The X-Men ’97 Season 1 finale was chock full of character cameos from throughout the Marvel Universe. But did you catch the sneaky, redacted reference to the two actors who played Magneto in the Fox movies?
If you didn’t, we’ll post the screencap below, but the Easter egg shows up about halfway through the episode when President Kelly is considering using the Magneto Protocols to stop the master of magnetism’s Asteroid M from crashing into Earth. Unfortunately for him, the Protocols — which involve the complicated plan of “blow up Asteroid M with missiles” — don’t work and cause the very thing they’re trying to stop.
Anyway, when they flip open Magneto’s file, you get a glimpse at some of the info they’ve culled together on him. See if you can spot the Fox movies Easter Egg:
Did you see the references? You might have been distracted by the confirmation that Magneto is indeed an Omega Level Mutant, or the stats straight out of an old Marvel trading card (gotta get faster, Magneto!). It’s also interesting that his children are noted as Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, but the third — Polaris — is redacted.
But the thing we’re interested in is Magneto’s aliases. The file notes his real name is Magnus, but we get A.K.A. Erik Lennsherr. The other one, David Hemblen, was the voice actor for Magneto in the original X-Men: The Animated Series. He sadly passed away in 2020 at age 79, so this is a sweet tribute to his legacy.
Hemblen is followed by two redacted names: Ian M, and Michael F. In case you couldn’t figure it out, that’s Ian McKellan, who played Magneto in multiple X-Men movies including the 2000 original; and Michael Fassbender, who took over the role with X-Men: First Class.
So there you go! All the Magnetos drawn together into one Easter egg, like some sort of… Magnetism.
