Wolverine
James Howlett
Animated series
X-Men '97
2024 · 33 min
Picking up directly from the 1997 finale of X-Men: The Animated Series, the team is grieving a Professor X they believe dead and finds his will has left the school and the dream to Magneto. Season…
Marvel AnimationDisney+99%Released
The story
Picking up directly from the 1997 finale of X-Men: The Animated Series, the team is grieving a Professor X they believe dead and finds his will has left the school and the dream to Magneto. Season one builds to Genosha — a mutant nation recognised by the UN and then annihilated by a Sentinel in an afternoon.
The show does not treat its 1990s origins as nostalgia; it treats them as a promise to keep. Season two, which premiered on 1 July 2026, escalates into Bastion, Mister Sinister and a timeline-hopping structure, and a third season is confirmed.
Key facts
- Release date
- 20 Mar 2024
- Status
- Released
- Phase
- Non-MCU
- Saga
- Marvel Animation
- Runtime
- 33 min
- Certificate
- TV-14
- Director
- Jake Castorena, Emi Yonemura, Chase Conley
- Writers
- Beau DeMayo, Matthew Chauncey
- Seasons
- 2
- Episodes
- 20
- Streaming
- Disney+
- Timeline placement
- 1997 onward in the continuity of X-Men: The Animated Series — not part of the MCU's numbered phases
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Cal Dodd | Wolverine (voice) |
| Lenore Zann | Rogue (voice) |
| Alison Sealy-Smith | Storm (voice) |
| Ray Chase | Cyclops (voice) |
| Jennifer Hale | Jean Grey (voice) |
| Matthew Waterson | Magneto (voice) |
| A.J. LoCascio | Gambit (voice) |
Characters
Easter eggs
- Ron Wasserman's original 1992 theme returns intact, and the roll-call opening credits recreate the 1990s sequence shot for shot with new art.
- The Genosha massacre adapts Grant Morrison's E is for Extinction, in which sixteen million mutants die in a Sentinel attack.
- Madelyne Pryor, the Goblin Queen, Bastion, Cable and Mister Sinister all arrive from the Inferno and Operation: Zero Tolerance eras.
- Morph is canonically nonbinary and voiced by JP Karliak, an evolution of the 1992 character rather than a replacement.
- Gambit's death in episode five, and Rogue's 'kill 'em all, X-Men', is a direct nod to his comics arcs and one of the most discussed moments of 2024 television.
- Magneto's helmet, cloak and Fatal Attractions-era design are all pulled from specific comic runs rather than the 1992 show.
- The Master Mold and Bolivar Trask return in designs updated from the original series' models.
- Cosmic sequences use Jack Kirby-style crackle patterns, a deliberate stylistic import from the comics.
Trivia
- Creator Beau DeMayo was fired by Marvel days before the premiere, and neither party has ever publicly explained why.
- Nearly all surviving original voice cast returned, including Cal Dodd as Wolverine, Lenore Zann as Rogue, Alison Sealy-Smith as Storm and George Buza as Beast.
- At 99% it is the highest-rated Marvel property on Rotten Tomatoes across film and television.
- The animation was produced by Studio Mir, the Korean studio behind The Legend of Korra.
- Season two premiered on 1 July 2026 and a third season is confirmed.
- Matthew Chauncey, who head-wrote What If…? season three, took over as head writer after DeMayo's departure.
- The series is produced by Marvel Animation and is not part of the MCU's numbered phase structure.
Reviews
Critics
99%
X-Men '97 is a gorgeous, emotionally ferocious revival that honours its source while telling a story with more ambition and heart than most of the MCU's live-action output.
The MarvelGossips verdict
The best thing bearing the Marvel name in a decade, and it is not a close call. It takes the 1990s show's melodrama entirely seriously and finds that sincerity is the format's superpower, not its limitation. The Genosha episode is a genuine gut-punch of an hour, and season two escalates without losing the thread.
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Frequently asked
When did X-Men '97 season 2 premiere?
1 July 2026 on Disney+. A third season has already been confirmed, making it the only Marvel animated series with three greenlit seasons.
Is X-Men '97 part of the MCU?
No. It continues the 1992 X-Men: The Animated Series continuity under Marvel Animation and sits outside the MCU's numbered phases. Marvel's separate live-action X-Men reboot is a distinct project.
Why was Beau DeMayo fired?
Marvel dismissed the creator days before the premiere in March 2024 and has never given a public reason. DeMayo had already written the second season and much of the third before leaving.
Do I need to watch the 1992 series first?
It helps but is not required. The premiere brings new viewers up to speed on the Professor X situation, though the emotional weight of Magneto taking over the school lands considerably harder if you know the original.