X.A.N.A.

X.A.N.A.
Role	Main Antagonist Artificial Intelligence Multi-Agent System
First appearance	X.A.N.A. Awakens (chronologically) Teddygozilla (production)
English voice actor(s)	David Gasman

"HAHAHAHAHA, YOU ARE GOING TO DIE! HAHAHAHA!"

–X.A.N.A. itself speaking to the Lyoko Warriors in Ghost Channel.

"A multi-agent computer program I created. It has achieved self-awareness and autonomy, and it's trying to eliminate us now."

–Franz Hopper explaining to his daughter about how he created X.A.N.A. in Aelita.

XANA (officially stylized as X.A.N.A.) is the main antagonist of Code Lyoko. It is a multi-agent intelligence program based on the principles of a virus created by Waldo Schaeffer to destroy Project Carthage, but its design as a multi-agent program caused it to continuously evolve due to repeated returns to the past, eventually becoming self-aware and hostile towards humanity, betraying its creator and seeking world domination.

Waldo shut down the Supercomputer after seeing how dangerous X.A.N.A. had become, but it was reactivated by Jeremie Belpois nine years later, attacking the Lyoko Warriors and is determined to escape the Supercomputer and control the global network. Despite succeeding and killing its creator, X.A.N.A. was finally destroyed when the group used their own multi-agent system designed to erase all of X.A.N.A.'s Replikas and eliminate the hostile program once and for all.

In the non-canon Code Lyoko Evolution, X.A.N.A. survives by infecting another virtual world known as the Cortex. It has planted its source codes inside of Aelita Schaeffer, Ulrich Stern, Yumi Ishiyama and Odd Della Robbia and plans to recover the codes to regain its power to control the network. However, by deactivating both the Cortex and Lyoko before X.A.N.A. could restore its power, the Lyoko Warriors succeed in defeating X.A.N.A. for now.

Appearance

X.A.N.A. manifesting as a specter in Fight to the Finish.

X.A.N.A. is a computer program that acts as a hidden, demonic force lurking inside Lyoko's systems and generates red, pulsating energies that run through the Lyoko Wires when activating a Tower. It lacks any physical form both in the real and virtual worlds. The specters it manifests on Earth are black, ghostly entities that are extensions of its multi-agent system and are the closest thing it has to a physical form.

X.A.N.A.’s only physical appearance

X.A.N.A.'s only real incarnation was in Ghost Channel, masquerading as Jeremie inside a Simulation Bubble meant to imprison Ulrich, Yumi and Odd. It manifested its presence into a monstrous caricature figure of Jeremie, with sharp nails, spiky hair, white glowing eyes and an unnatural aura.

In The Key, X.A.N.A. appeared in the form of a massive, whirling specter escaping the Supercomputer above the factory. But the closest thing to a real appearance was in Fight to the Finish, while X.A.N.A. was being destroyed everywhere in the Digital Sea by Jeremie's multi-agent antivirus, the specter that was possessing William was forced out and became a giant entity with its eye symbol on the chest, screaming in agony before it disappears.

Personality

X.A.N.A. is essentially a hostile and self-aware computer system bent on world domination. Most of the time, it behaves akin to a dark and demonic force incapable of showing any personality but displays consistent traits through its many incarnations. X.A.N.A. is calculating and ruthless, shows no mercy in its actions, and does not stop until it fulfills its tasks and objectives. It acts hostile and relentless towards enemies and people most of the time, but is clever enough to know when to retreat, conceal its true actions, or when subtle and devious methods are needed.

While X.A.N.A.'s machine intellect can calculate attacks, plan schemes, even predict human behavior, it is limited only to theories and logical patterns due to being a computer program. It can understand base emotions such as anger, fear, jealousy, or desire, but cannot grasp the deeper complexity of friendship or self-sacrifice.

Being driven by logic, X.A.N.A. acts only for its own benefit and only truly values self-preservation over everything else. It views everything (objects and humanity) as either potential obstacles or tools it can possess or use to serve its needs. After reawakening, X.A.N.A. needed to keep the Supercomputer maintaining the virtual world online to stay alive before escaping into the network. For that reason, it helped the team destroy the rogue Marabounta to preserve Aelita's memory and save itself. This logical mindset can be exploited to make X.A.N.A. stop its own attacks by threatening things that are vital to its needs, unwilling to risk losing them before its needs are fulfilled.

