It’s been three years, but the wait is finally almost over for X-Men ‘97 Season 2. Marvel Animation has dropped a new trailer for the animated series, along with the reveal that Season 2 will premiere on July 1, 2026. It’s time to get the X-Men back to the ‘90s, by any means necessary.
Naturally, we have a lot of questions after watching this new footage. How big a role does time travel play in Season 2? Why does Wolverine seem to have his adamantium back already? Why are Cyclops and Jean Grey sporting their iconic, 2000s-era New X-Men costumes? Let’s dig into these and other questions as we wait for X-Men ‘97 Season 2 to hit Disney+.
Warning: This article contains potential spoilers for Season 2 based on the X-Men comics.
How Long Will the X-Men Be Lost in Time?
X-Men ‘97 Season 2 deals very directly with the fallout of the Season 1 finale. The X-Men ‘97 may have thwarted the humanoid Sentinel Bastion and Operation: Zero Tolerance, but they’ve been scattered across time. Some of them (Rogue, Nightcrawler, Magneto, Beast) are trapped in the distant past, a time when Apocalypse began to extend his powerful grip across Ancient Egypt. Meanwhile, Cyclops and Jean Grey are marooned in the future, at the height of Apocalypse’s power.
That appears to be the crux of the conflict in Season 2. Most of the X-Men are missing in time, and seasoned time travelers Bishop and Forge are busy working to bring them back to the ‘90s. But in the meantime, it falls on the few remaining X-Men and teams like X-Factor to continue the fight for human/mutant coexistence.
The big question here is how long we’ll see this status quo play out in Season 2. How long will the X-Men be scattered throughout time? Is this something that’s going to be resolved within a few episodes, or will it dominate the entire season? The trailer makes it clear that we’re going to see the X-Men triumphantly reunited before the end, but when exactly does that reunion take place? Given how fast-paced Season 1 was and how quickly it blazed through major X-Men storylines, we wouldn’t be surprised if this situation resolves itself more quickly than some fans are expecting.
This question is all the more pertinent because we know that Marvel Comics has a prequel tie-in coming out shortly before the new season premieres.The X-Men ‘97: Season Two comic bridges the gap between the two seasons of the show and seems to focus on the present-day mutants carrying the torch for the missing X-Men. We know from early preview art that Forge’s X-Factor team has a big part to play in the story. If Marvel is publishing this prequel, they may be looking to explore the time-travel status quo in greater depth than the show itself has room to do.
Who Is the Main Villain This Time?
If the post-credits scene for the Season 1 finale didn’t make it plain enough, the new trailer confirms that Season 2 will revolve heavily around Apocalypse. We’ll reunite with this all-powerful mutant villain at multiple points in his immortal life, including as a young warlord in Egypt and a futuristic tyrant. Presumably, we’ll also see Apocalypse in the ‘90s. It’s the hottest timeline right now.
But is Apocalypse the main villain of Season 2? Season 1 went in some unexpected directions before Bastion finally emerged as the show’s endgame threat. We imagine there’s a lot more than meets the eye to Season 2, as well.
For one thing, we’re not convinced that Apocalypse is going to play the villain role in every timeline. The trailer makes it appear as though the younger version of the character is aligned with the X-Men in the past. How much will Season 2 focus on his origins and the question of whether there was once a good man hiding beneath all that Celestial armor and Darwinian bluster?
It’s worth pointing out that we see Apocalypse’s rival Immortus in the trailer, so it at least appears that the show will be exploring their ancient feud. In that sense, the show may be looking to build on the foundation of the 4-part “Beyond Good and Evil” story arc from the original animated series, which ended with the reveal that the bumbling time janitor Bender was actually Immortus in disguise. If you need a refresher on Immortus and his connection to Kang the Conqueror, we’ve got you covered.
But these aren’t the only villains we see in the trailer. Season 2 is also bringing back Exodus, a character who in the comics served as Magneto’s herald and once battled Apocalypse in the distant past. He could be another key piece of the time travel puzzle here. In the trailer, we see Exodus battling Nightcrawler, an ironic pairing given how much both men are defined by their faith.
We also see a brief glimpse of Danger. This robotic villain was born after the Danger Room gained sentience and rebelled against Professor Xavier for imprisoning her. It appears that we’ll be seeing some version of that storyline play out in Season 2, but will she be a one-off character or an overarching threat?
Who Will Be Apocalypse’s Horsemen?
