After a long waiting period, “X-Men ’97” Season 2 is within sight in the form of a new trailer, which you can watch above. The first season debuted in 2024, and despite problems like the firing of creator Beau DeMayo right before the premiere, “X-Men ’97” became one of Marvel Studios’ most acclaimed projects ever. It won over skeptics with beautiful animation and surprisingly mature writing, and Season 2 has a lot riding on it to meet the highs of that first season.
Season 1 ended with most of the X-Men vanishing after stopping Asteroid M from crashing into the Earth. Cyclops and Jean Grey got flung thousands of years into the future, while Professor X, Magneto, Rogue, Nightcrawler, and Beast were sent back to ancient Egypt. Storm, Wolverine, and Morph were MIA, but the trailer does show Storm fighting a T-rex, so we’ll see if she’s back in time or just taking a trip to the Savage Land.
The villain of the season, teased at the end of Season 1, is Apocalypse. An ancient mutant (possibly the very first one) once named En Sabah Nur, Apocalypse is a Darwinist who wishes to cleanse the Earth of all weakness. He was one of the major villains in the original “X-Men” cartoon, making his return inevitable. Based on the trailer above, the X-Men will be fighting him across past, present, and future: Professor X and co. met En Sabah Nur before he became Apocalypse back in Season 1, while the future Scott and Jean are in is ruled by Apocalypse. Bishop saying “[they] have to get the X-Men back to the ’90s” might be because Apocalypse is going to strike while his enemies are gone. For all we know, maybe he’s the one who scattered them through time in the first place.
