X-Men Producer Explains That Cameo By The Watcher & What It Means For The Rest Of Season 1

:0:1

This article covers a developing story. Continue to check back with us as we will be adding more information as it becomes available. WARNING: This article includes MAJOR SPOILERS from X-Men '97 season 1, episode 5.
Summary

The Watcher's cameo in X-Men: '97 is significant for longtime fans of the original animated show.
Per supervising producer Jake Castorena, the character's appearance may not be about looking out for the X-Men, but witnessing events crucial to the storyline and timeline in the Marvel universe.
The subtle appearance of The Watcher showcases the intricate detail and hard work of the production team on X-Men '97 season 1.

Supervising producer Jake Castorena speaks out on The Watcher's supposed cameo in X-Men '97, and what this may mean for this version of the Marvel universe.
In an interview with Screen Rant, Castorena, who works as the head director and supervision producer on X-Men '97 season 1, chimed in on whether or not that was really The Watcher who fans saw in the sky. Castorena remained a bit ambiguous on the exact nature of the Marvel character's role in the episode, though did acknowledge that the Marvel Cinematic Universe served as a template for them figuring out how to do that, and for what to do with future cameos in the show. See what Castorena explained below:

JAKE CASTORENA: What I can say is, to that point of everything is connected, everything in the MCU is absolutely connected. Everybody on that side of the pond, as I like to say, they work really hard to make sure that happens. The cool thing about our sandbox with the 90s X Men, a cartoon of it all. This was the MCU, before the MCU was really ever the MCU. This is where we learned about cameos and at least, for fans like myself, this introduced me to a lot of the characters that I later on went to the comics for. So in that vein, we really have our own sandbox to play in and don't really have to worry about the intertwining of it all. You get to have all of the candy, you don't have to pick with one side and to that point, what I will say is, any fan of the OG show will have noticed The Watcher cameo in the series. So it is not out of canon for the OG X-Men 90-97, to have The Watcher, watching or looking on.

What I will say is, is it necessarily The Watcher looking out for the X-Men or is it The Watcher looking on at events that need to occur for the sake of a timeline or ripple effect? I would hesitate to say The Watcher is looking out for the X-Men or for mutants, because [he's] not doing a great job in that moment. [laughs] Right. But that was definitely - and this escapes me right now because it's been almost two-three years working on this stuff - I don't remember if that wasn't in the script, per se, but it definitely came up early on in the rooms and in the conversations, like, 'Oh, can we put The Watcher in there?' Because it is a significant moment, genocide is about to happen and we're introducing, the mutant massacre, [similar to] E for Extinction, story inspiring storylines into the episode. How could The Watcher not be there to witness this. But it's pretty great, shout out to our paint team and production designer Anthony, who worked really hard to get it just right to where if you blink, you'll miss it. So it's been really fun to see the reactions of fans catching The Watcher on the rewatch. So that's been really fun.