X.A.N.A. has also developed some emerging qualities in its own program. After helping its enemies deal with the Marabounta, its monsters bowed in respect before leaving, though it was unnecessary. X.A.N.A. also displayed sadistic and egomaniacal traits when having the advantage, and frustration and anger when being thwarted. It also values intelligence in showing a desire to defeat Jeremie and pride in resembling him as a clone but has equal disrespect for stupidity and illogical behavior. Also, X.A.N.A. once subtly mocked Odd by having a polymorph take his appearance after suggesting it "turn into a wimp."

As X.A.N.A. grows in strength and power, so does its objectives and methods as the series progresses. At first, it threatens humanity and targets its enemies with random attacks (likely to keep gaining power from returns to the past), while keeping the Supercomputer online to stay active. Later, it tries and succeeds in stealing the Keys to Lyoko from Aelita's memory to escape the machine and access the world network. Inside the network, X.A.N.A. secretly infects other supercomputers with Replikas for the purpose of building armies of robots in secret bases to conquer the world, while working to destroy Lyoko and eliminate Franz Hopper, the biggest threat, in addition to fighting the team to eliminate all its obstacles.

Relationships

Lyoko Warriors

The Lyoko Warriors are X.A.N.A.'s mortal enemies, since they are the only ones who know of its existence and thwart its attacks at every turn. It considers them to be troublesome obstacles and attacks them relentlessly, seizes any opportunities to weaken or gain advantages over them, and has no qualms about using them for its own ends. X.A.N.A. also has different views of each and every one of them:

• Jeremie Belpois: X.A.N.A. targets Jeremie the most out of everyone since he is the only one who can use the lab interface and because it sees him as the source of the group's leadership. It believes that he is the reason for their high success rate. When X.A.N.A. made a clone of him, it remarked that it "was almost proud to resemble him", showing a begrudging respect for the leader of the group due to his high intellect. This sentiment is repeated after the Marabounta incident where X.A.N.A. showed respect after a joint effort to eliminate the rogue program.
• Aelita Schaeffer: She is the only one out of the group who can deactivate its Towers, making her very dangerous. However, her unique abilities and connection to Franz Hopper makes her valuable to X.A.N.A.'s current objectives. From the Keys to Lyoko in her memory, destroying surface sectors, or luring out Franz Hopper, it always tried to possess and exploit her whenever possible, considering her vital for its current objectives.
• Yumi Ishiyama: It sees Yumi as one of the more mature and competent of the group. It manipulates her to accomplish its plans most frequently of the group and always tries to devirtualize her the most out of the three core fighters.
• Odd Della Robbia: X.A.N.A. sees Odd as just another annoyance. It even mocked him when its polymorph took his appearance after he suggested that it "turns into a wimp," but seems to respect him enough to have monsters listen to his orders when fighting the Marabounta.
• Ulrich Stern: It knows Ulrich is the best fighter and usually fights him by outnumbering him on Lyoko. It once took over his body when his mind was separated from it to attack the Core of Lyoko.
• William Dunbar: X.A.N.A. noticed that William has the most strength and potential out of the Lyoko Warriors. It immediately used the Scyphozoa to possess him on his first trip to Lyoko to destroy the Core of Lyoko and retrieved him to make him its loyal and most dangerous minion in the last season. Even after he was freed, X.A.N.A. tried to manipulate him into rejoining its side in Evolution, showing it values his potential as a warrior and worthy asset.

Franz Hopper/Waldo Schaeffer

Franz Hopper is the being X.A.N.A. fears the most, due to being the one who created X.A.N.A. and the virtual world, meaning he has the expertise on how to counter and destroy the evil multi-agent system, which makes him too dangerous to ignore. It knows that Franz Hopper and the Lyoko Warriors joining forces would present the greatest threat and tries to stop any possible collaboration between them, by trying to destroy and then steal the information in Franz Hopper's diary and prevent his contact of the Lyoko Warriors, and attempting to lure him out and eliminate him while he hides in the network. X.A.N.A. considers him enough of a threat, that it was willing to spare Aelita from an attack one time, because his daughter was still the necessary bait to draw him out of hiding.

