With a healthy dose of '90s nostalgia, it turns out that Fox Kids could've had ambitious plans for a sixth season of the acclaimed X-Men: The Animated Series.

Running for an impressive 76 episodes and charting famous comic book story arcs like the "Dark Phoenix Saga," X-Men: The Animated Series didn't suffer from any of the criticism's that Fox's live-action movie series has done. However, ending on something of a cliffhanger in September 1997, were there ever plans to take the series further?

Speaking to SYFY WIRE, The Animated Series showrunner Eric Lewald opened up about where he would have taken a sixth season of the iconic Saturday morning cartoon:

"I had honestly never thought about it for all these years, but now that you mention it, an idea for a season just came to me."

X-Men Animated Series

The final episode, "Graduation Day," ended with a wounded Charles Xavier being whisked to space with the intergalactic Lilandra. Although she could save him, it looked like any future for the Gifted Youngsters would be without their wheelchair-bound leader. Reflecting on where the show could go next, Lewald guessed that the story would pick up where it left off:

"Season 6 could open, months later, with the X-Men in disarray – a few gone, the ones remaining at each other's throats. They miss their leader. Then somehow they are called to – and transported to – an existential crisis on Lilandra's distant world. The team grudgingly reunites 'for Charles,' heads off to space, solves the crisis, and a somehow-healed Charles Xavier is either able to return to Earth with them or, if he can't, his heroic final sacrifice heals the team's wounds and they return to Earth as the proper X-Men again."

After X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men failed to be picked up for a full series order in 1989, The Animated Series was the culmination of several years work. It is hard to pinpoint what made the show so popular, but even all these decades later, it is still one of the best X-Men adaptations ever. Since the show wrapped with "Graduation Day," there have been several attempts to follow in Lewald's footsteps with other X-Men cartoons. While the likes of X-Men Evolution and Wolverine and the X-Men had their charms, nothing has fared as well as The Animated Series.

Lewald's storyline certainly sounds like an epic way to continue one of the best-loved cartoons of the '90s, and another outer space arc could be an interesting place to take the likes of Wolverine, Storm, and Scott. However, with X-Men: The Animated Series now celebrating its 25th anniversary, would it even be possible to resurrect the series? Lewald did say he knew where to find the cast and crew, so let's get the wheels turning Fox - who wouldn't want to hear that iconic theme tune one more time?

Next: Things You Didn’t Know About X-Men The Animated Series

Source: SYFY WIRE