‘X-Men ’97’ Quietly Resurrects Kang the Conqueror Through a Surprising Rise of Apocalypse Twist
‘X-Men ’97’ has built its second season around a villain reveal that ties directly back to one of Marvel Studios’ most public creative reversals. In the third episode of the new season, the X-Men find themselves face to face with Rama-Tut, a warlord ruling over Ancient Egypt who turns out to be far more than a one-off antagonist.
The third episode of the acclaimed Disney+ show’s second season sees the X-Men encounter Rama-Tut, a variant of the supervillain Kang the Conqueror. The reveal folds a piece of shelved Marvel Cinematic Universe history into the animated series in a way that longtime fans immediately picked up on.
Rama-Tut’s Identity Reveal Connects Directly to Kang the Conqueror
The episode does not waste time hiding the connection once the pharaoh is confronted. When Professor Xavier demands that Rama-Tut identify himself, the villain responds by listing off several names, including Nathaniel, Kang, and Victor, before remarking that finding one’s self can be confusing. The character then removes any remaining doubt.
Rama-Tut exits the episode by pulling on the distinctive purple mask associated with Kang the Conqueror. It is a blunt confirmation for a show that usually prefers to let its deep cuts speak for themselves rather than announce them outright.
This is not the first time the shared continuity between ‘X-Men: The Animated Series’ and ‘X-Men ’97’ has touched on a Kang variant. Rama-Tut’s arrival marks the second time a version of Kang the Conqueror appears across the two shows, following a 1995 four part storyline in which a mutant named Bender was eventually revealed to be Immortus, another of Kang’s oldest personas.
In the comics, the character’s history runs even deeper. Rama-Tut first appeared in ‘Fantastic Four’ number 19 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby before Kang made his proper debut in ‘Avengers’ number 8, where he revealed that Rama-Tut was in fact his younger self. ‘X-Men ’97’ leans on that history rather than inventing a new backstory from scratch.
X-Men 97 Season 2 Ties Apocalypse’s Origin to a Familiar Tyrant
The season premiere splits its story across three different eras, and the Ancient Egypt thread is where Rama-Tut does his damage. Episode three serves as the origin story for Apocalypse, and it centers on Rama-Tut, a villain the MCU had once earmarked for a much bigger role.
According to reporting on the episode’s plot, the relationship between the two characters is adversarial from the start. Rama-Tut enslaved En Sabah Nur in hopes of preventing the mutant from ever becoming Apocalypse, at one point abandoning him in the desert to die of starvation, only for Nur to fall in with a rebel group called the Sandstormers and lead them to victory against the pharaoh’s forces. That defeat becomes the crucible that shapes Apocalypse’s worldview.
The storyline is not an invention of the writers room either. The plot is lifted directly from the ‘Rise of Apocalypse’ miniseries by Terry Kavanagh and Adam Pollina, which details Rama-Tut’s attempt to make En Sabah Nur his heir and Nur’s eventual uprising against the self-proclaimed pharaoh. The show is adapting established comic canon rather than retrofitting Kang into a story that never involved him.
The production even reinforced the connection musically. The official credits for the episode confirm that composer Natalie Holt’s score from ‘Loki’ was directly incorporated, marking the first time Kang’s musical motif has crossed over into the animated series, with the cue arriving as Rama-Tut makes his entrance. The result is a version of Kang who sounds like the character MCU audiences already know, even while looking nothing like him.
The Abandoned Avengers Kang Dynasty Storyline Gets a Second Life
Kang’s live action journey was supposed to look very different from what ended up on screen. Marvel originally planned to pit the Avengers against Kang the Conqueror in a film called ‘Avengers: The Kang Dynasty,’ with groundwork laid starting in the first season of ‘Loki,’ where He Who Remains, played by Jonathan Majors, explained that he built the TVA to stop a multiversal war caused by his own variants.
That plan collapsed for reasons that had nothing to do with the writing. The project fell apart after Majors was found guilty of misdemeanor assault and harassment in December 2023, prompting Marvel to cut ties with the actor and eventually retool the next Avengers film into ‘Avengers: Doomsday,’ with Robert Downey Jr. stepping in as Doctor Doom. The Kang Dynasty title was retired along with him.
Do you think the MCU should still continue the Kang storyline?
Even before that collapse, the character’s future had already shifted behind the scenes. According to comments from screenwriter Michael Waldron, he and collaborator Jeff Loveness had spent time pitching a version of the Young Avengers defeating a specific Kang variant, only to abandon the idea once they realized the joke had already been used elsewhere in the franchise. The larger point stands regardless of that specific pitch, Kang’s live action arc was in flux well before Majors’ legal troubles sealed its fate.
‘X-Men ’97’ sidesteps all of that baggage by recasting the role entirely. Rather than reusing Majors’ likeness or voice, the show brought in Star Trek veteran John de Lancie, best known for playing Q across multiple Star Trek series, to voice this version of the character. The animated Rama-Tut also looks nothing like his live action counterpart, trading the purple and black armor from the ‘Quantumania’ post credits scene for a green helmet and cape pulled straight from the comics.
What Kang’s Animated Return Signals for the Franchise
The timing of this reveal is difficult to separate from where the MCU currently stands. The franchise has clearly been reluctant to reintroduce Kang since the Majors situation, going so far as reworking ‘Avengers: The Kang Dynasty’ into ‘Avengers: Doomsday.’ Bringing the character back through animation lets Marvel revisit the idea without touching the live action timeline directly.
Whether this leads anywhere beyond the cartoon remains an open question. Rama-Tut’s appearance in ‘X-Men ’97’ may open the door slightly for some version of Kang to return in the future, given the multiverse’s capacity for infinite variants. Nothing currently on Marvel’s live action slate suggests an imminent comeback, but the door has not been welded shut either.
For now, the show has managed something Marvel Studios could not, salvaging a storyline that seemed permanently shelved by finding a version of it that does not depend on the actor who derailed it. ‘X-Men ’97’ continues to prove that its writers know exactly which threads from the wider franchise are worth pulling, and Rama-Tut’s unmasking may be the clearest example yet.
Does Rama-Tut’s redemption of this storyline make you more curious about where Kang the Conqueror could resurface next, or do you think the character’s live action chapter is truly finished after everything that led to ‘Avengers: Doomsday’?
