X-Men ’97 Season 2 Trailer Confirms Missing Hero Comeback, Unleashes Two New Mutant Teams
Marvel’s streaming gamble is showing cracks: as Disney+ rolls on, breakout hits like WandaVision and Loki share the stage with underwhelmers that are testing the MCU’s once-ironclad brand.
Marvel has had a rocky run expanding the MCU onto Disney+, but the irony is their most bulletproof show right now lives outside the MCU entirely. X-Men '97 landed in 2024, picked up right where the 90s cartoon left off, and then started doing its own thing with near-universal applause. Now we finally got a first look at Season 2 — Marvel rolled the trailer out over the weekend at Comic Con Revolution Ontario — and it is stuffed with new faces, fan-favorite teams, and a very loud, very blue threat.
Where Season 2 picks up
The trailer opens not long after the Season 1 finale. The core X-Men are scattered across time, and Apocalypse is looming at both ends of the timeline. So yes, it is messy in that very X-Men way. The show is still rocking that 90s look, just with sharper edges.
New faces, overdue returns
Comic readers are going to clock a few arrivals immediately — Quentin Quire, aka Kid Omega, makes his animated debut. The bigger cheer moment, though, is the return of a heavy hitter the first season left on the bench: Colossus is officially in for Season 2.
Calling in backup: X-Force and X-Factor
Because the team is lost across time, Bishop starts recruiting help from the wider X-corner of Marvel. The trailer confirms both X-Force and X-Factor are suiting up, and they look exactly like you hope they would.
- X-Force: Cable and Archangel are in the mix.
- X-Factor: Wolfsbane, Multiple Man, and Strong Guy show up.
- New character spotlight: Quentin Quire/Kid Omega.
- Long-awaited return: Colossus finally joins the party.
Yes, it leaked. Yes, fans are already arguing.
After the room-only premiere in Ontario, the trailer leaked online and spread fast. Reactions have been predictably loud. One fan called their shot with:
"This is going to be another peak season of television."
Others are already dissecting leadership shots and wondering if Cyclops is being sidelined again — for what it’s worth, he does appear throughout the footage. And a not-small crowd is asking the same question: "Where's Emma Frost?"
So when is it actually dropping?
There is still no release date or even a window in the trailer. That said, the show is reportedly still on track for this year. With Marvel's VisionQuest set for fall and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider- Man Season 2 penciled for late 2026, there is a decent lane for X-Men '97 to slide back in this summer. Not confirmed, just the most logical read of Marvel's calendar.
Bottom line: the standalone X-Men cartoon continues to be Marvel's ringer. If the trailer is any indication, Season 2 is doubling down on the big swing timeline chaos, the 90s glow-up, and the roster geek-bait — and I mean that in the best possible way.