10 Mind-Blowing Facts You Didn't Know About X-Men: Evolution
7. The Original X-Men Film Created Headaches For The Production Team
All the main X-Men introduced in the premiere of Evolution were, right around the same time, preparing to appear in the first of the Fox X-Men films. In the cartoon, however, Jean and Scott were still teens, as opposed to their adult versions in the film. Several of the mutants who would become the Brotherhood in the films appeared early in the series as well.
The producers of Evolution were in a bit of a quandry when developing the show. When initial planning for the series started, the movie was still being shot. Marvel wanted some continuity between the show and the movie (character design especially), but since details of the movie were top-secret, no one working on the show could refer to them as Marvel wasn't willing to have leaks on what they were banking would be a highly successful film.
The only person connected with both was producer Avi Arad, and he didn't share much of the movie content with the animation crew. Director Steven Gordon told Marvel Animation Age, however that "Actually, we were given a hand in some things such as being allowed to utilize the design for Xavier's chair, and when we were struggling with a Sabretooth design, they showed us the direction the movie was going with him, which gave me a jumping off point."