X-Men '97 Season 2 Trailer: Apocalypse Arrives At The Worst Possible Time

After a long waiting period, "X-Men '97" Season 2 is within sight in the form of a new trailer, which you can watch above. The first season debuted in 2024, and despite problems like the firing of creator Beau DeMayo right before the premiere, "X-Men '97" became one of Marvel Studios' most acclaimed projects ever. It won over skeptics with beautiful animation and surprisingly mature writing, and Season 2 has a lot riding on it to meet the highs of that first season.

Season 1 ended with most of the X-Men vanishing after stopping Asteroid M from crashing into the Earth. Cyclops and Jean Grey got flung thousands of years into the future, while Professor X, Magneto, Rogue, Nightcrawler, and Beast were sent back to ancient Egypt. Storm, Wolverine, and Morph were MIA, but the trailer does show Storm fighting a T-rex, so we'll see if she's back in time or just taking a trip to the Savage Land.

The villain of the season, teased at the end of Season 1, is Apocalypse. An ancient mutant (possibly the very first one) once named En Sabah Nur, Apocalypse is a Darwinist who wishes to cleanse the Earth of all weakness. He was one of the major villains in the original "X-Men" cartoon, making his return inevitable. Based on the trailer above, the X-Men will be fighting him across past, present, and future: Professor X and co. met En Sabah Nur before he became Apocalypse back in Season 1, while the future Scott and Jean are in is ruled by Apocalypse. Bishop saying "[they] have to get the X-Men back to the '90s" might be because Apocalypse is going to strike while his enemies are gone. For all we know, maybe he's the one who scattered them through time in the first place.

The "X-Men '97" Season 2 trailer is only two minutes long, but it teases the show's cast is about to explode.

The final shot of the trailer shows a panning shot of the X-Men line-up, which now includes two new members. One is Archangel, a winged mutant with a grudge against Apocalypse after En Sabah Nur brainwashed him into one of his Horsemen back in "X-Men" Season 1. Beside Archangel is the psychic ninja Psylocke, who also guest-starred in the original "X-Men" and cameoed briefly back in "X-Men 97" Season 1. 

Moreover, Morph is briefly shown shapeshifting into Deadpool, continuing a motif from Season 1 of featuring Marvel cameos (e.g. the Hulk) via Morph's transformations. There's a brief glimpse of Danger, the AI of the X-Men's Danger Room made sentient (a character introduced in Joss Whedon's "Astonishing X-Men").

Colossus is shown cradling someone in the ruins of mutant nation Genosha, which was destroyed in genocide by Sentinel back in "X-Men '97" Season 1. Could this be his little sister, Illyana/Magik?

The mutant superhero team X-Factor, who appeared back in the original "X-Men" series, will be appearing this season. The team includes Magneto's daughter Polaris, who appears throughout the trailer. One shot shows her protecting several mutant kids with her powers (comic fans might recognize Quentin Quire and Penance). Other X-Factor members include Cyclops' brother Havok, the duplicating Multiple Man, the burly Strong Guy, the feline Feral, and Siryn, daughter of the Irish mutant Banshee who died in the Genosha genocide back in Season 1.

In ancient Egypt, there's a brief glimpse of tyrannical pharaoh Rama-Tut, who is really just a variant of time-traveling villain Kang the Conqueror. En Sabah Nur will, based on the comics, use Rama-Tut's advanced technology to uplift himself into the cyborg Apocalypse.

Season 1 saw Wolverine left in a terrible state when Magneto ripped out the adamantium coating his skeleton, but it looks like Wolverine won't be declawed long. During the trailer, he flashes his claws and a wicked grin, recreating Frank Miller's famous cover for 1982's "Wolverine" #1, and declares the X-Men are back.

The existing X-Men are all seen rocking new costumes as well, mostly colored yellow-and-black/blue. Cyclops and Jean, for instance, are wearing the suits from the early 2000s "New X-Men" run by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. Season 1 of "X-Men '97" adapted a fair bit of the Morrison "X-Men" run (Genosha's destruction in "Remember It" was based on "E Is for Extinction"), and Season 2 continues that.

One character the trailer does not show? Gambit/Remy LeBeau. He perished back in Season 1 saving Genosha, but the season finale teased Apocalypse will resurrect the late X-Man as his horseman, Death. The trailer does open with Gambit's chérie Rogue remembering Remy and saying that the man she loves isn't waiting for her in the future. Perhaps "X-Men '97" is wisely holding off on debuting Gambit-as-Death, and Rogue's reaction to it, until when the season itself drops.

"X-Men '97" Season 2 arrives on July 1, 2026.