There are theme songs in this world that unlock a core memory for some of us. When it comes to X-Men: The Animated Series, the minute I hear that theme song, I am back watching the series on Saturday morning. So, X-Men ’97 had a lot to live up to.
That’s where the series’ composers, The Newton Brothers, come in. The Newton Brothers are comprised of Andy Grush and Taylor Newton Stewart and they have provided the score for some of our favorite movies and shows, including but not limited to Doctor Sleep, Five Nights at Freddy’s, and now, X-Men ’97.
In talking with them, they revealed that they knew the challenge of bringing the X-Men back to life through music, and when we talked about that theme song, Grush made it clear that their changes to it were all in the vein of keeping the original feel and nostalgia for the series alive.
“I think the biggest challenge was just to not screw it up,” Grush said. “It’s a perfect piece of music. And I think like we were sort of charged with reproducing a new version of it. And a lot of that just came down to exploration. We kind of, at the get go, did seven or eight versions that were all very different to sort of figure out, to sort of feel out the landscape as to like, ‘Oh, what’s working, what’s landing, what works with the show?’ We kind of guessed that a version close to what was the original would be the best idea. We wanted to try everything so we really leaned into all the other ideas. But really sort of right down the center of the field was the right option of staying in the lane, not trying to get too fancy with it. It’s pretty close to the original. There are a few things that we left out for reasons of sort of like sonic real estate, but for the most part it’s pretty close to the original. And it was fun to do.”
You can see our full conversation here:
X-Men ’97 airs Wednesdays on Disney+!
(featured image: Disney+)
