In case you weren’t sure if X-Men ’97 was a Marvel Studios production? Yeah, there’s a surprise end credits scene in the Season 1 finale. So if you watched “Tolerance Is Extinction, Part 3” and missed it, you might want to head back to Disney+ to check it out.
Don’t worry, we’ll detail and explain what happens in what is technically a mid-credits scene here. So, spoilers past this point. In the season finale, the X-Men have found themselves flung into different time periods. Jean Grey and Cyclops are in the far future with Mother Askani and the Askani Clan. Most of the rest of the team is back in Ancient Egypt, encountering a mutant named En Sabah Nur. In case you don’t know your lore, both of these time periods tie into the villain known as Apocalypse — one in the future fighting him, one in the past at his origin.
We then cut to the typical computer screen credits sequence showing off the characters and their powers. And it’s immediately after that, before the rest of the credits, that we get that post-credits, mid-credits, end-credits, whatever you want to call it credits scene.
We cut to “Present Day Genosha” where a mysterious, cloaked figure is kneeling in the rubble left after the Master Mold’s attack back in Episode 5, “Remember It.” That figure, as the closed captions helpfully clarifies, is none other than Apocalypse.
“So much pain, my children,” says Apocalypse. He picks up something out of the dirt, and when that dirt blows away it reveals a burnt “Queen” playing card. “So much death.” He smiles, and we cut to the rest of the credits.
X-Men ’97 End Credits Explained: Yeah, Gambit’s Coming Back To Life
We’ll get straight to it: not only does this all add up to Apocalypse being the main villain of X-Men ’97 Season 2, but it also probably means Gambit is coming back after his epic sacrifice in Episode 5. How do we know? Well, in the Marvel comics, though the source material details it differently, Gambit at one point becomes a Horseman of Apocalypse. Specifically: Death.
They’re not being too sneaky there with the playing card — Gambit’s literal calling card — and Apocalypse coyly smiling on the “death” line. The event happened in the comics around X-Men Vol. 2, #182, and due to a variety of circumstances Gambit voluntarily became Death and served Apocalypse. Here’s what he looked like:
That art is by Salvador Larocca, by the way. The other Horsemen were Gazer as War, Sunfire as Famine, and Polaris as Pestilence. It didn’t last very long, and Gambit was ultimately turned back into the most Cajun man I’ve ever met. But this seems like exactly how we get Gambit back “alive” in X-Men ’97 Season 2.
The Mid-Credits Scene Also References The First Avengers Movie
The main thrust of the scene is teasing Apocalypse as Season 2 antagonist, and Gambit’s return. But it’s also a clear parallel to the end credits scene from the first Avengers movie. In that, after everything has wrapped up we cut to space where a character called The Other (Alexis Denisof) tells a mysterious figure that Earth is going to be an issue. “To challenge them is to court death,” says The Other, and the figure turns, revealing himself to be Thanos and smiling.
It’s not an exact one-to-one, but I also don’t think it’s ridiculous to parallel two end credits sequences that both end in the word “death” with a big villain smiling. Just a fun bit of paralleling, and that’s it! Fun! More fun, please!
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