Marvel Studios Is Officially Remaking One Of The Greatest X-Men Sagas

Disney and Marvel are set to remake one of the greatest X-Men stories ever told, and fans only have to wait a few months to watch it all unfold. The X-Men have long been one of Marvel’s greatest superhero teams, but they’ve had a complicated history with on-screen adaptations. The team hasn’t been part of the MCU for years, as Fox owned the rights to the team and created a slew of live-action X-Men movies.

That, however, is changing. Recently, Deadpool & Wolverine folded Hugh Jackman’s titular mutant character into the main Marvel Cinematic Universe, albeit through some multiversal shenanigans. The MCU is also preparing to bring in several other X-Men to the main franchise’s timeline, as several prominent actors from Fox’s X-Men series have joined the cast of Avengers: Doomsday. There are even rumors circulating that Jean Grey could be in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and that Sadie Sink is set to play her.

Most notably, Marvel Studios began a revival of X-Men: The Animated Series titled X-Men ’97 that is preparing to tell one of the franchise’s most iconic sagas all over again. X-Men ’97 season 2 is expected to premiere in summer 2026, which should give it a chance to tell the next on-screen chapter of the X-Men’s tale even before Avengers: Doomsday gets the chance. What’s more fascinating is that X-Men ’97 will be retelling the Age of Apocalypse.

The Age Of Apocalypse Was One Of The Best X-Men Sagas Ever

Apocalypse is widely considered one of the best X-Men villains ever written, and he was responsible for one of the best sagas of X-Men: The Animated Series as a whole. The Age of Apocalypse was adapted in X-Men: The Animated Series season 4, and it saw several prominent mutants, including Cable and Lucas Bishop, fighting against Apocalypse as he tried to use time travel and psychics to destroy reality and create a new world in his own image.

The Age of Apocalypse story had everything you could want out of an X-Men story. Apocalypse himself is an iconic villain that raised the stakes to a literally universal level, the story arc married several different timelines and brought X-Men who rarely interacted together, and the fate of mutantkind as a whole was on the line. There were great fights, tremendous character moments, and X-Men: The Animated Series was at its absolute best during the Age of Apocalypse.

This X-Men saga also gave viewers some truly unique things that couldn’t have happened in any other story. The Four Horsemen of Apocalypse, for example, saw several mutants working directly under Apocalypse, and it resulted in one of Archangel’s best stories. The time travel elements of Age of Apocalypse, while quite complex, also allowed the saga to have a fantastic ending that saw Apocalypse banished to the Astral Plane.

X-Men: The Animated Series was also one of the best adaptations of the Age of Apocalypse. The saga was also famously adapted into Fox’s X-Men: Apocalypse in 2016 to middling reviews, and the live-action film just didn’t handle the sprawling story with as much grace as it deserved. X-Men: The Animated Series, however, was adapting the Age of Apocalypse at the same time the comics were being written, which gave it incredible comic accuracy and a feeling of being both brand new and world-shattering.

X-Men ’97 Season 2 Will Have A New Take On The Age Of Apocalypse

Image via Disney+

Now, X-Men ’97 is ready to give fans a new take on the Age of Apocalypse. The ending of X-Men ’97 season 1 included a stinger scene of Apocalypse mourning the destruction at Genosha and eventually finding a card used by the recently deceased Gambit. After the events of the Age of Apocalypse in X-Men: The Animated Series, Apocalypse had taken over the body of Fabian Cortez, and it now seems he’s ready to try his hand at world domination again.

X-Men ’97 has perfectly set the stage for a remake of the Age of Apocalypse story. Apocalypse is back, he’s still as deadset on shaping reality to his will as ever before, and the X-Men are even scattered across time after the events of X-Men ’97 season 1’s ending. The stinger scene, where Apocalypse found Gambit’s card, even acts as a hint that he’s going to recruit gambit as his Horseman of Death, just as it happened in the Blood of Apocalypse line of comics.

There were already a lot of reasons to be excited about X-Men ’97 season 2, but the chance to see another take on the Age of Apocalypse makes the wait for more episodes nearly unbearable. There’s truly no telling how Apocalypse’s return will play out this time, what kind of time travel trickery the show can get up to, or even who will survive Apocalypse’s next attempt to take over the universe. If you’re interested in the X-Men at all, you have to watch X-Men ’97 season 2.

Release Date

March 20, 2024

Directors

Jake Castorena

Writers

Beau DeMayo

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