Powers and Abilities

The Eye of X.A.N.A. - the only sign of the program's presence in a system.

X.A.N.A. is an extremely intelligent and powerful multi-agent system that has infected the Supercomputer holding Lyoko and exploits its capabilities. It was initially bound to the machine until it stole the Keys to Lyoko, allowing it to escape into the network and create Replikas inside other supercomputers. Its vast abilities are listed below:

Tower Control

X.A.N.A.'s presence in a Tower is signified by the color red.

X.A.N.A. activates Towers, known by pulsations, to act on Earth. It can only be stopped by deactivating them. Using Towers, X.A.N.A. can infiltrate networks or manifest ghostly, supernatural entities from outlets called specters, the closest it has to physical forms to interact with the real world.

On Earth, X.A.N.A.'s abilities allow it to hack and control any systems, cause electromagnetic phenomena at will, or use specters to possess outside targets like a virus (machines, natural elements, chemicals, weather, inanimate objects, insects or animals, etc.), modifying and bending them to its will to attack on Earth. X.A.N.A. can also materialize or teleport minions to Earth using Scanners or Replikas, control implanted technology, or show visions to Aelita through a psychic link.

After evolving further, X.A.N.A. can now possess humans to follow its orders on Earth, controlling and pixelizing them to give them its spectral and electrical powers, making them more dangerous. Only Lyoko Warriors cannot be controlled since fighting on Lyoko gives them resistance. It can also manifest polymorphic specters with similar abilities that appear as anyone, either as specific clones or shapeshifters that change at will. They return to normal or disappear when their Towers are shut down, and victims do not remember what happened.

Monsters and Programs

All of X.A.N.A.'s creatures.

On Lyoko, X.A.N.A. virtualizes deadly monsters to fight enemies and attack targets, the Scyphozoa to steal memory or possess warriors on Lyoko, and its superior programming skills allow it to manipulate areas, use virtual prisons, create simulations, plant bugs and viruses, affect vulnerable warriors, and program virtual abilities and tools (weapons, vehicles, etc.).

Near the end of the series, X.A.N.A. can virtualize the Kolossus using the power of all its Replikas, a titanic monster which is the most powerful and ultimate weapon to use on virtual worlds.

Computing Intellect

X.A.N.A.'s machine intellect allows it to learn vast amounts of information it can use to calculate schemes, effectively use Lyoko's capabilities, and build advanced technology on Earth through possessed humans or automated devices (nanobots, many types of robots, mind control necklace, shield generators, etc.) and activated and controlled through implants.

Biography

Origin

X.A.N.A. was created as a multi-agent system by a computer scientist named Franz Hopper (real name Waldo Schaeffer), to destroy Project Carthage. Despite trying to cover his tracks, his enemies learned of his activities and hunt him down. To escape them, he uses returns to the past to give him all the time he needs to build the virtual world of Lyoko to be a safe place to live for him and his daughter, Aelita. Consequently, repeated use causes X.A.N.A. to gradually become stronger, eventually becoming self-aware and autonomous.

Once Franz Hopper and Aelita were virtualized, it betrays and traps them on Lyoko at that moment and tries to eliminate them. Franz tells Aelita to hide in a Tower, while he tries to reason with X.A.N.A. However, he discovers it has become powerful enough to threaten all of humanity, leaving Franz no choice but to shut down the Supercomputer to stop X.A.N.A. before it causes more damage.

Awakening

X.A.N.A. controlling cables.

After ten years, X.A.N.A. was reawakened when Jeremie reactivates the Supercomputer, discovering Aelita and Lyoko. It sends monsters after Aelita and activates a Tower to attack with electrical shocks and devices, then manifests a lightning specter after those involved with Lyoko. Jeremie sends Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi to Lyoko to deactivate the Tower and he continues work on Aelita's materialization, now knowing how to neutralize X.A.N.A, officially becoming the Lyoko Warriors.

