The latest episode of X-Men ’97, “Remember It,” was a bloodbath. Spoilers past this point, but due to an attack on the mutant nation of Genosha by a Wild Sentinel Master Mold, hundreds if not thousands of mutants were killed, including Magneto (Matthew Waterson) and Gambit (AJ LoCascio). And as writer/former showrunner Bea DeMayo revealed, there were a couple of characters killed you might not have realized are dead.
In the sequence, a mutant ball celebrating Genosha’s induction into the United Nations is interrupted by the Wild Sentinel (not a Tri-Sentinel, by the way) attack. The first person to feel that is Madelyne Pryor (Jennifer Hale), aka the clone of Jean Grey (also Hale). And as DeMayo noted on X (formerly Twitter), she was also one of the first to die. When asked straight up about it he said “yes” and then in a follow-up added, “Maddie was vaporized.”
Granted a lot of mutants died in the attack, and there are always ways to get characters back. Jean Grey — even if this is her clone — is pretty famous for resurrecting herself non-stop, so whether Madelyne turns into a Phoenix-type character, or kept her mind in the White Hot Room — a psychic space where Jean waits before her inevitable resurrections — there are outs here. However, it’s still shocking that so much was made of Pryor’s introduction in the first half of the season, only to obliterate her in Episode 5.
The other surprising death, though less for story reasons and more for clarification reasons, is Moira MacTaggert (Martha Marion), the lone human on the mutant council. Once again, when asked DeMayo bluntly added, “Yes, she’s dead.” Again this was presumably during the first attack by the Master Mold, when multiple characters were buried in rubble or straight-up vaporized. So you can add Moira to the body count.
…Though again, there are canonical reasons from the Marvel Comics source material to think that Moira (who otherwise only had approximately one line in the episode) could come back. Specifically, in the comics House of X and Powers of X by Jonathan Hickman, which are at least tangentially referenced in this very episode, it’s revealed that Moira is a mutant… With the power of resurrection. Not only that, she’s used her multiple lives (nine so far) to try and stop a robot apocalypse. Sound familiar?
Point being, these are only two of the many main and side characters killed in the episode. We don’t know if any of them will come back, so this may indeed be the last we see of Madelyne Pryor and Moira MacTaggert. Or: not. Hey, it’s X-Men, baby, anything can happen!
X-Men ’97 Season 1 Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
X-Men ’97 doesn’t have a one-a-day schedule like What If…? Season 2, or all-at-once like Echo. Instead, the series is getting a more traditional release schedule of two on premiere day, then one a week thereafter.
The release time is also typical. Versus what has now become a run-of-the-mill primetime “early” release for big movies and TV shows, new episodes of X-Men ’97 will be released on Wednesdays at 3 am ET / Midnight PT.
Here’s the full list of episodes in Marvel’s X-Men ’97 Season 1, and when they premiere:
- Wednesday, March 20, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 1 – “To Me, My X-Men”
- Wednesday, March 20, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 2 – “Mutant Liberation Begins”
- Wednesday, March 27, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 3 – “Fire Made Flesh”
- Wednesday, April 3, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 4 – “Motendo / Lifedeath – Part 1”
- Wednesday, April 10, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 5 – “Remember It”
- Wednesday, April 17, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 6 – “Lifedeath – Part 2″
- Wednesday, April 24, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 7 – “Bright Eyes”
- Wednesday, May 1, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 8 – “Tolerance Is Extinction, Part 1”
- Wednesday, May 8, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 9 – “Tolerance Is Extinction, Part 2”
- Wednesday, May 15, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 10 – “Tolerance Is Extinction, Part 3” *Season Finale*
