For fans hoping we might get a glimpse of the massive X-Men villain Onslaught, or a tease of the Age of Apocalypse storyline at the end of X-Men ’97 Season 2, well… My condolences. Because the final episode of the season indicates Season 3 will take a back to basics approach. Spoilers past this point, but in the end credits scene, it sure looks like the big bad of Season 3 will be none other than Mystique (Randall Carpenter).
In the episode, after the team has contained Apocalypse (Ross Marquand) thanks to a superpowered Rogue (Lenore Zann) and Nightcrawler (Adrian Hough) sacrificing himself to Celestials in exchange for Rogue’s life (it’s a whole thing, don’t worry about it, things have returned to normal. The X-Men are back in Westchester, X-Force seemingly has a new mission, to figure out what to do with a crystalized version of Apocalypse, and X-Factor is figuring out their next mission.
As Val Cooper (Catherine Disher) sits in her office, on the TV in the back we discover that Graydon Creed (Ben Pronsky), mutant hater and half-brother of Nightcrawler has been elected President. Val is looking at a Mutant Threat Assessment for the shape-changing Mystique… Only that isn’t Val, as Val walks in the door, wondering what the heck is going on.
Of course, the “Val” reading the file is Mystique. She shoots Val, and it’s clear she’s none too happy about the new mutant-hating American regime, setting herself — and presumably her Brotherhood of Mutants — up as the villains of next season. If so, this is returning us to the opening sequence of the show, with the X-Men running at their more extreme opposites; with Mystique at the lead instead of the deceased Magneto (Matthew Waterson).
While this isn’t the escalation of Bastion (Theo James) in Season 1, to Apocalypse in Season 2 in terms of physical threat, it could provide a philosophical threat that was woven throughout this season as well… How do the X-Men justify protecting someone like Creed, who wants to obliterate them? Are Mystique and friends the good guys? And furthermore, in a current political climate like the one we have in America right now, hating immigrants, demonizing trans men and women, there’s a very pointed potential political point this show could make.
Do I believe that Marvel Studios, on a Disney animated production, is going to go straight for the throat at the horrific and disgusting political policies of the Trump administration with Mystique making salient points about how the rich are preying on the least fortunate to buoy up their own fortunes by stoking hatred for “other” in the United States, particularly when a big-screen X-Men is on the horizon and will hopefully turn around the shaky fortunes of the MCU. Ha, ha, ha, no.
But hey, at least we’ll probably get fun Mystique and Destiny stuff in Season 3, which is planned for release some time in 2027.
X-Men ’97 Season 2 Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
X-Men ’97 Season 2 premieres on Wednesday, July 1 on Disney+ at 3am ET / Midnight PT, with three new episodes on premiere date followed by one episode weekly until the finale.
Here’s the full list of episodes in X-Men ’97 Season 2 with expected premiere dates:
- Wednesday, July 1, 2026: X-Men ’97, Season 2, Episode 1, “Days Of Past Future”
- Wednesday, July 1, 2026: X-Men ’97, Season 2, Episode 2, “A Force To Be Reckoned With”
- Wednesday, July 1, 2026: X-Men ’97, Season 2, Episode 3, “Rise Of Apocalypse – Part I”
- Wednesday, July 8, 2026: X-Men ’97, Season 2, Episode 4, “Rise Of Apocalypse – Part II”
- Wednesday, July 15, 2026: X-Men ’97, Season 2, Episode 5, “Weapon X, Lies, And DVDs”
- Wednesday, July 22, 2026: X-Men ’97, Season 2, Episode 6, “Danger.exe”
- Wednesday, July 29, 2026: X-Men ’97, Season 2, Episode 7, “Strange Land, Savage Heart”
- Wednesday, August 5, 2026: X-Men ’97, Season 2, Episode 8, “The Dead Man’s Hand”
- Wednesday, August 12, 2026: X-Men ’97, Season 2, Episode 9, “Survival Of The Fittest” *Season Finale*
Where To Watch X-Men ’97 Season 2
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