Whenever Apocalypse rears his head, it’s a safe bet that his Horsemen won’t be far behind. To paraphrase Yoda, always four there are – War, Pestilence, Famine, and Death. Apocalypse loves nothing more than selecting the strongest mutants he can find and transforming them to become his fanatically loyal minions. But which characters will make the cut this time?
The Season 1 post-credits scene strongly implies that Gambit will be the new Death. Remy sacrificed himself defending the doomed nation of Genosha earlier in the season, and Apocalypse seems intent on resurrecting him and harnessing his ability to make things explode real good.
The reveal of Gambit as Death is sure to be one of the key emotional moments of Season 2. The trailer makes it plain that Rogue is still deeply mourning her loss, and she’s sure to feel a surge of emotions when she learns that Remy is alive again but also in thrall to Apocalypse.
That still leaves three other mutants. Which ones will catch Apocalypse’s eye? Does he specifically want heroes he can corrupt and mold to his liking, or will anyone do so long as they have the raw power?
And, finally, how does Archangel factor into Season 2? He was part of the original batch of Horsemen back in Season 1 of the original series, and he still carries the scars of that ordeal. We’re sure Warren will be leading the charge against Apocalypse now, but is it possible that his old master may be looking to reclaim this powerful weapon?
Are Cyclops and Jean Grey Headed for a Breakup?
X-Men ‘97 is nothing if not a period piece, proudly flaunting the fact that it takes place in the late 1990s. It draws heavily on the ‘90s-era X-Men comics in terms of both storylines and the costumes worn by our heroes.
That being said, it appears that Season 2 is looking slightly ahead to the early 2000s when it comes to two characters. While Cyclops and Jean Grey will start out the season as roving, futuristic nomads raising their young son Nathan, at some point, they’ll return to the present and don costumes based on Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s New X-Men comics. That series debuted in the wake of the first live-action X-Men movie and saw the X-Men trade in their colorful spandex for more functional black leather.
It’s an interesting stylistic choice, and we wonder how much these costume changes are meant to signify the direction the series is headed with Scott and Jean. New X-Men was notable for driving a wedge between the two characters, with Cyclops entering into a psychic affair with new teammate Emma Frost (whom we also briefly see in the trailer). In fact, the series ends with Jean becoming Phoenix and dying all over again and Scott committing to his new romance with Emma.
Could something similar be happening in X-Men ‘97? Will the two lovers be pulled apart, perhaps as a consequence of the Summers family drama from Season 1? Or is this homage to New X-Men purely a visual one?
How Does Wolverine Get His Adamantium Back?
Of all the X-Men, Wolverine had arguably the roughest go of it in the climax of Season 1. He had his adamantium skeleton ripped out during a dramatic fight against Magneto, proving it’s not the smartest idea to send a metal-boned mutant to fight the Master of Magnetism. That twist drew on the iconic “Fatal Attractions” comic book crossover from 1993.
Based on the comics, we can guess at the broad strokes of what happens next for Wolverine. He’ll come to terms with his near-death experience and the discovery that he has bone claws beneath the adamantium. He’ll embark on a journey of self-discovery not unlike Storm’s vacation from Season 1. He’ll probably clash with some of his enemies who are all too eager to take advantage of his more vulnerable state, either familiar faces like Sabretooth and Lady Deathstrike or a new villain like the adamantium-skinned Cyber.
If the show follows Wolverine’s post-Fatal Attractions arc all the way through, we may even see Logan struggle to maintain his humanity. In the comics, his healing factor eventually goes into overdrive once it no longer has to compensate for all the toxic metal in his body, which causes him to devolve into a feral beast for a brief period.
That all being said, we don’t get the impression that the series is going to spend very long exploring this new bone claws era. That’s because we can clearly see Wolverine is rocking the adamantium claws again in the trailer. So what gives? How does he get his precious metal skeleton back?
We’d guess Apocalypse has something to do with it. That’s how Logan eventually gets his adamantium back in the comics. Apocalypse forces Wolverine to battle Sabretooth for the right to be his new Death, and Logan gets a new adamantium skeleton as his victory prize. Will something similar happen in the show? Is Wolverine destined to become one of Apocalypse’s Horsemen? Or is this a gift from Magneto, as a sort of mea culpa for their last encounter?
What are your theories about X-Men ‘97 Season 2? Who do you think the ultimate villain will be? Let us know in the comments below.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.
