Skir isn’t wrong in his speculation. Looking at the Kids’ WB lineup at the time, it becomes clear that the programming block mostly stopped acquiring titles around the time “X-Men Evolution” ended. After 2003, Kids’ WB slowed down their output significantly, and other than “Pokémon,” they mostly focused on original programming as well as Cartoon Network rebroadcasts at the time.
Indeed, even more so than a pivot in the type of stories they were telling, Kids’ WB as a programming block was already on the way out. Around this time, Kids’ WB was facing a problem that similar animated programming blocks like Fox Kids and 4Kids faced — affiliates backing out because of the perceived notion that kids were only watching cable in the afternoon. By 2005, Kids’ WB stopped airing its programming block on weekdays, and a year later their Saturday morning block merged with The CW on basic cable, before disappearing altogether. So in a way, “X-Men Evolution” was a victim of an even larger business pivot, of the end of an era in children’s programming.
And it is a shame, too, because the proposed fifth season of “X-Men Evolution” was meant to adapt the Dark Phoenix Saga, using the four seasons’ worth of character development to give that story arc more depth than perhaps we’ve seen in any other adaptation.