Source: ScreenRant
X-Men '97 Creator Addresses Black Panther Controversy Despite NDA Claim - "Humanity Before Continuity"
By Simon Gallagher Published Sep 22, 2024
De Mayo has now taken to X.com to defend the decision to use T'Chaka rather than his son, after an X-Men '97 fan asked him for the thinking behind it. When asked "Can you tell us why Black Panther was T'Chaka and not T'Challa?", he responded: "I don't know why Marvel had certain directors trying to spin and lie about this but we produced X-Men 97 Season 1 in early 2021. The loss of Boseman weighed heavily on the studio, as well as on me as a black man. Felt too soon to do T'Challa. Put humanity before continuity."
"As I said, at the time, it didn’t feel right. Just a matter of respect. If it were today, I think the choice would may be different. Either way, trying to spin it as something other than what it was makes no sense to me."
In the wake of T'Chaka's appearance, X-Men '97 supervising director was asked why T'Chaka's version of Black Panther was used despite T'Challa appearing in Fantastic Four: The Animated Series (which was also confirmed as the same continuity as X-Men '97). He didn't say anything to particularly contradict De Mayo, but did offer clarity on the timelines:
"I will elaborate on as much of it as I can. Some of the Black Panther of it all are definitely closed doors conversations that I wasn't privy to. That was definitely in Beau and the executives' realm. But for us, there's always multiple timelines right there. There's always a one off. 'This is exactly how I like it, except for that one thing."
"So, who's to say what timeline is the right timeline, the proper timeline? I mean, y'all aren't ready for how we're gonna **** you up in season two. At the end, we tease it at the end of 10. We're gonna have to elaborate on that."
X-Men: The Animated Series’ Larry Houston spoke to THR and confirmed that T'Challa was the Black Panther in TAS:
“We had two X-Men episodes in Africa, one with Storm’s mutant godchild and the other with Magneto gathering up mutants to take them to his mutant sanctuary Asteroid M. I was able to include the Black Panther into the show whenever they were in Africa, which some sharp-eyed fans were able to spot."
