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X-MEN ’97 Season 2 Brings in Several STAR TREK: TNG Actors
- In season two of X-Men ’97, fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation might recognize these voices for three new characters as being from the Final Frontier.
Fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation might recognize three specific voices for new characters in X-Men ’97 season two. One of them they already revealed in the season one finale, but the other two are brand new to the series. It’s clear that the producers of X-Men ’97 are big Star Trek fans. And hey, we can’t blame them. We love Star Trek that much too. None of these Trek stars is a stranger to voice acting in animated projects, however. Here’s which Star Trek: TNG cast members have joined the X-Men ’97 world, and who they are playing:
Gates McFadden as Mother Askani/Rachel Summers
Paramount Television/Marvel Television
In the first episode, “Days of Past Future,” Cyclops and Jean Grey follow the leader of Clan Askani, Mother Askani, in the year. This powerful mutant comes to life thanks to Gates McFadden, who played Dr. Beverly Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation. In the series, Mother Askani is the (much) older version of Rachel Summers. She’s the future daughter of Scott Summers and Jean Grey, who pulls her parents into the future to raise her brother Nathan.
Michael Dorn as Baal
Paramount Television/Marvel Television
In the third episode, “The Rise of Apocalypse Part I,” we meet En Sabah Nur’s adoptive father, the warrior Baal. Appropriately enough, someone known for playing a similar role in Star Trek, Michael Dorn, voices this fearsome, barbaric fighter. He instills Apocalypse’s “survival of the fittest” philosophy into him. Famously, Dorn portrayed the Klingon warrior and Starfleet officer Worf in seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Not to mention four seasons of Deep Space Nine, five Star Trek films, and one season of Star Trek: Picard. Also, his IMDb for animated projects is quite long. You can hear his distinctive voice in shows like Invincible, Justice League, and many others.
John de Lancie as Pharaoh Rama-Tut (Kang)
Paramount Television/Marvel Television
Finally, voicing the evil time-traveling Pharaoh from the far future, Rama-Tut is John de Lancie, the man behind the omnipotent Q in the Star Trek franchise. Q debuted in the very first episode of TNG, “Encounter at Farpoint,” and returned each season. Of course, Marvel fans know that Rama-Tut is a variant of Kang the Conqueror. With his futuristic technology, Rama-Tut is like a god to the ancient Egyptians he conquers. So it’s fitting that someone famous for playing a godlike being should portray him as well.
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All 7 Seasons of STAR TREK: TNG, RankedWill we see other Star Trek: The Next Generation cast in future episodes? It might be fun to get Patrick Stewart to pop up, given his strong X-Men franchise connections as Professor X. But now that all these old friends are in a recording booth, how about an animated Star Trek: TNG season 8? We’re sure all of the main actors would jump at the chance. We’re just putting that out into the universe. In the meantime, season two of X-Men ’97 drops new episodes every Wednesday on Disney+.
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Private space pilots are flying orbital missions for the US Space Force
Dwayne Johnson Says MOANA 3 Discussions Are Happening
- During a publicity event for the live-action MOANA, actor Dwayne Johnson mentioned talks of a third animated movie.
With its live-action adaptation of the 2016 movie on the way, Disney undoubtedly has Moana on the mind. At a promotional press conference for the movie, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who has played Maui in both the animated and live-action versions, mentioned discussions of a third animated Moana movie coming.
Walt Disney Animation Studio
When Johnson answered regarding the third movie, he seemed keen to pivot back to the upcoming live-action film.
“Yes, we have talked about ‘Moana 3,’ yes. But first, live-action ‘Moana,’ we’ll let that come out first.”
While Johnson reprised his role in the live-action version, Auliʻi Cravalho, Moana’s original voice actress, took a step back from the project. In an interview with TheWrap, she said, “It feels really important to me to pass the baton to the next young woman of Pacific Island descent.” However, she did still serve as an executive producer on the project.
Disney
That next young woman was Catherine Laga’aia, a Samoan Australian actress who beat 32,000 other contenders to the role. While she may be Moana in live-action, Variety expects Auliʻi Cravalho to return for the next animated installment.
Both the first and second animated movies were success stories for Disney, with Moana 2 grossing over $1 billion at the box office. Critic reviews put the movie squarely at 61%, but many fans overwhelmingly disagreed with an average audience rating of 85%. That and the sheer revenue it produced are a testament to the place the characters hold in the hearts of audiences.
After Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote the first film’s score, stepped down for the second movie, it is uncertain who will take that helm for a third.
Many of the details about the third movie are unclear—all we know is that it exists—but the one sure thing is that the world is not done with Moana yet.
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M&Ms Announces Discontinuation of Blue and Brown
- Blue and Brown M&Ms will no longer be included in the company’s new artificial dye-free packs, starting in August.
- This comes in a wave of new food regulations affecting candy and snack brands.
- Until Mars finds a cost-efficient alternative, say goodbye to brown and blue.
If the blue or brown M&Ms were your favorite… start saying your goodbyes. As of August, new all-natural M&M packs will include only four of their iconic colors: red, green, yellow, and orange. In addition to two lost colors, Mars will stop using artificial dyes in M&Ms altogether.
Mars
Mars isn’t the first company to make the switch. With a controversial new Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiative, artificial dyes have begun disappearing from food products. From Nestle and Hershey in candy to Simply NKD (Doritos/Cheetos without the red 40), this health-conscious push is changing the snacking game.
But why brown and blue, specifically? According to a Wall Street Journal interview with the company, red, orange, yellow, and green were easy to recreate naturally. From beets to turmeric, there is no shortage of those colors in the natural world. However, brown and blue created problems. Mars said the substitute they were considering, a teal-ish algae called spirulina, is too expensive to buy en masse. For brown, the company has always mixed blue, red, and yellow dyes, which also becomes expensive to do.
This comes only 30 years after the public voted to replace the tan M&M (don’t ask me what Mars was thinking with that one) with blue. Candy-lovers were able to choose between blue, pink, and purple, and with a 54% vote, blue won.
The company hasn’t given up entirely. They are working to develop purple, brown, and blue dyes that work with their budget. The fortunate part is every M&M tastes the same (I don’t want to hear anybody negate that, it’s true), so despite a slightly less colorful variety, the signature chocolatey flavor isn’t going anywhere.
Artificial dye-free packs will begin rolling out in August. Until the company finds a good dye alternative for brown and blue, they will not appear in the new packages.
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X-MEN ’97’s Fired Showrunner Speaks Out as Season 2 Drops
- Beau DeMayo, the fired showrunner and head writer of X-Men ’97, speaks out against Marvel and Disney.
- DeMayo accused working for Marvel of being “not a safe space.”
- He was initially let go because of a sexual misconduct investigation.
Two years ago, Marvel fired its X-Men ’97 showrunner, Beau DeMayo, for (at the time) unknown reasons. That began a whirlwind of controversy, as DeMayo claimed the company fired him unjustly, and Marvel/Disney eventually revealed there was a sexual misconduct investigation. Since then, DeMayo became very vocal on social media, and did not take the high road when speaking about Disney/Marvel. He also sued the company. In a new report from Vanity Fair, (via Deadline), which hit just as X-Men ’97 dropped its first episodes of season two, DeMayo fired back once more. And he doubled down on his claim that Marvel fired him for having an OnlyFans account. Here’s what he had to say:
It was cleared. It was like, ‘It is your personal life. As long as you’re not advertising the show on your OnlyFans, as long as you’re keeping it very separate from the content of the show, it’s outside of their purview. It’s been very traumatic. I thought I was in a safe space, and then quickly found out that I was not in a safe space. My therapist is well employed.
Marvel Television
In addition, DeMayo claims he received disparaging remarks from Marvel employees. He claims he heard things like “Oh, you don’t look like a showrunner, you don’t look like a writer. There was that vibe that I was the DEI hire, where, ‘Oh, they just got a gay Black guy because he checks all the marks and it’s X-Men.'” DeMayo had earlier worked on the forever-in-development Blade reboot. But claims that his experience with X-Men ’97 was worse. He added, “Some of those racist, sexist, homophobic vibes that I was getting before Blade became much more explicit.”
For those who have watched the first episodes of X-Men ’97 season two, you can still feel DeMayo’s fingerprints on the series. He is one of the credited writers of episode three, “The Rise of Apocalypse: Part I.” He also retains an executive producer credit. We’ll likely notice his absence more in season three, which he had no hand in at all. In the meantime, the legal back-and-forth continues. So this is likely not the last we’ve heard about this situation. X-Men ’97 season two is now streaming on Disney+.