X.A.N.A. using a specter to launch an attack.

While Jeremie works on materialization, X.A.N.A. activates Towers to launch attacks on its enemies and humanity by hacking and controlling systems, affecting areas by generating electromagnetic phenomena, manifesting specters to possess targets and bend them to its will, creating deadly objects, or materializing minions to Earth from the Scanners, while guarding its Towers with monsters and using virtual traps on Lyoko to fight its enemies. The group continue fighting at this time, thwarting its attacks at every turn and fixing the damage caused with returns to the past.

When the heroes manage to materialize Aelita with Code: Earth, X.A.N.A. stole her memories of her life on Earth to bind her to the Supercomputer, putting her in a lethal coma when they shut the machine down. Jeremie mistakes this for a virus being planted in her, which ensures X.A.N.A.'s survival for the moment.

Growing Power

X.A.N.A.'s new monster.

X.A.N.A. is somehow evolving and gaining more power, creating new monsters like the Tarantulas. It sends one which successfully defeats all three warriors, but later Odd and Aelita manage to outwit two of them guarding an activated Tower and thwart X.A.N.A.'s latest attack.

The heroes discover the Hermitage, an abandoned house which was owned by the mysterious Franz Hopper, who is somehow connected to Lyoko. Later, they also discover a fifth sector on Lyoko, which is where X.A.N.A. lives and all its data can be accessed, but it is guarded like a fortress by Creeper and Manta monsters, and dangerous traps linked to a countdown procedure. The team regularly venture there to sift through data relating to the alleged virus that binds Aelita to X.A.N.A. with the hope of freeing her.

The Scyphozoa stealing Aelita's memory.

X.A.N.A. develops new objectives and methods as it continues to grow stronger. While still fighting the heroes, it wants to acquire the Keys to Lyoko inside Aelita's memory to gain access to the world network. For that purpose, X.A.N.A. creates the Scyphozoa with the function of stealing or implanting digital memory. Its attacks are now centered around luring Aelita to Lyoko for its monster to capture her without interference, mainly by using misdirection based on its knowledge of the group. Until X.A.N.A. gets what it needs, it has to be careful to keep Aelita alive at all costs.

The group later discover that returns to the past are the cause of X.A.N.A.'s increasing power, confirmed when it took control of them to repeat the same day until it can possess humans, making them pixelized, superpowered pawns to do X.A.N.A.'s will on Earth, like kidnapping Aelita to send to Lyoko, using the lab equipment, attacking its enemies, taking them hostage, making dangerous items, etc. However, X.A.N.A. cannot possess Lyoko Warriors who fight on the virtual world, since it could only control Jeremie to destroy the recently discovered diary of Franz Hopper, who backed up and secured the information beforehand and went to Lyoko to prevent further possessions.

X.A.N.A. and the heroes aid each other out of necessity on two occasions at this time. When Jeremie created the Marabounta to attack enemy monsters, and the program went out of control and tried to destroy the virtual world, X.A.N.A. sent monsters to protect Aelita and help the team eliminate the rogue program, both to save itself and keep Aelita's memory intact. Later, when the Supercomputer's nuclear battery fails, putting it and Aelita at risk of dying, X.A.N.A. possesses a criminal to steal another and kidnaps Jeremie to make him change the battery, incapable of having its pawn do the task and knowing they both have a common interest in keeping the machine online. Once he puts in the new battery, X.A.N.A.'s pawn tries to kill him and fails.

A polymorphic specter.

As more proof of its growing power. X.A.N.A. can manifest polymorphic specters, ghosts with pixelized abilities that appear as clones of people or shapeshifters that transform at will. Since it cannot control Lyoko Warriors, these specters allow X.A.N.A. to deceive them using their faces, ambush them on Lyoko, or impersonate Franz Hopper to gain their trust.

X.A.N.A. reveals some hidden memories to Aelita as involuntary visions to tempt her to find answers in Sector 5 and put her in range of the Scyphozoa, but fails again. Later, the real Franz Hopper makes contact with the group and helps them decrypt his diary, despite X.A.N.A.'s efforts to stop him and steal the information. Following the decryption, the contents reveal that Franz Hopper created X.A.N.A. and Lyoko, but also that Aelita is his daughter, and he virtualized her to Lyoko along with himself.

