Following the acquisition of 20th Century Fox Studios, MCU fans are highly anticipating the eventual arrival of the fabled X-Men. While the only rumored project featuring these heroes in live-action is The Mutants, another famous variation of the team will make an unexpected return in X-Men '97. Marvel Studios will take the famed '90s animated series and continue its story for a new generation of X-Men fans.
X-Men '97 came as part of a massive round of announcements at Disney+ Day 2021, which included various new animated projects like Spider-Man: Freshman Year and Marvel Zombies. This one has a unique opportunity, however, by being able to move a classic story from the past generation forward while bringing it up to the MCU's standard of storytelling.
Currently, there aren't many details regarding how Marvel Studios will add to the X-Men show's narrative or when fans should expect to see it premiere on Disney+. Thankfully, more information has come in that regard from the team that first helped bring the show to life 30 years ago.
How Many Episodes Will X-Men '97 Be?
In an interview on Justin Underwood's YouTube channel, X-Men: The Animated Series' writers Eric and Julia Lewald teased details about Marvel Studios' X-Men '97 on Disney+.
Praising the work being done by showrunner Beau DeMayo and the team at Marvel Studios, the two revealed that X-Men '97 will be ten episodes long. It's also being prepped for release on Disney+ sometime in the mid-2023:
"There is great love and affection and respect from an entire group of people that are doing this show, starting at the top with Beau DeMayo as the showrunner. And they have this challenge, I believe, looking at 10 episodes for the first season that’s gonna come out mid-next year, and they’re starting it soon after ours ended."
The team from the original show teased that there will be direct ties between their project and the new one, indicating that Marvel Studios is picking up right when they left off in 1996"
"There’ll be references, fans will be able to sit down and say ‘Oh, I’m thinking about stuff that happened previously on X-Men, and it’s gonna lead into… So, they’re starting at that starting point and then building the stories that they’d like to go off of that.”
Marvel's X-Men Making Their Glorious Return
While 2023 is mostly up in the air in regard to Disney+ scheduling, Marvel Studios will be using Spring or Summer to dive into yet another round of animated adventures.
The mid-2023 timing for X-Men '97 will put its debut somewhere near Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in May or Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania in July. With the X-Men boasting no direct ties to either of those franchises (save for possible Multiverse shenanigans in Ant-Man 3), it doesn't appear that Marvel is too concerned about the animated outing fitting into the overall MCU narrative.
The series boasting ten episodes tracks well with what fans have seen from MCU animated series thus far, after 2021's What If...? kicked off with nine entries in Season 1. Already boasting more than 70 episodes from 1992 to 1996, Marvel Studios will have plenty of foundation to use for its revival and kick things right off from where they ended a quarter-century ago.
Some actors have already started recording their lines for the revival, including Wolverine star Cal Dodd, which will give Marvel Studios plenty of time to complete the animation in the next year and a half. Whenever the specific premiere date is confirmed, fans will be looking forward to seeing what the MCU will do as the mutants join the growing cache of animated Marvel outings.
X-Men '97 is currently in production and is looking to premiere on Disney+ in mid-2023.
