‘X-Men ’97’ Season 2 Is Almost Here, and Wolverine Is Ready to Remind You Why He’s the Best at What He Does
Few animated series have pulled off what ‘X-Men ’97’ managed with its first season, and the wait for more is almost over. Marvel Animation‘s Emmy-nominated series is set to return to Disney+ for a second season on July 1, 2026, and the first look footage already has fans counting down the days. The image making the rounds, shared by Rotten Tomatoes on social media, puts a battle-hardened Wolverine front and center, claws out and surrounded by fire, wearing an expression that says he has absolutely had enough of whatever timeline he’s been thrown into.
That grim, intense look on Logan’s face is entirely appropriate given where Season 1 left things. The finale scattered the X-Men across space and time, with Jean Grey and Cyclops stranded in the year 3960 A.D., while Rogue, Nightcrawler, and Beast found themselves in Ancient Egypt circa 3000 B.C. Wolverine’s survival in the trailer raised eyebrows among fans who remembered how brutally the season ended for him, making his appearance in this first-look footage all the more charged.
The scope of what Season 2 is building toward is genuinely ambitious. The X-Men must find their way back to the 1990s to stop Apocalypse, with the story stretching from Ancient Egypt all the way to the far future. As the narrator puts it in the trailer, the journey takes the team “in the past, from the start of Apocalypse’s reign, to the future at the height of his rule,” which signals a season built on scale and consequence rather than isolated episodic adventures.
The series currently holds a Certified Fresh 99% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, setting an almost impossibly high bar for the upcoming episodes. That kind of critical goodwill is rare for any animated property, and it reflects just how seriously the creative team has treated the source material and its audience. The premiere episode of Season 1 alone pulled in 4 million views globally in its first five days on Disney+, proving this was no mere nostalgia experiment.
Promotional materials spotlight Apocalypse as the principal antagonist while also highlighting additions to X-Force and X-Factor alongside established fan favorites. New faces in the trailer include Psylocke, Exodus, the shapeshifter Morph taking the form of Deadpool, and the mysterious figure Rama-Tut. The returning voice cast remains a major draw, with Ross Marquand as Professor X, Matthew Waterson as Magneto, Ray Chase as Cyclops, Jennifer Hale as Jean Grey, Alison Sealy-Smith as Storm, Cal Dodd as Wolverine, Lenore Zann as Rogue, and George Buza as Beast all back in their roles.
The season was promoted during Marvel Studios Animation’s panel at Disney’s D23 convention in August 2024, and a poster inspired by the cover of Wolverine vol. 1, issue 1 from 1982 by Frank Miller was released alongside the first trailer in May 2026. That choice of reference art is telling. The poster nods to the era when Wolverine became a standalone icon, which feels fitting for a season that appears to be betting heavily on his arc. With nine episodes locked, a legendary villain at the center of the story, and the team split across centuries, the second chapter of ‘X-Men ’97’ has the ingredients to be even more emotionally punishing than the first. Whether it can actually top a 99% score is the question fans will be debating until July 1 arrives, so share your thoughts below on which X-Man you think faces the most danger from Apocalypse this season.