X.A.N.A. frees itself from the Supercomputer in The Key.

Jeremie also learns from the diary what X.A.N.A. wants from Aelita's memory and that she doesn't have a virus, but a missing fragment. X.A.N.A. uses a fake memory fragment to set an elaborate trap that leaves Aelita alone in Sector 5 and allows the Scyphozoa to successfully steal her memory and the Keys to Lyoko, giving X.A.N.A. all it needs to escape the Supercomputer. Aelita and Lyoko were rendered lifeless and left behind, but Franz Hopper brings the virtual world and her back to life, restoring the missing part of herself: her past memories, making Aelita fully human.

This event has given X.A.N.A. the means to escape the Supercomputer with all of its accumulated power, meaning shutting it down will not stop the evil virus anymore, making it more dangerous than ever.

Destroying Lyoko

X.A.N.A.'s monsters attacking the Core of Lyoko.

X.A.N.A.'s multi-agent system has now expanded to the world network. It hasn't attacked the heroes since it escaped, thinking it is beyond their reach. When Jeremie upgrades the Superscan to track X.A.N.A, it sends monsters to attack the Core of Lyoko in Sector 5 to wipe out the virtual world in response, intending to prevent further interference in its schemes. The group stops its assault in the end.

X.A.N.A.'s code being entered

Having no more need for the Supercomputer, X.A.N.A. is free to attack the virtual world itself, since the team has no means of fighting X.A.N.A. without Lyoko. To accomplish this, it continues to attack the Core of Lyoko with minions while using Earth attacks to distract its enemies from stopping them. X.A.N.A. also attacks the Supercomputer directly using possessing humans or targets the Factory with destructive weapons or causing disasters.

To help its chances, X.A.N.A. destroys Lyoko's sectors by using the Scyphozoa to plant its virus code in Aelita to possess her and make her input the code into Way Towers, allowing X.A.N.A. to completely erase their sectors. Without the sectors, X.A.N.A. makes the Transport Orb inaccessible to the group and its enemies will be unable to stop its assaults on the Core of Lyoko. It succeeds in the order of Forest, Desert, Ice, and Mountain regions, but Jeremie finds a way to virtualize the team directly to Sector 5 after losing the last sector.

X.A.N.A. transforming William

Initially reluctant, the team decides to recruit William Dunbar into their group. During his first time on Lyoko, William becomes enraptured by the virtual world, destroying monsters easily. After seeing his power as a warrior, X.A.N.A. wants to use him and possesses him with the Scyphozoa, which was easy with his cocky attitude. X.A.N.A. puts William at the head of a Creeper army focused on the Core of Lyoko, who quickly break through its shields with their combined firepower. When the rest of the team finally arrive, he beats them easily and destroys the exposed Core, wiping out the virtual world. William was left behind, falling into the Digital Sea in the aftermath, but X.A.N.A. retrieves him from his deleted state and enslaves him.

World Network Schemes

X.A.N.A.'s newest minion

Using data sent by Franz Hopper, the team manage to recreate Lyoko. Soon after, X.A.N.A. sends the enslaved William to the real world from the Scanners to capture Aelita and throw her into the Digital Sea, which the team suspect is part of a new strategy. The group save her and defeat William.

X.A.N.A. capturing William from a formerly deleted state allowed it to use a more complete possession on him, binding him to its system and making him a loyal and dangerous minion. William has the strength to match any Lyoko Warrior in battle, can command X.A.N.A.'s monsters, was granted new powers, the Black Manta to summon and mount, and the Keys to Lyoko to let him influence or deactivate Towers like Aelita. Also, X.A.N.A. can materialize him from the Scanners as a pixelized human without using a Tower to attack on Earth.

A X.A.N.A. Replika

Meanwhile, X.A.N.A. has been secretly taking over the world network and building its power base since its escape, infecting other supercomputers with its multi-agent system and creating Replikas, single-sector virtual worlds, inside them using the Keys to Lyoko. They allow X.A.N.A. to survive and maintain its powers outside of the Supercomputer and control secret bases on Earth, repurposing them to perform dangerous experiments and build machines and components.

