X-Men: The Animated Series was the franchise's first big adaptation outside of comics, but it wasn't the first attempt. Preceding it was an unsuccessful pilot titled Pryde of the X-Men, which involved the X-Men from the 1970s and early '80s. This show, at least from its one and only episode, had more of a traditional Saturday morning cartoon vibe, lacking some of the seriousness and gravitas present in X-Men's "Night of the Sentinels" premiere episode. This was somewhat accurate to the era of X-Men comic books it was adapting, but the franchise had begun to resemble its current form by the mid to late 80s.
One area in which the pilot was somewhat inaccurate was the height of its cast. While some characters were shorter than they were in the comics, there was one notable exception. Not only was Pryde of the X-Men's Magneto taller than he was in the comics, he was actually just as large as the gigantic Colossus.
The recently released X-Men: The Art and Making of the Animated Series revealed all manner of unknown facts behind the production of the fan-favorite cartoon. One section of the book in particular stands out for its featuring a lesser known step in the show's production. Focusing on Pryde of the X-Men, this section contains concept art for the planned series in the form of a character model breakdown that displayed the height of each of the mutants.
Most of these match the characters' physical appearances from the comics, give or take. Cyclops is a fairly realistic 6 foot 1, which is a bit shorter than his 6 foot 3 height from the comics. At 8 feet, Juggernaut is similarly shorter than he is in the source material, where he's a gigantic 9 foot 5. The major exception to this shrinking is the Master of Magnetism himself. In the comics, Magneto is tall at a believable 6 foot 2, but that wasn't the case on Pryde of the X-Men. Instead, the pilot grew the leader of the Brotherhood into a whopping 6 foot 10.
This incredible height puts Magneto at the same size as the show's version of Colossus, and he's nearly the same height as Blob. This makes the character abnormally tall, especially given that his height would otherwise have nothing to do with his powers like it does with Juggernaut and Blob.
Given how tall these other villains are, it's likely that the pilot's creators wanted the Brotherhood's leader to be a similarly imposing height. It's also interesting that he's as tall as the biggest member of the X-Men, while also having powers that directly negate his. The rest of the cast are also fairly tall, with Dazzler and Emma Frost being nearly 6 feet. This bolsters the theory that Magneto would need to be incredibly tall himself to be truly imposing.
When the more famous X-Men: The Animated Series was produced, Magneto was reverted back to the more believable 6'2". While some fans may have had any issue with how tall Wolverine was in the live-action movies, an animated Magneto that towers over all of the X-Men is a different story entirely.
X-Men: The Art and Making of the Animated Series is available now.