Marvel Studios mostly sat out this year’s Comic-Con, doing little more than releasing a new trailer for The Marvels during the show. But there was one upcoming Marvel project that made a surprise appearance at the convention. Fans lucky enough to attend the "Designing the X-Men: A This Week in Marvel Special Event" panel were treated to updates on the animated series X-Men ‘97, straight from producers Beau DeMayo, Jake Castorena and Larry Houston. There was even new footage shown of this hotly anticipated X-Men revival.
Unfortunately, that new footage isn’t being released online. But that doesn’t mean we can’t dive in on what was shown and what we learned about X-Men ‘97 at Comic-Con. Read on for a full breakdown of everything revealed.
The X-Men Roster Is Expanding
While the original X-Men: The Animated Series featured cameos and guest appearances from a host of Marvel heroes, the core roster of the team never really changed. The team was always comprised of Professor X, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Wolverine, Storm, Beast, Gambit, Rogue and Jubilee.
That roster is one element that’s definitely going to change in X-Men ‘97. We already knew that Magneto is stepping in to lead the team in Xavier’s absence. That much had been set up in the series finale and confirmed in early teaser art for the series (where you can see Magneto wearing his infamous purple “M” costume) and at last year’s SDCC. But at Comic-Con 2023, we got confirmation that both Bishop and Morph will be officially joining the team.
Both characters appeared in multiple episodes of the original series, but Bishop never became an official X-Man despite playing key roles in some of the series’ most important storylines. Now it appears the time-traveling mutant will be sticking around in the past for an extended period, and he’s got a new, shorter hairdo to mark the occasion.
As for Morph, he was technically part of the team in the series premiere, but as fans will remember, Morph was killed by the Sentinels in that episode and then revived and brainwashed by Mister Sinister in Season 2. Morph has a new look for X-Men ‘97, sporting the stark, white, hairless head seen in Marvel’s Exiles comics, so that may be a clue as to his evolving powers and mental state.
These aren’t the only two characters joining the team in X-Men ‘97. Sunspot is also appearing in the series, a nod to the ‘80s-era New Mutants comics. Jubilee is no longer the new kid on the block.
The Sentinels Are Back
Everything revealed about X-Men ‘97 so far suggests fans can look forward to a lot of returning villains. That includes favorites like Mister Sinister and the Hellfire Club. But even though Sinister has been confirmed to be the central villain of Season 1, the Comic-Con footage focused on a different group of villains - the Sentinels.
Both clips shown during the panel focus on the Sentinels. In the first, Cyclops is seen interrogating Sentinel creator Dr. Bolivar Trask, who taunts the X-Men for being unable to make him talk. That’s when Jean Grey steps in to perform some psychic interrogation. However, she encounters difficulties inside Trask’s mind and is ultimately stymied by a vision of the Sentinel factory Master Mold. Spurred into action, Cyclops calls out, “To me, my X-Men!”
In the second clip, the X-Men are aboard the X-Jet and discussing what to do with the captive Trask. Wolverine suggests “chopping him up,” which leads to some classic Wolverine/Cyclops banter. The jet is then attacked by a Sentinel and the team’s fliers help escort the others to safety. Cyclops, however, opts to use his optic blasts to slow his descent and makes a classic action hero entrance.
The X-Men never quite eliminated the threat of the Sentinels in the original series, and it’s clear these massive, mutant-hunting robots are back with a vengeance. It remains to be seen if other Sentinel characters will appear in X-Men ‘97, like the futuristic Nimrod or the hybrid villain Bastion.
Jean Grey Is Pregnant
The first clip shown at Comic-Con contains another important plot detail. Jean Grey is visibly pregnant in this footage, hinting at a major storyline to come in Season 1.
The big question at this point is which baby Jean is carrying. Suffice it to say, the Cyclops/Jean Grey family tree is extremely convoluted in the comics. There, Jean technically has two children - Cable and Rachel Summers. But Cable’s real mother is actually Jean’s clone, Madelyne Pryor, while Rachel is Scott and Jean’s daughter from the alternate Days of Future Past timeline. Again, it’s all very complicated.
We’ll have to see how much of this back-story makes its way into the animated series. The fact that the actual Jean is pregnant and not a clone or a futuristic doppelganger suggests X-Men ‘97 may be opting for a more streamlined version of the source material. That’s probably for the best. But still, the question remains - is her baby Cable or Rachel? Or could she be pregnant with twins?
Season 2 Is Being Written
X-Men ‘97 still doesn’t have a firm release date. While a Fall 2023 release window was revealed at last year’s Comic-Con, the lack of updates on that front suggests the series may slip into 2024 at this point. However, we did get one piece of good news at Comic-Con 2023. Work is already well underway on X-Men ‘97: Season 2.
“[Production] is going really, really well. We’re just in post-production on Season 1 and [right now] writing the finale for Season 2,” DeMayo told Marvel.com. “I cannot be happier.”
This further confirms that X-Men ‘97 won’t be a one-off revival, but will get at least two seasons on Disney+. That said, it may be some time before we actually see Season 2. If the new season is still being written, we assume the voice cast have yet to record their dialogue. And if the series is affected by the SAG-AFTRA strike, that could further slow down the timetable.
The X-Men ‘97 Toys
With no trailers or footage of X-Men ‘97 seeing wide release yet, fans have had to turn to other outlets for a glimpse of the new series. The X-Men ‘97 toys have been our best source of information and art for the new series, and fortunately, there was plenty on the toy front at Comic-Con.
First, you can get a closer look at Hasbro’s new Marvel Legends: X-Men ‘97 figures in the slideshow gallery below, along with all the other Marvel, Star Wars, Transformers and G.I. Joe figures revealed at Comic-Con:
Next, check out our video tour of Hasbro’s Press Breakfast event, where an entire table was devoted to upcoming X-Men ‘97 figures and playsets:
These toys give us a better idea of how the characters will evolve visually for the new series (including new hairstyles for Storm and Bishop and confirmation that we’ll still see Magneto in his classic red and purple costume). That’ll have to be enough to tide over fans until Marvel finally releases an official trailer for X-Men ‘97.
Make sure you catch up on recent news with our full breakdown of everything announced at Comic-Con.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
