Disney+ makes new X-Men avatars available for users' profiles and they feature a style reminiscent of the 1990s cartoon series. The Disney streaming service first launched in Fall 2019 and has been an overwhelming success. At launch, the service boasted an impressive array of Disney animated classics, Pixar films, much of the Star Wars saga as well as the MCU, and their catalog only continues to grow.
Disney's acquisition of Marvel Entertainment in 2009 brought most of Marvel's characters and properties under the control of the House of Mouse. This included Marvel Comics as well as the MCU, but also the many cartoons based on Marvel characters, including those popular in the 1990s like Spider-Man and X-Men: The Animated Series. This purchase, however, did not give Disney ownership over the X-Men feature films produced by Fox. That wouldn't come until ten years later when Disney would officially purchase Fox, firmly establishing their control over practically all Marvel-based entertainment. Currently, the X-Men movies are not available to U.S. Disney+ subscribers (though they are in Canada and other markets), but the 1990s X-Men cartoon has been since launch. And now, fans can get their favorite X-Men as avatars for their profile.
Disney+ subscribers can personalize their accounts by choosing different avatars based on a variety of Disney-owned characters. On the purely Disney side there's everyone from Mickey and Minnie Mouse to Elsa and Anna from Frozen, while they also offer Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars characters. Now, though, users can pick one of ten different X-Men characters - Cyclops, Wolverine, Rogue, Storm, Beast, Gambit, Jubilee, Jean Grey, Professor X, and Magneto - as their new avatars. The designs used for the avatar art are reminiscent of how the characters appeared during the 1990s, appearing almost like updated versions of the X-Men characters from the 1990s cartoon.
Interestingly, the X-Men avatars are not found under the Marvel section but rather in their own X-Men section. It seems as far as Disney+ avatars are concerned, Marvel is a label reserved for the MCU. When it comes to Fox's X-Men movies, though, they're still listed under the Marvel section of the service (in those regions where the X-Men movies are available on Disney+, anyway). In the future, if the MCU introduces its own version of the X-Men as many believe they will, then it's almost certain whichever mutants they choose to adapt will find their avatars under the Marvel section in Disney+.
But regardless of why these X-Men avatars exist in their own section, the fact that they appear very much inspired by the 1990s X-Men cartoon is sure to make fans happy. These X-Men costumes are far and away the most iconic ones the characters have ever worn, and it's in large part because of the cartoon's popularity. There are some slight differences, though, such as Gambit not having his cowl and Storm's hair cut into a mohawk, but otherwise, they're fairly accurate to the X-Men costumes of the 1990s. Might this mean fans could soon see a revival of the X-Men: The Animated Series? There has been no official word on any such project, but it is something the creators of the original cartoon would love to see. Perhaps, then, these avatars can help build excitement for the idea.