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AMC’s THE VAMPIRE LESTAT Concert Is the Pinnacle of All Fan Events EVER
- AMC’s The Vampire Lestat concert in NYC both created beautiful community and made the series come to life in ways we could only dream.
What is it that makes television shows, movies, books, comics, games, and other fictions so popular? Depending on the specifics of the story, there could be a plethora of answers to this question. But one of the most salient is that they offer us a special kind of dream fulfillment. The ability to step out of our mundane, normal worlds and into something beyond the human scope. They allow us to go on journeys that we could only dream of and experience a true kind of magic. As we explore these tales and fall in love with them, though, in our own worlds, another kind of magic tends to form as well. The magic of community. Though enjoying fiction won’t allow us to become an immortal undead, a superpowered entity, or an ageless elf, becoming a fan in a world of other fans is a beautiful transmutation all its own. And, in most cases, when we have fan events in our world, it’s that communal connection that is bolstered and grown. But somehow, through the vision and execution of The Vampire Lestat’s one-night-only concert in NYC, AMC managed to do the impossible; they both brought fans together to celebrate with one another AND they brought them directly into the world of the show. Or, more aptly, they brough the world of the show into our own. And, as a person who has been to a large number of fan events in my life, I can safely say that The Vampire Lestat’s concert has set a new standard, and an impossibly high bar, for fan events from here on out.
Nerdist
Picture this. It’s a warm, beautiful day in June. The Beacon Theater on the Upper West Side has neon signs on every inch of its facade, advertising that a real vampire will soon take the stage. An elderly gentleman stops me on the street and asks, “The Vampire Lestat? Are they new?” “Pretty old,” I tell him with a laugh, and then explain the conceit of the show and the performance. He’s interested to know more. Down the street, a line of thousands of people spills along New York City’s Riverside Park. Thousands. All of them are fabulously dressed, most in glitter, some in gothic finery, others in full costumes, fake blood and vampire teeth abound in the mass. Importantly, everyone is beaming. Everyone is excited. Thrilled. They’re being transported out of their lives and into the fantasy of the TV series they love so much. They’re also together, surrounded by hundreds of others who really see them. These fans, the Beautifully Unwell, as The Vampire Lestat has come to call them, are here together. They’ve been brought together for something they all want so much, and it’s a gift.
AMC
Nerdist
Nerdist
People have come from all over to see Lestat perform for the first time in our realm. The UK, Germany, France, LA, Canada, the Czech Republic, and all over the United States, just to name a few countries. Some have traveled without even knowing if they’ll have a ticket to The Vampire Lestat’s debut show. Beyond the ticket line, I know of at least three meet-ups that took place in the city so that visiting fans, who came to NYC ticketless, could taste this Great Convergence as well. I myself find a few dozen people I know from online interactions. My friends, whom I’ve never met before, whom The Vampire Lestat has brought into my life, a beautifully spun thread tying us together, now solidied by presence thanks to this concert. They ply me and all those around them with stickers, friendship bracelets, key chains, and other trinkets.
On the other hand, many people whom I’ve known for decades, from many different corners of my life in the city, are also here. And all around me, new friendships are forming. An incredible microcosm of hope and love in a world that can otherwise be so dark, and no one has yet played a note.
AMC
One of the biggest focuses of my work, throughout my journey from fan to fan/professional, has always revolved around the way creators and official sources engage with their fans and help bolster the fandoms that form around the work they create. Like the characters in many of the shows they love, fans who are attracted to ardent fandoms often have a great desire to be seen, to feel respected by the creators they feel. Selflessly, they pour themselves into the story, but it’s so much better when they know the story loves and supports them back.
AMC
At the end of the day, fans really long to be acknowledged by the properties they love, and when they feel that the admiration is mutual, their affinity to the property strengthens, AND that feeling also helps to form those beautiful bonds of friendship and community that I talk about above. In my opinion, when all of the variables alchemize together, a wonderous feedback loop of positivity forms and everyone feels uplifted. True light that can so rarely exist in our world comes to life. And no event I’ve attended has more fully realized this vision than The Vampire Lestat concert.
