Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Episode 3 of X-Men ’97.

The Big Picture

Jennifer Hale and Ray Chase talk about Madelyne Pryor’s arrival in
X-Men ’97
after it causes chaos in the new Summers family.
Hale and Chase discuss the ins and outs of their career and where they draw inspirations from for their performances.
Chase teases a surprising scene in the future of Season 1 that he describes as “wild” and “crazy.”

It’s only been a week since X-Men ’97 returned to our screens and already the series is a smash hit, becoming Disney+’s most watched animated series premiere. The third episode of Season 1 debuted today, titled “Fire Made Flesh,” which focused on the surprise reveal of a second Jean Grey (Jennifer Hale). Of course, if you’ve read the comics before, the arrival of the Jean Grey clone, later named Madelyne Pryor, isn’t a huge shock — but it does throw a wrench into the somewhat idyllic romance between Jean and Scott Summers (Ray Chase), aka Cyclops.

“Fire Made Flesh” also throws the new Summers family unit into disarray. After checking her out, Beast (George Buza) reveals that the woman living in the X-Mansion is actually not the original Jean Grey, but a clone. Everything comes together when Mister Sinister (Christopher Britton) turns up and reveals he’s the mastermind behind all this. The goal was always to get his hands on a son born from Scott and Jean’s DNA, Nathan. At the end of the episode, the couple is forced to send Nathan into the future with Bishop (Isaac Robinson-Smith) after finding out he has been infected by a virus made by Sinister, where a cure can hopefully be developed. It’s clear the events of “Fire Made Flesh” will affect not only Jean and Scott’s relationship in the future, but also the X-Men.

Collider spoke with Jennifer Hale, who voices Jean Grey, and Ray Chase, who voices Scott Summers, about the events of the episode and where the two characters now stand. Hale talks about her process in voicing the two versions of Jean, and Chase describes Scott’s mentality after losing Nathan. The two also discuss their experience as voice actors, their inspirations, and the process of making the show. Finally, they tease a twist in the future — though they remain tight-lipped on details — and Chase refers to it as a “wild” moment coming this season. Read the full interview below.

X-Men ’97 A band of mutants use their uncanny gifts to protect a world that hates and fears them; they’re challenged like never before, forced to face a dangerous and unexpected new future.Release Date March 20, 2024 Cast Jennifer Hale , Cal Dodd , Chris Potter , Catherine Disher , Adrian Hough , Ray Chase , Lenore Zann Seasons 2 Number of Episodes 10 Streaming Service(s) Disney+ Franchise(s) X-Men

Jennifer Hale & Ray Chase on Taking Up the Mantle of Jean Grey and Scott Summers
COLLIDER: I am so excited to talk about this episode. The show’s honestly been so great. I watched it last week, and I was like, “Oh my god, I need the entire season right now at this very moment.” Just to kick it off, how did the two of you get involved in X-Men ‘97? What was your reaction when you got the call to play these iconic characters?

JENNIFER HALE: I love that question because there’s a possibility within that question that we get to pick and choose what we do. [Laughs] That’s the thing about voice actors. We’re the work-a-day actors of the acting world, right? We’re just the Working Joes. We show up and we’re happy. I don’t know, I’m not gonna speak for Ray, but I’m happy when the work comes. This audition came across, and I was thrilled. I’ve had the very good fortune of being Jean Grey in several different places and projects and things, but there are several of us who have occupied this role, and honestly, everybody in voiceover voice-acting is extraordinary, and I feel very, very lucky that this was me at this time.

RAY CHASE: For me, it was super new. I did not recognize the project when it came through, even though there were voice references and clips, and that sort of stuff. I have the dubious distinction of not having watched the show before I auditioned for it. [Laughs] I’m supposed to, though, Jennifer. I was supposed to be the one looking at it, but I was watching Pokémon instead. I’m a terrible Millennial. But since then, I’ve seen all the episodes, read Eric and Julia [Lewald’s] book, and gotten into why this was such a groundbreaking landmark show. I just discovered such an appreciation for it. I think we’re all surprised — I don’t know, Jennifer, you’ve been a part of so many high-profile projects — but, like, how high-profile this one is and how well the reception has been going. I think we’re all just absolutely blown away.

HALE: It blew me away. I was really surprised. I was like, “Wow, there’s a lot being invested in this.” I will say, I’m thrilled because the writing is amazing. We know it begins and ends with the writing. Like, if the writing is not there, and the writing is so there. The team is so incredible, and I’m so excited that we’re all getting to be on this ride together. Ray and I, and the other actors, are out in front because we’re the actors, but we’re in this with the entire team. They’re all here with us, maybe not physically, but 100% they made this happen.