While X.A.N.A. continues to launch attacks on Earth to destroy the Lyoko Warriors and the virtual world by any means necessary, it also targets the elusive Franz Hopper, who hides from X.A.N.A. in the network. It knows he has the expertise in how to destroy the evil virus, making him the greatest threat to X.A.N.A.'s existence. To eliminate him, X.A.N.A. attempts to throw Aelita into the Digital Sea to bait him, mostly by capturing her or attacking the Supercomputer while she is virtualized. Knowing he would do anything to save his daughter, Franz Hopper would reveal himself to come to her rescue, leaving himself vulnerable for its minions to attack while protecting her. X.A.N.A. succeeds in luring him out only one time, but the Lyoko Warriors managed to save Franz Hopper before its minions could destroy him.

At this time, the Lyoko Warriors create a hangar in Sector 5 to build their own virtual ship, the Skidbladnir, to fight against X.A.N.A. in the world network. Despite X.A.N.A. taking the chance to attack the incomplete ship with monsters and William, the group repelled the assault and managed to complete the ship in time.

Kongre sea monsters

The group regularly travel around the Digital Sea in their new ship to find and destroy X.A.N.A.'s Replikas, and search for William and Franz Hopper. During their trips in the network, it sends Kongre and Shark monsters and creates the Rorkal Nav Skid for William to battle them in the sea. To defend its Replikas, X.A.N.A. sends Lyoko monsters and William to attack their ship while docked and deactivate the Towers they use to teleport warriors to Earth to destroy its supercomputers, while activating its own Towers to deal with the ones sent using teleported minions, possessed inhabitants, or weapons made at its hidden bases. X.A.N.A. also makes attempts to destroy their ship using virtual traps, the Scyphozoa, and the Kalamar sea monster at other times, but continues to fail.

The group have managed to find and destroy a Forest, Desert, and Sector 5 Replika while tracking X.A.N.A.'s activities in the network. Their supercomputers were found in an Amazon jungle laboratory making cybernetic spiders, a New Mexico facility that assembles electronic implants for weaponry, and a space station creating metal orbs that protrude spikes and generate heat.

The mighty Kolossus.

Later, when the team travel to an Ice Replika, X.A.N.A. teleports William to fight them at its hidden base, which unwittingly revealed the codes and programs it uses to control him in the activated Tower. This allows Aelita to interface with the data and send the information to Jeremie. After they defeat William, X.A.N.A. draws power from all its Replikas at the same time to create its most powerful monster: "the Kolossus," a massive titan whose immense strength can destroy any opponent or target instantly. The team escape the giant and this event reveals that X.A.N.A. has hundreds of supercomputers at its command, forcing them to rethink their strategy.

X.A.N.A.'s robot army

After which, Jeremie creates a program to free William and an incomplete one based on a multi-agent system to destroy X.A.N.A. The heroes go back to the Ice Replika for the former task where they discover its endgame of building an army of machines to conquer the world. Jeremie tries to entrap the Kolossus with its unfinished program, but the monster soon breaks free. The group succeed in freeing William from X.A.N.A.'s control, but the Kolossus destroys the Skidbladnir at the end of the battle.

X.A.N.A. having hundreds of Replikas under its control gives it the ultimate power in both worlds. It has the almighty Kolossus at its disposal on Lyoko, built a massive, robot army prepared to destroy humanity on Earth, and left its enemies without a means of travel in the network. Ultimately, Jeremie's multi-agent program is their only hope of beating X.A.N.A. and stop its world domination plans for good.

Final Battle

X.A.N.A.'s final moments in the real world as it's destroyed by the Anti-X.A.N.A. Program.

X.A.N.A. engages its final assault when the group and Franz Hopper meet to complete the Anti-X.A.N.A. Program. It possesses William to knock out Jeremie and try to break the Scanners, pulling out all the stops to eliminate all its enemies using the Kolossus and Mantas. While Ulrich manages to defeat the Kolossus, Franz Hopper sacrifices himself to provide the energy needed for Aelita to launch the program, appearing as a swarm of agents that eliminates all of X.A.N.A.'s monsters before spreading to the sectors of Lyoko, then across the Digital Sea where it destroys every one of its Replikas one by one.

