The original “X-Men The Animated Series,” airing from 1992-1997, was a groundbreaking and critical smash for the Fox Kids Network, greenlit under TV Academy legend Margaret Loesch. This brave trailblazer bet her career on Marvel’s mutants and with an impressive team of creatives, they pushed the limits of storytelling in animation at a fraction of the budget that the Warner Brothers’ spent on their competitor series, “Batman The Animated Series.” Director and producer Larry Houston took the complex relationships between X-Men characters in the comics and adapted the stories with the series’ writers to contain even greater depth that loyal X-Men comic book readers and first-time fans responded to… so much so that fan mail filled the halls of the network’s office building in the mid 90s.

Emi/Emmett Yonemura, who directed several episodes of the first season, including the penultimate Episode 5, “Remember It”, spoke to Award Focus about the recent Emmy nomination and their work on the series. Their love of the X-Men was on clear display with X-Men statues and classic issues of the comic book (including X-Men #266 – Gambit’s first appearance) on display. Yonemura has a long list of credits, working for the arts department for multiple animated shows and series, and directing several series, including the HBO Max series “Gen-Lock.” “X-Men ‘97” represented a dream come true as they were largely drawn to comic books because of the original X-Men animated series.

See Full Interview and Article on AwardsFocus.com