How Has Jean and Scott’s Relationship Changed After ‘X-Men ’97’ Episode 3?
Image via Disney

Jumping into the third episode, “Fire Made Flesh,” what an amazing episode, especially for Jean and for Scott. Can you talk a little bit about, moving forward for both Jean and Scott, how their perspectives on their relationship have shifted and how the dynamic has shifted?

CHASE: It’s the ultimate superhero soap opera with this. Not only the love triangle with Logan and stuff, but also just the triangle between Madelyne, Jean, and Scott. It’s so complicated and so complex. These superheroes have some wild love lives. It’s insane to keep track of it. But I do believe that we’ll be going into it quite a bit more, Scott and Jean’s relationship, as the season progresses. This is not something that’s just going to be left behind and pushed under the rug. They’ll start really, really going into it later on.

HALE: I love the way that this show has married that flavor of the ‘90s with the realities of today. I think that’s really showing up as Scott and Jean navigate these changes in the relationship, and these shocks and these betrayals that they didn’t instigate.

Jennifer Hale Discusses Playing Both Jean Grey and Madelyne Pryor
Image via Disney+

It’s so interesting to hear you play Jean, Jennifer. I could hear the slight shift in tone when it changed to Madelyne. Can you talk about differentiating the two? Is there a different headspace you enter into when you’re playing one versus the other one?

HALE: 100%. Even though they’re clones, even though there’s all sorts of stuff going on, they’re distinct identities, and they’re each fighting for their own lives. They share memories but their spark, their essential selves, are distinct. I have Meredith [Layne], our voice director, to thank for that. Meredith Layne is extraordinary. She’s our guidepost. Voice directors, to me, are some of the unsung heroes of every production because they are a compass point, and they keep us on track. It is easy to get caught up in a scene. You’re dropped into the moment, and you’re not thinking about, “Oh, am I tonally on point?” Because you’re living that experience for the moment, and it’s so wonderful to be able to trust that Meredith is there. She’ll say, “Oh, you were a little off tonally right here. Let’s pick that up,” and I can relax and really throw down because I know she’s there. And the rest of the team, as well, keeping an ear to what’s happening. This was — I mean, wow. As an actor, what a privilege to be able to do an episode like this in anything. Especially in this universe.

I didn’t realize that there’s somebody so involved as a voice director, but that makes total sense to have a third party there listening.

CHASE: Voice director and casting director. She was the one who brought us all together. I think she just deserves so many props for finding replacements for the original cast if they weren’t appropriate for the role, or how we can bring them into the fold in new and exciting ways. All these cameos from everybody, and then bringing on new people like us is such a cool blend. I think she did such a great job of searching everywhere.

In a completely unrelated thing, I got to talk with her because I had to cast something, and I don’t know what the heck I’m doing. You send some auditions to agents and you figure out, “Oh, I don’t know if somebody will find it.” But she really delves into a lot of this, the really unsung art of thinking really cleverly about where to find people, searching the world entirely for actors. She really searches off the beaten path and gets some nontraditional voices in there, which is amazing. I know that what you wanted was an interview where we just talked about Meredith, and we’re absolutely just going to give that to you. So, for the next 15 minutes, only questions about her.

What Headspace Is Scott Summers in After Losing Nathan?
Image via Disney

I have 1,000 more questions about that, but I’m gonna stay focused. Ray, Scott was really affected by having to send Nathan into the future to protect him, especially given his own relationship with his father. How is that going to affect his character in the coming episodes? What kind of headspace is he in now?

CHASE: Again, you don’t just send a baby off to the future, and it never comes back. There’s absolutely ramifications for this. This is Scott for the first time where he walks away. He just says, “I can’t do this anymore. I can’t do this right now.” For someone of his caliber to walk away from a challenging situation like that means it’s really, really getting to him on a deep, personal level, and that absolutely will be reflected in later episodes.

I’m also just touching on that because I found it very interesting that in the first episode, we see Scott so ready to step up and fill the shoes of Professor X, but then Magneto comes swooping in and he sort of loses that opportunity. Are we going to see him butting heads a little bit more with Magneto, now that he has more of a burden on his shoulders? Is there jealousy there, or is it just mistrust from all the previous encounters he’s had?

CHASE: I think one of the strengths about this is it’s such an ensemble, that there’s always some sort of internal drama and strife, and absolutely the power dynamic — which is, who is going to be leading this team when its namesake is out of the picture? It’s for sure something that the writers have teased about and given us a lot of juicy lines to work our way through.

