X-Men '97 Is Finally Back for Season 2, and the Wait Was Definitely Worth It

This is a spoiler-free review of the first four episodes of X-Men ‘97 Season 2. The series premieres on Disney+ on July 1. Sometimes, it doesn’t necessarily pay to put popular franchises in the hands of devoted super-fans. Look at Star Wars, for example. No one would accuse Tony Gilroy of being the world’s biggest Star Wars nerd, yet Andor is arguably the best thing to come out of that property in the Disney era. But with a project like X-Men ‘97, the rules are a little different. This is a series fundamentally built on nostalgia. The writers and animators are clearly deep, deep fans of the original X-Men: The Animated Series and the comics that inspired it. The result has been and continues to be a show that reveres the past even while being unafraid to chart a bold new future. Without burying the lede here, X-Men ‘97 Season 2 is exactly what fans of Season 1 have been waiting for. The several-year gap between seasons may have been painfully long, but the series doesn’t suffer one bit because of it. These first four episodes build nicely off the fallout of Season 1 and quickly establish an even darker and more foreboding status quo for this animated Marvel Universe. Season 2 is di