyed, one-horned giant purple people eater. Actually, just to be clear, he has two eyes, no horns, is normal human-sized, and only in the loosest sense of the word eats people. He just likes the song and is purple.
Bastion shows up briefly in the middle of this episode after Rogue (Lenore Zann) tries to absorb Henry Gyrich’s (Todd Haberkorn) memories in order to discover Bolivar Trask’s (Gavin Hammon) location. While Rogue woke up with a serious headache in Madripoor, Bastion killed the ailing Gyrich, leaving his body behind in his swank prison/hotel in Mexico.
After a battle with Trask, who has been turned into a Prime Sentinel — more on that in a sec as well — Cable (Chris Potter) returns from the future to reveal that Bastion is the guy really behind the attack on Genosha in Episode 5. He hired Mr. Sinister (Chris Britton) to soup up the Sentinels to make them human-sized, and more unstoppable than ever before. Sinister is using future tech to create them — say, that can’t have anything to do with the techno-organic virus he infected baby Nathan Summers with, could it? — but is not directly behind the attack on Genosha, he’s merely working for Bastion.
Bastion then reveals himself as not only the guy working behind the scenes, and now in front of them much to Sinister’s dismay… But he also kept Magneto alive and is holding him hostage in a dirty shack with a power suppression collar. And not only that, he loves shaving Magneto. More on that to come?
Oh, one last note… You may have missed it, but in Episode 4, “Motendo / Lifedeath – Part 1,” when the camera passes by Forge’s wall of pictures, there’s a quick shot of our tech/magic mutant with his arm around someone’s shoulder. You can’t see who it is — their face is cut off by another picture — but it’s definitely Bastion. So there’s a connection between these two the show has yet to explore.
Who Is Bastion In Marvel Comics?
Strap is because as usual with the actual X-Men comics, things are about to get crazy complicated. Bastion, whose human name is Sebastion Gilberti, was created by Scott Lobdell and Pasqual Ferry. He was first introduced in X-Men #52 in 1996.
However, Bastion was never human. This is the simplest way I can explain this but for a while, the mutant-hunting robot known as Nimrod thought he was a regular human construction worker. While working at a construction site, he unearthed part of a Master Mold, a Sentinel construction facility, and had his programming corrupted by the Master Mold. From there, it/they fought Rogue and the X-Men, ultimately falling through a magical portal known as the Siege Perilous.
Here’s what the Siege Perilous does: it basically wipes the slate clean and reinvents your life. For Rogue, that meant splitting off the part of her that was Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel, and turning them into two separate beings. For Nimrod and Master Mold, that meant merging them into Bastion. Bastion thought he was human — hence the Sebastian Gilberti name — but soon realized he wasn’t.
So yeah, he looks human and pretends to be human. But like all Sentinels he’s a highly advanced mutant killing machine. He’s also infected with a version of the techno-organic virus that also infects Cable. It allows him to reanimate the dead and turn them into what are called Prime Sentinels… Former humans who become unstoppable mutant hunters. That’s what happened to Trask towards the end of this week’s episode.
What Is OZT? Operation Zero Tolerance, Explained:
In 1997 — X-Men ’97, get it? — Marvel launched a crossover titled Operation: Zero Tolerance. In it, Bastion finally made his move against the X-Men and all mutants. As usual for these sorts of things, the plan is to “activate a ton of Prime Sentinels, and destroy all mutants.”
The highlights of the crossover: Jubilee is captured and tortured; Forge and X-Factor are forced to work with Bastion to take down the X-Men and other mutants; Bastion invades the X-Men’s Westchester mansion and takes control.
There’s a lot more there. But Bastion, through his manipulation of the US government, makes some big moves to destroy all mutants. You may be shocked to learn that the X-Men prevail and Bastion is taken into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody.
However, the big deal was the aftermath of this crossover, which found Cyclops and Jean Grey leaving the X-Men for a while, and three new characters joining: Marrow, Maggott, and Dr. Cecilia Reyes. I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether that was actually a big deal or not.
Who Is Theo James, The Voice Of Bastion On X-Men ’97?
Theo James is a fan-favorite actor who was teased as playing a fan-favorite role in this season of X-Men ’97, before the season dropped. And now we know! Theo James is the voice of Bastion, our main bad guy. But who is Theo James???
The 39-year-old from England has taken on a ton of top-tier roles, including Tobias Eaton in the abbreviated Divergent series. However, he drew a ton of critical acclaim for his Emmy-nominated role on The White Lotus Season 2, and recently for the well-regarded hit The Gentlemen on Netflix.
On TV he also drew a ton of eyeballs as Sidney Parker on Sanditon, Henry DeTamble on HBO’s The Time Traveler’s Wife, and as the voice of Young Vesemir in The Witcher and its spinoff anime movie.
Coming up you can check him out in The Monkey opposite Tatiana Maslany and Elijah Wood, as well as hopefully getting absolutely owned by the X-Men in the final three episodes of X-Men ’97 Season 1.
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*
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