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DEADLINE: Where does your relationship with the X-Men and Marvel start in general?
CHASE CONLEY:I grew up in a rural town, Morganton, North Carolina.
‘X-Men ‘97’Disney+
Thats where my family was from going back generations.
So, eventually he would start buying me comic books every time we went to the pharmacy.
I had this natural proclivity for drawing, and those characters were so dynamic to me at the time.
(L-R): Magneto (voiced by Matthew Waterson), Gambit (voiced by AJ LoCascio), and Rogue (voiced by Lenore Zann) inMarvel Animation‘sX-Men ’97Marvel Animation / Disney
So, I was like, I think Im going to do this.
And so Ive always associated [comic books] with the birth of my artistic expression.
EMI/EMMETT YONEMURA:I was more into Japaneseanimationand manga, especially being half Japanese.
This isnt just content coming out of Japan.
Look at how dynamic these characters are.
Joe Kubert is just such a huge beginning influence for me.
And then from there my love of animation continued.
Thats how I got here.
DEADLINE: And in being here, we can also lightheartedly blame you for the devastating Episode 5.
The episode most widely talked about on the internet and beyond.
It is also the one up for Emmy consideration.
Can you talk about this controversial Rogue, Gambit and Magneto pairing and building that heart wrenching dance sequence?
YONEMURA:When I got Episode 5, I had notes [laughs].
I had things where it was obvious that was like, Look you need key moments.
We had to make that dance really sing, because you oughta believe it.
So it is a distraction.
And another big goal of the episode was then destroying Genosha.
It was really about a lot of setup and making sure things paid off.
I worked closely with Cassey Kuo who was helping me assistant direct on that episode.
And she was also a huge part in helping us find that beautiful dance sequence.
The real intimate part of their dance was all Cassey.
No, Im a Rogue and Gambit person all the way.
Im not into this.
We can forget about that.
Come on, no one wants this.
But then its like, OK, well, how do we convince ourselves that we do want this?
So it was kind of like, All right, lets make this really sexy.
Lets find that attraction of why is Rogue attracted to this guy?
Oh, because she can touch him.
Well, then, I guess this dance is all about touch.
DEADLINE: Chase, youve got a lot of Marvel character cameos in Episode 10.
How did you go about making sure everyone like Peter Parker and Daredevil had their spotlight?
Were you conscious of the staging and who made an appearance or not?
But for the most part, we all agreed on who would be there.
The cameos were also there just to show the widespread effect of the Prime Sentinels, globally.
Black Panther didnt even have to hide inside, he went outside to go take care of business.
But my goal was to give Jubilee her just due.
Jubilee is one of my favorites.
I enjoy drawing Jubilee.
The actual love and desire of people to see 90s Spider-Man was cool too.
It was similar to when Luke Skywalker popped up inThe Mandalorianfor me.
And I was just like, Oh.
And that wasbeforeEpisode 5.
No, thank you.
I really enjoyed seeing that reaction from fans.
DEADLINE: What was something that was challenging during the process of directing your respective episodes?
And how did you get through it?
YONEMURA:The very last scene in Episode 5 with Rogue holding Gambits body.
Theres some where he was kind of walking the cool hero walk up to her.
My heart was so sad.
I did not want to lose that moment, it was one of my favorites.
It was so beautifully boarded by Jalin Harden.
And I was like, Harsh.
YONEMURA:Yeah, very harsh.
Because Callisto was always one of my favorites, even as a kid.
But it was tricky, because there was always multiple versions.
Deathbird hurls an insult at professor Xavier and the counsel by calling Earth a Milky Way Ghetto.
There were so many memes and people coming to self actualizations about our place in the solar system.
CONLEY:Charley Feldman wrote that episode, and probably that line of dialogue.
And it made me feel some kind of way, thats how I knew it was a good line.
I was like, Damn, we live in…
I guess it kind is.
You start thinking about life, like, Damn.
YONEMURA:It is, were in the Milky Way Ghetto.
CONLEY:The Earth is kind of hood, you know?
We do hood stuff, we do hood activities [laughs].
DEADLINE: We are a little ratchet down here, arent we?
YONEMURA:I do believe it was a line change by Beau in post, but it was solid.
It was so perfect.
We are on the outskirts of the Milky Way galaxy… such a good call [laughs].
CONLEY:Such a great dig.
