Warning: SPOILERS for the X-Men ’97 Season 1 finale, titled “Tolerance is Extinction – Part 3,” are ahead!
Although X-Men ’97’s title heroes were able to defeat Bastion and prevent Asteroid M from crashing into Earth in the Season 1 finale, it came at a cost. Because Asteroid M exploded when Magneto threw it out into space, most of the X-Men were presumed dead, but in actuality, they were sent to different time periods. In Cyclops and Jean Grey’s case, they found themselves in the year 3960 AD and greeted by an elderly woman named Mother Askani, voiced by Gates McFadden. Following the Season 1 finale’s release to Disney+ subscribers, supervising producer and head director Jake Castorena opened up to CinemaBlend about having the Star Trek alum come aboard, declaring that she “delivered” with her performance.
2023 was a big year for McFadden, as she reprised Dr. Beverly Crusher in Star Trek: Picard Season 3 alongside the majority of her fellow Star Trek: The Next Generation castmates (that series, along with nearly every other Star Trek show, can be viewed with a Paramount+ subscription). Now she’s getting to leave on the Marvel realm through X-Men ’97, one of the best Disney+ TV shows, and here’s what Castorena said when I asked him what made her a good fit to voice Mother Askani:
I mean, you hear it in her voice. I didn’t realize that I was always hearing Gates McFadden’s voice with any Mother Askani stuff, any sort of old Rachel Summers stuff… I don’t remember whose idea it was. It was most likely Beau [DeMayo’s] idea, but we reached out to her, and it was almost like a resounding ‘Yes!’ Like, ‘Yes, I want to come play in the sand box.’ And dude, she delivered, Her performance is albeit brief in that ending, she wanted to do Mother Askani justice, and that was cool. Man, Star Trek wants to do X-Men justice. We’re getting paid to be here right now? This is cool! It was a real joy and pleasure for that, and any sort of fan of Rachel Summers or Mother Askani… I look forward to what they want to look at in Season 2.
For those who don’t know, Mother Askani is an older version of Rachel Summers, who, in the comics, is the daughter of future versions of Cyclops and Jean Grey from the Days of Future Past timeline. Boasting a range of psionic abilities like her mother, the younger Rachel was sent by the Phoenix Force to the alternate past where she’d once sent an older Kitty Pryde’s consciousness, i.e. the main Marvel Comics continuity. Then there’s Mother Askani, who came into being when Rachel was flung nearly 2,000 years into the future, where the world had been conquered by Apocalypse. Rachel lived in this time period for many decades, but this version of her disappeared when Nathan Summers, a.k.a. Cable, executed Apocalypse in the present day and rescued her from a creature known as Gaunt when she was lost to the timestream.
All we know so far about X-Men ’97’s version of Mother Askani is that she leads Clan Askani, which includes a young version of Nathan Summers. However, considering that Nathan as a baby was last seen being taken by Bishop back to his time period of the mid-21st century, it’s unclear if this is that same Nathan who somehow ended up in 3960 AD or a different version of him. As far as Mother Askani goes, aside from Jake Castorena clarifying this will also be a version of Rachel Summers, it’s a mystery how she’ll factor into Season 2.
But speaking purely from a fan’s perspective, Castorena was pretty jazzed about Gates McFadden joining the show, who apparently was instantly ready to accept the role. Her debut as Mother Askani follows a few months after she was heard voicing Queen Marlena in Netflix’s Masters of the Universe: Revolution. While Beau DeMayo is no longer involved with X-Men ’97, Mother Askani, and by extension McFadden’s casting, will be among the ways his influence will be felt in the next batch of episodes.
We’ll let you know when X-Men ’97 Season 2 is given a specific premiere date on the upcoming Marvel TV shows slate. Until then, keep track of current programming with the 2024 TV schedule.