X-Men ’97 Season 2 finally has a release date — July 1 on Disney+ — and a debut trailer confirming the appearance of a long list of new characters, and a big reversal in fortunes for Wolverine.
Warning! Spoilers for X-Men ’97 Season 1 follow:
Towards the end of X-Men ’97 Season 1, Magneto rips the adamantium right out of Wolverine’s body in a scene directly adapted from the 1993 Fatal Attractions comic storyline. But in the Season 2 trailer, below, we see Wolverine alive and well — complete with his adamantium claws. So clearly something positive has happened to Logan following his torrid time at the end of the last season.
Elsewhere, the trailer shows Apocalypse as the antagonist of Season 2. The X-Men are scattered through time and must face the incredibly powerful villain in various eras, from the ancient past to the far future.
We see En Sabah Nur in Ancient Egypt (the start of Apocalypse’s reign), and in the future, at the height of his rule. The mission is to “get the X-Men back to the ’90s,” and Bishop and Forge are on the case. It looks like an adaptation of sorts of the famous Age of Apocalypse comic storyline. which sees Apocalypse cause all sorts of problems for the X-Men. In the trailer, Apocalypse declares: “I must strike them at their most vulnerable, the 1990s!”
The trailer kicks off with Rogue still grieving the death of Gambit, who heroically saved the day in Season 1. One of the big surprises in the trailer is a brief look at Deadpool, but it’s not actually the ‘Merc with the Mouth,’ rather Morph taking his form. Still, it will be interesting to see Deadpool in battle, and any fourth wall-breaking quips he might have up his sleeve.
Here’s the official blurb:
X-Men ’97 Season 2 continues with the heroic mutant team of X-Men, divided and thrown across different eras in time as they struggle to navigate their return home. Meanwhile, back in the 1990s, suspicious foes and new strains of mutant intolerance are on the rise in the wake of the X-Men’s absence. The second season of the original animated series features nine episodes, and the voice cast includes Ross Marquand as Professor X, Matthew Waterson as Magneto, Ray Chase as Cyclops, Jennifer Hale as Jean Grey, Alison Sealy-Smith as Storm, Cal Dodd as Wolverine, Lenore Zann as Rogue, and George Buza as Beast.
The series is executive produced by Brad Winderbaum, Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Dana Vasquez-Eberhardt, Julia Lewald, Eric Lewald, Larry Houston, and Beau DeMayo. The supervising producer is Jake Castorena. Episodes written by JB Ballard, Beau DeMayo, Bailey Moore, Antony Sellitti, Brian Ford Sullivan, and Mariah Wilson. The episodic directors are Emmett Yonemura and Chase Conley.
IGN’s X-Men ’97: Season 1 review returned a 9/10. We said: “X-Men ’97 isn’t just a fitting continuation of X-Men: The Animated Series, but one of the best adaptations ever of this iconic Marvel franchise.”
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