AMC
Immersion is increasingly common in fan activations and marketing today. But the fans waiting in line for The Vampire Lestat concert weren’t waiting in line just to see a nicely decorated space. They were literally waiting in line… To. See. The. Vampire. Lestat. A far-flung dream from the narrative come to actual existence. AMC did the impossible as they reached into the TV show The Vampire Lestat and pulled one perfect evening back out into our world. They wrote a love letter to fans like no other. In that moment, they heard their fans, they knew what they wanted, and they offered it to them. In short, AMC’s The Vampire Lestat truly saw its fans.
AMC
Inside the concert hall, there was a merch table, themed popcorn buckets, swag bags, and, exactly as on the tin, a real concert hall. A real concert hall that holds real concerts, which The Vampire Lestat filled with his songs. Sam Reid was every inch the rockstar in person and every inch Lestat. He left Sam at home and brought only the vampire to the stage. And then that concert magic really happened. That moment where the room goes from cold to warm, and the music descends on you, and true communion comes through sound.
The Vampire Lestat rose to life and sang in New York City that night.
AMC
And what an incredible, indelible experience. For one evening, we, the fans of The Vampire Lestat the series, fans of the actor Sam Reid, and fans of Lestat, the figure who is real to us through fiction, were sitting together with thousands of other fans, now friends, in a real theater to watch as all the things we love the most converged on stage. And converge they did, in the finest of fashions.
NerdistThe Vampire Lestat concert was truly the pinnacle of all fan events. It brought the community together and bolstered it. It brought fantasy into reality. It made all our wildest dreams come true. Truly, the evening was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Nerdist
AMC
Though, of course… We’re holding out for the world tour.
The Vampire Lestat airs at 9 pm ET/PT on AMC and AMC+. You can also read The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice today as you wait for the next episode of the series to air.
Rotem Rusak is the Editor-in-Chief of Nerdist. She was truly touched by Lestat’s music.
This post has affiliate links, which means we may earn advertising money if you buy something. This doesn’t cost you anything extra, we just have to give you the heads up for legal reasons. Click away!
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KFC and Domino’s Respond to PlayStation Ending Disc Games
- PlayStation announced it will no longer produce physical discs as of 2028.
- Two fast food franchises posted jokingly on Twitter about offering “digital-only” meals.
- PlayStation also lost the rights to Studio Canal movies, meaning that users who bought those titles will no longer be able to access them.
PlayStation ceasing production of physical discs for games has been big news among gamers, and other companies have begun to respond to the decision. KFC Spain and Domino’s UK both posted on X, formerly Twitter, this morning, announcing “digital” menus as a joke.
Kentucky Fried Chicken, Sony, Domino’s Pizza
They continued to poke fun in the comments, with Domino’s posting: “At the same time, our much-loved ‘Domin-oh-hoo-hoo’ catchphrase will be updated to ‘Domin-oh-hoo-whose-dumb-idea-was-this’?”
Clearly, gamers are running these companies’ pages—gamers who will miss the gaming giant’s physical discs.
At the same time, our much-loved 'Domin-oh-hoo-hoo' catchphrase will be updated to 'Domin-oh-hoo-whose-dumb-idea-was-this'?
— Domino's Pizza UK (@Dominos_UK) July 2, 2026It is certainly the end of an era. PlayStation consoles have had disc drives since their inception—longer than they have sold digital games, which began with the creation of the PlayStation store in 2006.
Whether collecting game discs is a hobby or you simply prefer buying physical games, that is coming to an end. In fact, PlayStation is kicking fans while they’re down this week. In addition to the loss of physical discs, users will lose access to 551 movies from PlayStation’s library. Sony recently lost the rights to titles by Studio Canal. Even if you “bought” the movie, it will disappear from your library without a trace. Don’t expect a reimbursement from Sony, either—just a pop-up with an explanation.
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PlayStation Will Cease Physical Disc Production by 2028PlayStation users are experiencing disappointment after disappointment at the moment. However, some fans are taking the disc announcement as an indicator that PlayStation’s sixth console won’t come out until 2028. This seems to be a reasonable assumption, especially considering Sony still has not revealed a release date or price. This also means the PS6 could be their first console without at least an option with a disc drive.
If you plan to continue playing on PlayStation, you’d better get used to buying and accessing your games only digitally. Though, after what we are seeing with the Studio Canal movies, it does raise some questions about whether digitally-purchased items are ever truly yours—or safe.
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