The ‘X-Men 97’ Season 1 Recap You Need as Season 2 Finally Arrives This Summer
If you have spent the last two years wondering how ‘X-Men 97‘ was ever going to top its first season, the wait is officially almost over. The beloved revival of ‘X-Men The Animated Series’ is gearing up for its long awaited return, and the road back into this world starts with remembering exactly where the mutants were left stranded.
Season one ended on one of the most gut punching cliffhangers in recent Marvel television history, and that finale is the entire reason season two exists in the shape it does. Before diving into what comes next, it helps to revisit the chaos that scattered Charles Xavier’s team across the literal fabric of time.
X-Men 97 Season 1 Recap And That Brutal Finale
The first season ended with the X-Men split apart and flung into wildly different points in history after a climactic confrontation. The season two storyline picks up with the team scattered throughout time, from Ancient Egypt to the far future, and forced to find their way back to the 1990s to stop Apocalypse.
According to the breakdown of how everyone landed, Professor Charles Xavier, Magneto, Rogue, Nightcrawler, and Beast end up in Ancient Egypt around 3000 B.C., while Cyclops and Jean Grey are thrown into the year 3960 A.D. alongside future versions of their own children. Meanwhile, Bishop and Forge remain in the 1990s trying to pull the team back together, and Storm, Wolverine, and Morph are initially unaccounted for entirely.
That kind of separation was not an accident in the writers room either. Julia Lewald compared the storyline to when Xavier and Magneto were trapped in the Savage Land during the original series, noting that splitting the cast up let the team have fun with very specific character pairings. Eric Lewald has also pointed out that scattering the timeline gave the show room to dig into Apocalypse at multiple stages of his life, including his earliest days as En Sabah Nur.
Fans got their first real hint of where things were headed in the season one finale’s closing moments. Before the credits rolled, Bishop ominously remarked that this was not the team’s first time at the X-Men are dead rodeo, and a mysterious figure introduced himself to the X-Men trapped in Egypt as En Sabah Nur, who is better known to comic readers as Apocalypse.
X-Men 97 Season 2 Release Date And Episode Schedule
The countdown is finally almost over for fans who have been refreshing Disney Plus for two straight years. Marvel Animation confirmed that X-Men 97 Season 2 premieres on Disney Plus on July 1, 2026, and the new season is set across an ancient past, the present, and a distant future.
Unlike some of Marvel’s more scattershot streaming rollouts, this one is sticking to a predictable rhythm. The season premieres with three new episodes on July 1, followed by one episode dropping weekly until the finale, mirroring the structure of season one. In total, the second season consists of nine episodes.
Timing matters here too, especially for anyone hoping to watch the moment new episodes go live. New episodes are set to stream each Wednesday at 12am PT, which works out to 3am ET, or 8am BST for UK viewers.
And for anyone worried this might be a one and done revival before the X-Men eventually fold into the MCU, there is good news. Season three has already been greenlit, with two more seasons reportedly in the pipeline beyond that, signaling this is a long term continuation rather than a brief nostalgia play.
X-Men 97 Season 2 Cast And New Mutant Faces
The voice cast that fans fell in love with is largely returning intact for round two. The lineup includes Ross Marquand as Professor X, Matthew Waterson as Magneto, Ray Chase as Cyclops, and Jennifer Hale as Jean Grey, among others reprising their roles.
What is changing is the size of the roster itself, and it is expanding in a big way. New characters joining the story include Sabretooth, Lady Deathstrike, Havok, Mariko, Danger, Psylocke, Archangel, Colossus, Tabitha Smith as Boom Boom, Exodus, Quentin Quire as Kid Omega, and Chamber, with the team X-Force also factoring into the season.
There has even been quiet speculation about a fan favorite Cajun mutant making his way back into the fold. According to GamesRadar, when asked directly about a certain character’s comic book history involving the Four Horsemen, X-Men 97 head director Jake Castorena told Entertainment Weekly that he could not believe something had happened with Gambit in the comics, adding cryptically that everything in the season is meticulously planned.
X-Men 97 Season 2 Early Reviews Are In
Before fans even get their hands on the new season, critics have already weighed in, and the reaction is overwhelmingly positive. Rotten Tomatoes calculated that 100 percent of early critic reviews were positive, with an average rating of 8.50 out of 10.
The praise is not just about scores either, it is about substance. Critics have specifically called out the season’s effective storytelling, striking animation, and top tier voice work, with several reviewers arguing the new season may surpass the original run.
Empire Magazine’s review highlighted how the expanded cast translates visually on screen. The introduction of new characters has given the animators more opportunities to flex with depicting different mutant powers in fluid, colorful, and dynamic ways.
Polygon’s take was similarly enthusiastic about the season maintaining its identity. One reviewer noted there is no dip in quality, with the animation, action, and voice acting that made the first season so great remaining just as colorful and dynamic the second time around.
With Apocalypse now confirmed as the season’s central threat and the team scattered across thousands of years of history, X-Men 97 Season 2 is shaping up to be the franchise’s most ambitious chapter yet. Now that you know exactly how the team ended up divided and what is waiting for them when they finally reunite, which timeline are you most excited to see play out first when the new episodes drop on July 1?