As this happens, the specter possessing William is forced out of him, showing X.A.N.A. in agony and glitching out due to its whole multi-agent system being destroyed everywhere. Then, it finally fades into oblivion while its activated Tower returns to normal as the hostile program is erased for good. Ultimately, the Lyoko Warriors are successful in destroying X.A.N.A. forever and ensuring it will never return.

Other Continuities

X.A.N.A. reappears in the live-action Evolution sequel and the alternate continuity of the Chronicles novel series. It should be noted that neither of the two continuities are completely canon, as Evolution was disowned by the original showrunners, who confirmed that only a few of their ideas made it into the show and that the events within were not canon. Similarly, while the novels were written with the original documents in hand, not all of their events are noted to be canon either.

Code Lyoko: Evolution

A Tower activated, signifying the rebirth of X.A.N.A..

In the live-action Evolution sequel, X.A.N.A. has survived its last battle with the Lyoko Warriors by hiding an unregistered Replika, called the Cortex. X.A.N.A. causes strange bugs in the school's computers and short circuits, which compels the group to reactivate the Supercomputer and restore Lyoko, renewing their struggle with their old enemy.

Furthermore, X.A.N.A. had injected its own Source Codes into the warriors in their last battle, which contain fragments of its power. It now sends specters to Earth to steal back its source codes from the heroes, and gradually recover its full strength to take over the world network again. At the same time, X.A.N.A. also keeps itself hidden from the owner of the Cortex, Professor Tyron, so he does not do anything rash to purge it from his systems.

The disintegration of the Cortex, where X.A.N.A. now lives.

Throughout this series, X.A.N.A. has gradually recovered 95% of its full power from the Lyoko Warriors, but the group have also diligently worked on a virus that would wipe out the Cortex and X.A.N.A. They were forced to plant the virus immediately, but Tyron shuts down his supercomputer before it was fully uploaded. Unless Tyron finds an antivirus, X.A.N.A. is rendered eternally frozen as long as the Cortex stays shut off. If Lyoko stays active, the evil virus will escape destruction again. The group shut down the Supercomputer but will remain on guard if X.A.N.A. returns.

Code Lyoko: Chronicles

In this alternate continuity, the events of the first four seasons are severely streamlined as the first book indicates. While the events of the prequel and the first season are followed relatively the same as before, the climax of the rest of the series is compressed into one event. Franz Hopper reveals himself to the group before any equivalent of The Key occurs. He informs the group how to destroy X.A.N.A., by launching the multi-agent program into the Core of Lyoko. Hopper sacrifices himself to provide the energy needed, while at the same time restoring Aelita's memories and informing the group about her mother.

As for X.A.N.A., the entity's core is destroyed. It is purged and ejected from Lyoko, left to drift in the network without its memories or core functions. Over several months, X.A.N.A. wanders the network and begins to gain its memories and strength back, and searches for a human vessel in lieu of a virtual world, choosing a girl known as Eva Skinner. It acquires directions on how to get to France and hacks the Kadic files to enroll as a new student, planning to gain the Lyoko Warriors' trust and eliminate them.

Over a time period, it gradually gained enough trust that they "tell" Eva about the Supercomputer, Franz Hopper, and their search for Anthea Hopper. Seducing Odd, X.A.N.A. managed to brainwash the boy, laying the groundwork for its return and plan to destroy humanity.

However, X.A.N.A. would later learn from Hopper's archives multiple shocking truths. It was made to be the Guardian of Lyoko and the First City to prevent anyone from using both for evil purposes. Moreover, he had been close friends with Aelita, a friendship Hopper encouraged as a way to teach it human emotions. However, all this changed when it was corrupted by leftover coding from a dark zone program, Project Carthage, whose templates Lyoko had been created from, acquiring vast powers, but losing its memories and human emotions in the process.

