Unfortunately, X-Men '97 Season 2 will start off without one plot point that was pivotal in helping Season 1 become so successful. Amidst a Phase 5 slate with plenty of highs and lows for Marvel Studios, X-Men '97 Season 1 became one of the biggest critical hits in MCU history. Looking ahead to Season 2 in 2026, the show will continue its story in a much different place than where it started.
Marvel Animation privately released the first trailer for X-Men '97 Season 2 for a crowd of fans at New York Comic-Con 2025 after its panel at the event. While the main details of the story remain largely a mystery, the trailer confirmed that the core team of X-Men will be separated from one another early in Season 2.
Coming straight off the end of Season 1, the X-Men will be spread out across at least three different timelines. Cyclops and Jean Grey were sent to the distant future (3960 AD), while a quintet of mutants (Professor X, Magneto, Rogue, Nightcrawler, and Beast) were sent backwards to the year 3000 BC in ancient Egypt. Meanwhile, Bishop and Forge were stuck back in the 1990s while the mayhem ensued.
When X-Men '97 made its debut in March 2024, continuing the story originally laid out in X-Men: The Animated Series from 1992 to 1997, it brought back the same core team that made the original show so successful. Now, as Season 2 starts off with the group separated across different timelines, the story will lose some of the team dynamic that became such an important part of the show in Season 1.
X-Men '97 Season 2 will be one of half a dozen Marvel properties coming to Disney+ over the next year. It adds to the story initially set up in X-Men: The Animated Series, uniting mutants like Wolverine, Rogue, Cyclops, Jean Grey, and more under Charles Xavier's watch. X-Men '97 Season 2 will debut on Disney+ in 2026.
How Long X-Men Team Be Separated in X-Men '97 Season 2?
X-Men '97 Season 1 ended with some of the most drastic stakes fans have seen yet in either this show or its predecessor by separating the team across different timelines. The big question moving forward is how long it will be until the group is brought back together again in Season 2 after such a wild ending in Season 1.
In the aforementioned trailer, footage shows characters like Scott and Jean fighting in what appears to be the present day. While this confirms that the team's main characters do make it back to their original timeline, the lack of footage and story details makes it difficult to tell how long the team's reunion will take or whether they will even make it back to the '90s for good initially.
One of the main threads of the season could have the X-Men jumping across timelines and missing one another, especially considering Apocalypse is already confirmed to be the season's main villain. His time-jumping antics are sure to be prevalent across the course of the season's 10 episodes, especially once the team in ancient Egypt learns more about him and what he can do.
While more details about the season's specific plot will not become public until closer to when the new episodes debut on Disney+, this season should deliver some of the wildest action and drama fans have seen yet from the mutants.
Richard Nebens joined The Direct in March 2020, now serving as the site's Senior Writer and also working as an assistant editor and content creator. He started his journalism career as a hobby in 2019 and is passionate about sharing news and stories from the entertainment industry, especially comic book movies, comedy, and sci-fi. Richard looks to expand his knowledge about movies and TV every day, and he is eager to stay locked into the latest releases and breaking news at every opportunity.
