Anyone who knows me in real life knows that I’m a huge Marvel nerd and that X-Men are my jam. I’ve loved them since the original X-Men animated series in the 90s. I love what they stand for and always have. So when Disney+ announced they were bringing back the X-Men in a new series and it would be animated in the style of the original, I was pumped. I jumped at the opportunity to interview Lenore Zann, the voice of the original Rogue and Rogue in X-Men 97.
Interview – Lenore Zann Talks Rogue and X-Men 97
I sat down with Lenore Zann to talk about voicing Rogue again, working with some of the original cast, her political career, what it means to be an X-Men, and more.
Rogue (voiced by Lenore Zann) in Marvel Animation’s X-MEN ’97. Photo courtesy of Marvel Animation. © 2024 MARVEL.
How excited are you to be back voicing Rogue in the X-Men? ’97?
Lenore Zann: “Well, it is a blast. And I am so grateful and honored to be back. How many people get to play a superhero once in their life, let alone twice, and 30 years apart? So I’m very grateful and really excited.”
“I love the show. Every time I get a script, I can’t stop reading it ’til it’s done. And then to see it. And to see the beauty of being the team. It’s a team. It’s a team effort like this. And the art and the music and direction and the writing. The writing. I mean, it’s mind-blowing.”
Rogue (voiced by Lenore Zann) in Marvel Animation’s X-MEN ’97. Photo courtesy of Marvel Animation. © 2024 MARVEL.
When you were auditioning did you know it was going to be for Rogue again? Or was it a secret what role they were bringing you in for?
Lenore: “It was a secret, but the lines they sent me were Rogue’s lines from the original show. Oh and I recognized them, but the character had a different name. But I recognized them immediately. And I’d heard, I’d been told Disney was hunting me down. They wanted to find me and have me audition. So I’m like, ‘Oh, okay, I think I know what this is’.”
You were busy being political in Canada.
Lenore: “Exactly, I was busy saving lives.”
I feel like a lot of people don’t realize that you had a pretty vast political career. What, 12ish years or so?
Lenore: “Yeah, and one of my bills, a private member’s bill I introduced in 2020 is passing through the House of Commons. It’s already passed the House of Commons. And now it passed in the Senate. And tomorrow, I’m flying to Ottawa, to celebrate with all my colleagues there, the passage of my bill, which is called [Bill C-226] National Strategy Respecting Environmental Racism & Environmental Justice.”
Amazing! Congratulations.
Lenore: Thank you.
(L-R): Magneto (voiced by Matthew Waterson), Gambit (voiced by AJ LoCascio), and Rogue (voiced by Lenore Zann) in Marvel Animation’s X-MEN ’97. Photo courtesy of Marvel Animation. © 2024 MARVEL.
X-Men ’97, compared to the original animated series is a little more mature, it’s a little more dark thematically compared to some of the previous X-Men stories? How does it feel to be able to tell those stories? What kind of material do you pull from in your real life when you’re voicing Rogue?
Lenore: “Thanks for that question. I think the scripts recognize that the base of our fans, the fan base, are people who grew up in the 90s and watched our show. So that audience, they’ve grown up, they loved our show, back when they were kids, and the world has changed and shifted, and some darker things have emerged. And so our show addresses those.”
“We never talked down to kids at in the 90s. And we don’t talk down to them now. And so I think that the show really resonates for the people who have, you know, have gone through that experience with us on that journey, but they’re introducing their kids to the show now, and the kids love it. Six- and seven-year-olds come up to me and say how much they love the show and love Rogue. I asked them, ‘Isn’t it scary?’ And they’re like, ‘No, it’s exciting.’ Okay, and and those kids now are watching the original show because they loved the show so much. So it’s amazing. Really, it has a life of its own.”
(L-R): Rogue (voiced by Lenore Zann) and Nightcrawler (voiced by Adrian Hough) in Marvel Animation’s X-MEN ’97. Photo courtesy of Marvel Animation. © 2024 MARVEL.
I think Marvel in general has been able to do that over the years, but X-Men in particular has been very good at holding a mirror to society for us to have constructive conversations and whatnot. Anytime TV shows, or films have that message of inclusivity, it does help as a society for us to engage and encourage those conversations. In what ways do you identify with Rogue? Or how do you think the X-Men in general helps strengthen those conversations?