What Is the Process of Working on and Developing ‘X-Men ’97’?
Image via Disney+

Jennifer, one thing I really enjoyed in just these handful of episodes is Jean’s relationship with Storm. That friendship that we see is so touching and so beautiful. Did you work with Alison Sealy-Smith directly on this? I know with voice actors, typically, there are instances where you’re not even in the same room together. Also, will we see the two characters reunite anytime soon?

HALE: You will not get any spoilers from me, I will tell you that right now. I actually recorded that solo. Ray and I got to record together a couple of times. In the before times, we’d all be in the same room, but since the pandemic, and also with some of the evolutions in the industry anyway, we tend to record solo. So, I didn’t get that wonderful experience, which, hello, I’d love to do that any time. She’s incredible, but we recorded alone.

CHASE: The entire production was during COVID, so all of it was remote.

HALE: But Ray and I got to remote at the same time.

CHASE: Yeah, this episode, in fact, we had so many dialogues together that we got to have an actual in-person session, which is super rare even for remote.

I know Season 2 was already in production, and Season 3, as well. Were those all done remote in the same fashion?

HALE: Yes.

CHASE: Oh yeah. The cast is so far-flung in so many ways with all of the journeys that everybody’s taken on. Sometimes I can come into the studio at Igloo Sound and do it in person, but not everybody is there. It’s Zoom in a different room, essentially.

HALE: Yeah, Adrian [Hough] and I both live north of the border, and it’s funny, on the same island, actually, off the west coast of Canada.

CHASE: That’s right, and Magneto [Matthew Waterson] and I, who I’m meeting for lunch today, live in the same small town outside of Los Angeles. I forgot about that. That was something we found out during a text thread where we were like, “What the heck? You live down the street from me? Wild.”

Hale and Chase on Resonating With ‘X-Men ’97’ and Its Relevance Today

You get to have a staff lunch! X-Men, more so than any other Marvel superhero group, has affected people even after so many years. Even without any live-action shows, these characters are still people’s favorites. Is there an aspect of this world or these characters, not just Jean and Scott, that really speaks to you, that you understand why that resonates with people?

HALE: These themes. It was so evident to me during the premiere that these are things we’re dealing with now. We’re always dealing with them as humans. It’s isolation, it’s belonging, it’s othering people. It’s feeling threatened because you’re not the same as everybody, but you really just wanna be yourself and you wanna be all of yourself, and you wanna be allowed to, and then you have to fight for that. I think that’s really a much more common experience than we think.

CHASE: I think you’d be hard-pressed to find someone to watch the show and know about X-Men and not have a favorite character, or someone who you identify with. There are so many wonderful characters who have such interesting, intriguing backstories that are just so relatable, maybe more so than your run-of-the-mill superheroes. It’s such a diverse cast.

Related ‘X-Men ’97’ Review: Marvel Returns to the ’90s With X-traordinary New Series Marvel’s first X-Men project since regaining the rights to the character might just be their best animated series yet.

Hale and Chase Discuss Their Favorite Past Roles
You both have such extensive careers in voice acting. Do you have a favorite role that you’ve played that was either a turning point in your career or just something you really enjoyed? Do you have a white whale character that you want to play that’s somebody that, the minute somebody is like, “We need you to do this,” you’re like, “Yeah, I’m done. I’m leaving. I’m stopping my vacation. I’m doing this”?

CHASE: For us, it’s everything we stop our vacations for. Work’s work. It’s always fun, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a session that we don’t enjoy, a character of ours that we put time and effort into that we didn’t like. But for me, if I had to nerd out about one, I love Roy from Fire Emblem. I grew up playing Smash Bros. Melee. He was my character, and being able to originate a voice 20 years after you played it as a kid is so weird. It’s such a strange opportunity. So, he’s always just such a blast whenever I get to go to the booth and get to say, “Roy’s your boy!” He’s so much fun. I love that dude.

Oh my god, that’s so cute.

HALE: My absolute favorite thing is just the amount of variety I’ve been able to do in my career. Just the variety of roles and the diversity of experiences, that is my absolute favorite thing.

That’s a very diplomatic answer.

HALE: Sometimes when you have success, people will put you in a box, and they don’t think you can do anything else, and the fact that I have not been boxed in is, I feel, really lucky.

Chase and Hale Tease a Secret That Will Soon Be Revealed in ‘X-Men ’97’

With this reboot, I think everybody is excited to get more X-Men. You don’t have to get into spoilers, you don’t have to get into details, but is there a scene or an episode in the future where you’re excited to hear the reaction from the people and see how people react to that moment?

