Following news that 1992’s X-Men: The Animated Series would be receiving a continuation in the form of X-Men ‘97 on Disney Plus, voice actress Alyson Court has confirmed that she will not reprise her role as the firework-throwing Jubilation “Jubilee” Lee after previously asserting that she would prefer the part go to an Asian voice actress.
Court revealed that she would be stepping down as Jubilee on November 12th, shortly after X-Men ‘97 had been announced to the general public, in order to settle fan confusion on Twitter.
Replying to a user who stated that they were excited to see “a bunch of the old voices” return for the new series, @Neoxon619 clarified, “Most of the surviving cast is returning, but not all of them in their original roles.”
“Alyson Court in particular will not be reprising her role as Jubilee (an Asian actress will replace her), but will get another role,” he added.
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As evidence, @Neoxon619 pointed to a previous tweet made by Court in June 2020 after a fan announced that they had started a petition asking Disney to produce new episodes of the 90s X-Men and Spider-Man cartoons with their respective original voice casts.
“Fully support this with 1 caveat: I will not voice Jubilee,” declared Court at the time. “It was an honour to bring life & voice to such an iconic character in the original series,but I know far too many talented young Asian actors who would do Jubilee justice now. Still wld love 2b part, just in a new role.”
Pushing back against @Neoxon619, fellow Twitter user @SW_Fan1000 stated, “Except she literally said this following the announcement,” linking to a Tweet made by Court on November 12th, 2021 in which she retweeted Disney’s announcement of X-Men ‘97 and asked “Ready for some fireworks?”
“Why would she reference that if she wasn’t playing the character?” @SW_Fan1000 asked. “She could’ve changed her mind in a year.”
It was at this point that Court herself joined the conversation, informing the fans, “Jubilee is returning and I am involved with the show but those two things don’t have to be one and the same thing.”
As of writing, a new voice actress for Jubilee has yet to be announced.
What do you make of Court’s decision? Let us know your thoughts on social media or in the comments down below!