TV Shows

Marvel’s Best TV Show Will Kill “Lots” of Characters in 2026’s “Very Dark” Season 2

The words โ€˜best TV showโ€™ beside the media giant that is Marvel seem like exceptionally big shoes to fill, we know. But with a hit big enough to snag an Emmy nomination while being touted as Marvelโ€™s highest-rated project of all time (and itโ€™s not even set in the MCU), that was almost immediately green-lit for a second season? We can only be talking about X-Men โ€˜97. And apparently the show is coming back grittier and more violent than everโ€”though youโ€™re going to have to wait until next year to see exactly how. But with Lenore Zann, George Buza, and Cal Dodd reprising their roles as Rogue, Beast, and Wolverine, itโ€™ll definitely be worth the wait.

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At a recent panel for The Walking Dead, Ross Marquand told Maggie Lovitt of Collider that season 2 was gearing up to be โ€œvery dark.โ€ He went on to say that he was โ€œamazed Disney greenlit it because itโ€™s so dark. Itโ€™s very, very dark. A lot of people die, and so many people donโ€™t talk about it. Just being honest.โ€

Expanding on his own role in the show, Marquand stated, โ€œI play Apocalypse next season too, so thereโ€™s a lot of scenes for myself as Apocalypse. Iโ€™m dressed in rags, which is kind of weird, but yeah.โ€ And what do we know about Apocalypse? In the comics, heโ€™s known as En Sabah Nur, the leader of the ominously dubbed Four Horsemenโ€”a group that Gambit eventually becomes a part of. 

What Can We Expect From Season 2?

More Gambit? Maybe! โ€œSo much pain, my children. So much death,โ€ Apocalyse says during a mid-credits sequence in the three-part โ€œTolerance Is Extinctionโ€ after what appears to be Gambitโ€™s death. This could be a potential hint that Gambit returns as Death, one of the four Horsemen of Apocalypse, in season 2.

Concrete details are definitely few and far between, but if you were worried about X-Men โ€˜97 being finished after season 2, go ahead and release that breath youโ€™ve been holding since 2024. Itโ€™s been confirmed that the show will last at least through season 3, and while thereโ€™s no official release date for that yet, Lenore Zann stated back in May that she had been in the booth recording lines as Rogue.

Who do you think will make it out of X-Men โ€˜97 season 2 alive? Tell us in the comments. And check out the ComicBook Forum to see what everyone else is saying.