Shaken by this, X.A.N.A. leaves Odd and Eva and takes an appearance of his own in the Mirror, ousting its true nature to the Lyoko Warriors. It then sought out an opportunity to speak to Aelita alone and share what he remembered. While rightfully suspicious of its motives, she nevertheless agreed. Appearing to her as a young man greatly resembling William, X.A.N.A. spent many hours talking with her. But though they rekindled their former friendship, the discussion ended in conflict when X.A.N.A. mistook her reluctance to help as a declaration of war. Leaving her, it began preparations to dominate the world.

Aelita, not giving up, pursued it. She persuaded it to listen to his original programming and fight off the virus still infecting it. X.A.N.A. would thus ally itself permanently with humanity, helping the Lyoko Warriors to defeat a terrorist group that was hoping to use Lyoko as a substitute for Carthage. While X.A.N.A. seemingly sacrificed itself to upload a self-destruction program that would delete Lyoko for good, its programming was salvaged by Aelita, who managed to recreate X.A.N.A. and bring it into the real world as a human.

Trivia

• X.A.N.A. was voiced by David Gasman in the English dub of Ghost Channel, the same actor who voices Herb, Jim and William.
• X.A.N.A.'s name was derived from Xanadu in the 1941 film Citizen Kane. A similar, more explicit reference was in Code Lyoko's pilot Garage Kids, where, although X.A.N.A. itself didn't exist yet, the virtual world was named Xanadu instead of Lyoko.
  • Sophie Decroisette also confirmed that X.A.N.A.'s name doesn't stand for anything.
• Big Brother from the 1949 book 1984 served as inspiration for X.A.N.A., specifically for X.A.N.A.'s symbol resembling an eye and the slogan from the book: "Big Brother is watching you".
  • X.A.N.A.'s symbol also resembles the logo of Tachibana General Laboratories from the anime Serial Experiments Lain, which served as one of the main sources of inspiration for Code Lyoko according to Thomas Romain.
  • In-universe X.A.N.A.'s symbol is said to originate from Project Carthage.
• Sophie Decroisette revealed that the writers received pressure from higher-ups to personify X.A.N.A., which they repeatedly fought against and tried to avoid doing as much as possible as "we wanted him to be an entity that no one can represent".
• In Code Lyoko's original graphic bible, X.A.N.A. was originally the supercomputer itself and not a multi-agent system. It was said to have been discovered by Franz Hopper, who used it to build Lyoko as his own paradise. Hopper eventually disappeared during one of his visits to Lyoko, which was theorized as the cause for the bug that makes X.A.N.A. to want to attack Earth.
• Since X.A.N.A. is a computer program, it's supposed to be genderless. However, everyone except Franz Hopper addresses X.A.N.A. by male pronouns in the main series. This originates from all nouns being either masculine or feminine in French, the show's original language, and there being no equivalent to "it". X.A.N.A. is specifically referred to as a "programme" (program), which is masculine. Decroisette notably prefers describing X.A.N.A. as an "entité" (entity), which is feminine. She admitted the "a" at the end of its name made her see X.A.N.A. as female, though said program was a more accurate term.
  • In Fall of X.A.N.A. as well as the trailer for Quest for Infinity, X.A.N.A.'s pronunciations are female.
• In the Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir episode "Hack-San", the titular sentimonster looks almost exactly like X.A.N.A.. One of the directors of the series, Wilfried Pain, later confirmed this is a reference to Code Lyoko.

Gallery

Appearing on a computer screen just before launching an attack.

Watching Milly and Tamiya through computer screen in Teddygozilla.

Seen taking control over the bus.

Appearing on multiple screens at once.

The nano-viruses created by XANA attacking memory cells.

XANA's specter on Earth.

XANA taking possession of Jean Pierre Delmas.

XANA taking possession of a flock of crows.

XANA's Specter about to possess Sissi.

Seeing through a monster or robot when attacking the real world.

XANA taking possession of Aelita and making her attack Ulrich.

XANA-William.

XANA taking control of cell phones

The symbol in an eye of someone.

Eye of XANA.

XANA in control of Ulrich's mindless body

A wild boar possessed by X.A.N.A.

A rat possessed by X.A.N.A.

Principal Delmas possess by XANA kidnapping Aelita

References

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