‘Milky Way Ghetto’: ‘X-Men ’97’ Directors On How That Gagworthy Line Came To Be

There were plenty of gagworthy moments in Disney+’s X-Men ’97. But one moment that caught fans off-guard was when Professor Xavier’s evil, intergalactic sister-in-law Deathbird calling Earth a “Milky Way Ghetto.” Series directors Chase Conley and Emi/Emmett Yonemura talked about what it was like coming up with that now-iconic line.

“Charley Feldman wrote that episode, and probably that line of dialogue,” Conley told Deadline in his and Yonemura’s interview. “But I did know that after that episode, I was like, ‘Deathbird might be my favorite character in the show,’ because she walks in, turns up on everybody, you know what a mean? Drops in, she’s got all the entrances, all the bars, and I like that she’s always on 10 the entire time. And it made me feel some kind of way, that’s how I knew it was a good line. I was like, ‘Damn, we live in…I guess it kind [of] is. You start thinking about life, like, ‘Damn.’ …The Earth is kind of hood, you know? We do hood stuff, we do hood activities.”

Yonemura added that they believed the line came from series creator Beau DeMayo, but, they described it as a “solid” line.

“It was so perfect. It was such a good line for Deathbird to say in that moment because it’s such a dig, and it’s true. We are on the outskirts of the Milky Way galaxy…such a good call,” they said.

The series quickly became one of Disney+’s biggest hits earlier this year and generated a resurgence in fandom love for the original ’90s animated series. The series is now working on Seasons 2 and 3 despite the drama with DeMayo’s mysterious ouster .