X-Men ’97’s Ross Marquand Talks Season 3 And Onslaught

In X-Men ‘97’s second season, Marvel’s merry mutants went through some difficult times. Losing Kurt Wagner, aka Nightcrawler, was one thing, but Professor Charles Xavier was dealt a heavy blow thanks to Apocalypse’s wrath. Magneto was killed in the season’s first half, causing Xavier to highlight his darker side. In an exclusive interview with Xavier’s voice actor, Ross Marquand, Canon Break had the opportunity to learn more about Charles’ potential walk on the dark side. Onslaught might be coming and this is a fact that Marquand is preparing for as he gets ready for X-Men ’97 season three.

Onslaught is one of the biggest, and most personal, villains that the X-Men have ever faced, as the antagonist was born from both Professor Xavier and Magneto. This is a fact that Marquand, the voice of both Xavier and Apocalypse in X-Men ’97 is very aware of, “Matthew Watterson, the voice of Magneto, and I have been talking about the possibility of what Onslaught might look and sound like for awhile now. Not because that’s been discussed behind the scenes, but because we know Onslaught is such a huge comic book villain. If there were to be two actors to play Onslaught, it would be a combination of the two of us.”

Is Onslaught Coming?

Marquand expanded on the appeal of bringing this classic Marvel villain to the screen by stating, “There hasn’t been an official conversation about that so far for season three, but it’s a cool thing to explore the darker side of Professor X. Charles is always trying to appeal to peoples’ goodness, he’s always trying to be the diplomatic one. Xavier is trying to be the best version of himself while attempting to bring out the best versions of the people around him. To explore the notion of Professor X that is so dark, so mean-spirited and vile, much like what we saw with his scene with Apocalypse, that would be a blast! I would love to see what that looked and sounded like, because our animators have been killing it. There are some things you can’t do in live-action, like Onslaught, but something about animation, there’s something more believable about it than live-action in some cases.”

During our interview, Marquand dug deeper into the now legendary back-and-forth between Xavier and Apocalypse following the death of Magneto, stating, “Professor X so rarely does ‘Your Mama’ jokes, like he’s never petty. I was trying to do what was easiest for the editors to start, but that didn’t really work because the two characters have vastly different energies. Professor X is trying to bring out the good in people, while Apocalypse is trying to bring out the worst in his ‘survival of the fittest’ belief. Apocalypse wants to honor the worst quality in others. I did all of Professor X first, and then did Apocalypse, and I think that was the right way to go rather than switching between both during the recordings.”