X-Men 97 Flops! Disney+ Is A Dead Streaming Platform
by The Comic Crow
In spite of mostly positive reviews from both sides of the culture war, Disney's X-Men 97 appears to be a complete flop in terms of viewership. For weeks now, the show hasn't managed to break into the Nielsen Top 10 rankings, making it the worst-performing Marvel show on Disney+. In spite of the initial news that the show had managed to draw in 4 Million views for its debut episode, which was one of the most viewed premieres for a Disney+ show, the series doesn't seem to be retaining viewers.
Worse yet, the show doesn't seem to have brought it new subscribers or given any reason for old subscribers to renew. Although the show does appear to be a faithful adaptation, it appears that's not enough to stop Disney+'s decline. There are reasons why the show may have had a much more chaotic start than was ever necessary.
With the Neilsen and Samba ratings released, X-Men '97 doesn't appear on the charts. This makes history for Disney+ as the series is performing worse than Ms. Marvel and What If? which both at least hit the top 10 of streaming for the Disney+ service.
Early on, a lot of the marketing became tainted with potential fans when the character of Morph was declared to be Non-Binary. This change made little sense, given the character showed no signs of this, and the terminology did not exist back in the 90's when the show was meant to take place. This arbitrary change may have managed to eventually be accepted by former fans of the show, but fan accounts would then continue to throw gasoline onto the fire by accusing those upset of being 'bigots'. As well as saying how the X-Men aren't for them and they shouldn't bother to watch.
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Even with the positive reviews that came in after the debut in March the brand appeared to already be tainted. For some, it was best to just not watch since they were being told not to, and others just lost interest in another culture war battle over the cartoon. And while the initial premiere was viewed by subscribers of Disney+ and was popular for the platform it seems to not be able to retain all of those initial viewers who seem to have lost interest in keeping up with the show weekly. Meanwhile, more diehard fans of the comics who would be the target audience for a show that's directly adapting storylines have already given plenty of reason not to give Disney another cent.
Although it's impossible to say just how much this has impacted the potential viewers of the show. Instead, the true failure is that Disney+ as a platform is simply not worth the money in costs. While a cost of $7.99 per month(with ads) is hardly that much in the budget, the actual content received is much too minimal when compared to what is offered on Netflix & Hulu. Even if the potential customers who were chased away by abysmal marketing came back, the actual expense for the account just wouldn't make sense. Disney+ simply does not have enough content to keep up an active subscriber base, and with them pulling back on original content, there will be even less reason to have a Disney+ account.
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X-Men 97 should have been a far bigger premiere for the platform. For it to be truly successful, it needed to bring in new and returning customers. Unfortunately, it did not. On top of that, its viewership appears to have dwindled significantly.
That said, the show is being reviewed positively and seems to have generated a loyal fan base, so the likelihood of another season is going to be high. However, there may be cuts to the budget as the series will also need to find a new person to lead its production after firing the creator, Beau De Mayo, prior to the release.
There's still been no real reason given for the sudden and unexpected termination. And in an interview back in March, Brad Winderbaum, who heads the animation department for Marvel Studios, was vague on any real details. Since news of the termination, De Mayo's social media accounts were scrubbed clean, only adding further to the mystery. However, his contributions to the second season are already completed so the quality of the show likely will not change too much for fans.
What are your thoughts on the supposed failure of X-Men 97?
I'm one of those fans the Big Two have chased away by pozzing the characters I once loved. They were already losing me by '97 and they're not getting me back.
I may never get used to webcomics, but right now Arkhaven is the best sequential art show in town. (But TBH I have not checked into Arrow Comics, yet. And Private American was darn good.)
Still haven’t watched it (been watching Monk and Fallout.) I’m not sure if I can bring myself to watch it.