Lenore: “Thank you for bringing that up, because I think it’s so important that the show teaches these values of inclusiveness, and the fact that we are all really just wanting to belong, we’re all really trying to connect, and humanity throughout the eons, has wanted to connect with others and share stories tell, tell the story of the hunt around the fire back in the day. Paint, you know, putting their hands on the cave walls to show they were there talking about spiritual issues, and the connection between all of us around the world on this tiny, tiny little planet that is really just like little atoms spinning around in space.”
“So why do we waste so much time hating on each other, picking on each other, and killing one another when we’re just a little tiny speck spinning around in space? And I think X-Men touches on all of that, and makes you realize there’s something greater than yourself that you need to connect to. And for that, I’m so grateful to be part of this show, because it’s a lesson that I think needs to be repeated over and over and over.”
“I also could relate to Rogue because she is looking for herself and looking for where she can belong. She feels different. She feels othered. And she’s looking for her tribe, and she finds it in the X-Men. So I’ve gone through that myself. And I finally feel like I have found it with the X-Men community, and also with the acting community in the voice community and the cultural community.”
(L-R): Beast (voiced by George Buza), Forge (voiced by Gil Birmingham), Morph (voiced by JP Karliak), Storm (voiced by Alison Sealy-Smith), Rogue (voiced by Lenore Zann), Wolverine (voiced by Cal Dodd), Roberto Da Costa (voiced by Gui Agustini), Jubilee (voiced by Holly Chou), and Nightcrawler (voiced by Adrian Hough) in Marvel Animation’s X-MEN ’97. Photo courtesy of Marvel Animation. © 2024 MARVEL.
Related to that community, how was it reconnecting with some of the original cast?
Lenore: “Amazing. We were invited to New Braunfels, Texas 5 years ago, and we hadn’t seen each other in 25 years. And it was billed as 25-year reunion of the X-Men. So we all got together, and we just had a blast. We had so much fun together. And at the end, we met the original director, Larry Houston, for the first time. And also Eric and Julia Lewald, the original writers, because we’d never met them, because they were in LA. And we were in Toronto at the time when we recorded the original show.”
“And this was the first time we met. And so we all got along so well. And we had a dinner at the end of that. And we said, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if someone was to buy the rights to the X-Men the animated series and bring it back and bring us back with it?’ And we said, Let’s drink to that. And let’s put that out to the universe. And now here we are, and we’re going, ‘Wow, we’ve manifested something’!”
Rogue (voiced by Lenore Zann) in Marvel Animation’s X-MEN ’97. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2024 MARVEL.
That’s what it is. It’s manifesting it into the universe. You have to get it out there.
Lenore: “Exactly. Intention.”
So Season One, obviously was crazy wild in so many good and maybe sad ways. Do you have a favorite moment or favorite episode from Season One?
Lenore: “Yes, well, obviously, I really feel close to Episode Five: Remember It. And also Episode Seven: Bright Eyes. I feel I was able to express my own inner life and my own emotions through my character, to give a performance that resonated with people so that they could feel both my loss, Rogue’s loss, and their own loss. Because so many people I think are suffering in silence right now. They are, you know, they’ve lost someone due to COVID. They’re seeing all these deaths on television with all the wars and terrible things that are happening.”
“And so I think people have been grieving for the last few years, and I felt if I can match them with my performance of grief, then I can hopefully help them heal, I can help them feel their feelings, get some cathartics, get the experience, and then come out the other side and heal.
Rogue (voiced by Lenore Zann) in Marvel Animation’s X-MEN ’97. Photo courtesy of Marvel Animation. © 2024 MARVEL.
Thank you so much. This was wonderful. I’ve been an X-Men fan since the 90s. And we were so excited when the new series came back.
Lenore: “Thanks so much. And I have a book coming out actually. I’ve got my memoir coming out in the Fall called “A Rogue’s Tale: A Memoir.” It’s my origin story […] It’ll be available on Amazon.”
Watch the full Lenore Zann Interview
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