X-Men: The Animated Series showrunner reveals the surprising origins of an iconic Professor X tradition

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Published Jun 26, 2026, 1:00 PM EDT

To me, my X-Men

One of the biggest draws of the X-Men is their magnificent array of powers: concussive beams, metal claws, teleportation, the ability to control the elements, the list goes on. But the most dazzling superpower among them belongs to Charles Xavier.

That's right, the bald psychic who commands the X-Men as Professor X actually has the most visually stunning powerset of the bunch, and the reason why comes down to two words: astral plane. Across the comics, the Animated Series, and even a couple of the live-action movies, Professor X's ability to explore and do battle in a psychic realm where his powers are near infinite leads to some of the most explosive moments in superhero history.

X-Men '97 is no exception. The show's first season featured several trippy and intricate scenes in which Professor X used the astral plane to attack his enemies, search for answers to unknowable questions, and receive haunting prophecies of the future. X-Men '97 season 2, which premieres July 1 on Disney Plus, continues that tradition with a twist as Charles Xavier uses his powers to navigate new challenges in Ancient Egypt after inadvertently traveling back in time in the season 1 finale. Once again, these psychedelic sequences are a highlight of any X-Men adventure.

But according to Eric Lewald, who served as one of the showrunners on the original X-Men: The Animated Series in the '90s and as executive producer for the follow-up series X-Men '97, these astral plane scenes were born more out of necessity than artistic ambition. In an interview ahead of the season 2 premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in June, Lewald told Polygon that there were two very simple reasons why they so often returned to the astral plane back in the 1990s.

"First of all, remember it was on Fox Kids," Lewald said. "There's a real limit to the amount of physical violence and intensity that we could show. If you get inside people's minds, it becomes much more exciting for the artists, and much more freeing for the writers."

While the primary motivation might have been to appease TV censors at the time, venturing into Professor X's miraculous mind also had one other benefit: it was cheaper to animate Charles Xavier as he floated through the astral plane than to animate a bunch of the other X-Men running around onscreen.

"It's more expensive to have people walk than to fly," Lewald said.

Neither of these issues have much bearing on X-Men '97, which streams on Disney Plus instead of Fox Kids and has a much bigger budget as one of Disney's most popular animated shows. Still, the current showrunners keep coming back to Professor X and the astral plane not just because it's nostalgic, but because it looks awesome.

With that in mind, Lewald hints that you can expect plenty of trippy astral plane sequences in the future as Charles Xavier continues to take full advantage of his incredible psychic powers.

"There will be more mental confrontations in season 2 for sure."

X-Men '97 season 2 premieres July 1 on Disney Plus.

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