CHASE: For me, absolutely. It’s maybe not excitement, it’s more just curiosity. There’s something that we’ve been keeping from you guys for a while that I am just like, “Whoa what is the reaction gonna be?” It’s gonna be wild. I was moved when I got to that part in the script, and went, “Oh!” It’s pretty crazy.

Oh my god.

HALE: I’m not giving anything away.

Now I need to know. It’s in this season, right?

CHASE: Yeah, absolutely. I won’t even say the episode. It’s coming.

Chase and Hale Talk About Their Career Influences
Image via Marvel Entertainment

Well, I’m gonna be thinking about this a lot as I proceed. Speaking a little bit more generally, X-Men was really formative, as you said, Ray, for a lot of people, especially from the ‘90s. It really dominated animation, especially in America. Do you have any animation shows or projects or films that really shaped you and led you in the direction of this career?

CHASE: Oh, man. My answer sucks. It was anime, which has nothing to do with this, so I’m not answering.

No, you can answer with anything! I’m sure our readers are curious about some of the inspirations that you took, as well. The answer doesn’t have to be X-Men, to be clear.

CHASE: Yeah, I watched a lot of anime and a lot of funny shows. I watched The Simpsons, The Critic, South Park, everything that I could. Those were my references. It’s not the sexiest answer, but it is the truth.

HALE: Your answer is way sexier than mine. [Laughs] I wasn’t even allowed to watch animated anything as a kid. I was never allowed to watch anything. I read books. I was nowhere near cool as a kid. I read books and I played with my dog and I went outside, which is not unlike what I do today except I don’t have time to read much. But I listen to books. Honestly, my biggest influence, like my first audition in LA for any kind of voice-over anything, was for a cartoon series. I walked in there thoroughly not having any idea what I was doing, and I happened to book it, which was insane. So I jumped into a bunch of classes, and then in all these sessions I was doing, I was in the room with Frank Welker and Kath Soucie and Tress MacNeille, and these incredible OGs of voice acting. That’s where I got my inspiration. They are so unbelievably brilliant. Every single one of our peers, it’s mind-blowing. So, that’s my inspiration.

Related ‘X-Men ’97’: Rogue and Magneto’s Romantic Comics History, Explained These two have been an item since…the ’90s, actually.

That’s an amazing first experience to have. Speaking about some of these amazing voice actors, did either of you look back on the original series as a reference point when it came to playing this character? I know Norm Spencer has passed since the original series, but Jennifer, did you speak with Catherine Disher at all, or was it mostly just focusing on her performance in the original show?

HALE: Catherine’s performance was 100% a starting point for me. I wanted to honor what had come before and fold in the new stuff that the team was weaving in. Again, I turned to Meredith Layne. I turned to Meredith, and Meredith was my guidepost. I rely heavily on the team on anything I’m doing because they hold the vision, and for me, my position is always in service to that vision. That is the reason I’m there, the sole reason I’m there, to serve that creative vision and bring it to life. So I lean very heavily on what was on the page in front of me, Meredith’s interpretation, and then bringing in and honoring Catherine’s work that came before me.

CHASE: For me, I watched the entire series, and then Eric and Julia Lewald’s book is absolutely fantastic, Previously on X-Men [The Making of an Animated Series]. It’s a really, really good deep dive into what made this show special. Then, I was able to find a couple of podcast interviews with Norm so I could get to see what a gentle, loving and goofy soul he was, and I wanted to bring that energy to this role, too. I hope he enjoys it.

Does Wolverine Ever Have a Chance With Jean Grey With Scott Still Around?
Image via Marvel Entertainment

That’s amazing. Talking a little bit more about the show, what’s interesting about these relationships is that there are so many, like you said, love triangles, especially with Jean and Scott. You always have that third factor of Wolverine sort of looming in the distance. Can you guys talk a bit about that relationship? Ray, with Scott, do you play him aware of that dynamic or if it’s more oblivious? And Jennifer, is there ever a moment that you think Jean would choose Wolverine over Scott?

CHASE: Scott’s superpower is leadership. He is absolutely aware of everything that is going on, the group dynamics in this team. But what he does as a good leader is choose when and when not to act on that, or whether to make a fuss. I think he’s aware of it, keeps a lot of it inside, and does his best to be as good of a husband and father as he can.

HALE: I think if anything would have shoved Jean into Wolverine’s arms, it would be some of the events we’ve seen in the last couple of episodes. But at this point, Jean’s pregnant, and then she has a baby, and that shifts your perspective and informs your choices heavily. So, things are on the rails right now. They’re teetering on the edge, but they’re on the rails.

X-Men ’97 is available to stream on Disney+. New episodes premiere each Wednesday.

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