X-Men '97 Release Window Revealed

The X-Men are back, bub. Marvel Studios has reportedly set a release window for X-Men '97, the upcoming revival of '90s cartoon X-Men: The Animated Series. Originally announced in November 2021 and slated for a fall 2023 premiere on Disney+, the first season of the new series — which has already greenlit season 2 — was pushed to 2024 with animated shows Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (formerly Spider-Man: Freshman Year) and Black Panther spinoff Eyes of Wakanda. The 10-episode X-Men '97 season 1 is first in the lineup and is set to release in the spring, according to a new report.

X-Men '97 will be available to stream on Disney+ in "mid to late March," Cosmic Circus reports. Marvel Studios has yet to confirm the news.

Details remain scarce, but the series picks up where X-Men: The Animated Series left off when its original five-season, 76-episode run ended in 1997 on Fox Kids Network. Per the official synopsis: "Storm and Wolverine try to continue the X-Men. Magneto comes in and wants to step up for Charles Xavier. Sinister comes in to try to end the X-Men once and for all." 

Original X-Men: TAS cast members Cal Dodd (Wolverine), Lenore Zann (Rogue), George Buza (Beast), Alison Sealy-Smith (Storm), and Christopher Britton (Mister Sinister) reprise their roles from the '90s series, while returning cast members Catherine Disher (Jean Grey), Chris Potter (Gambit), Alyson Court (Jubilee), and Adrian Hough (Nightcrawler) voice new characters. Newcomers include Ray Chase as Cyclops (replacing the late Norm Spencer), Jennifer Hale as Jean Grey, Holly Chou as Jubilee, A.J. LoCascio as Gambit, Gui Agustini as Sunspot, and Matthew Waterson as Magneto (taking over from the late David Hemblen).

Bishop, Cable, Morph, Forge, and Nightcrawler are also set to appear in the series, which will also feature Emma Frost and Sebastian Shaw of the Hellfire Club; Boliver Trask, creator of the mutant-hunting Sentinels; the costumed villain X-Cutioner; and Jean Grey's clone Madelyn Pryor, a.k.a. the Goblin Queen.

"This is the first X-Men title produced by Marvel Studios," executive producer Brad Winderbaum, head of streaming, television and animation for Marvel Studios, said when announcing X-Men '97. "What an amazing first step to reintroduce audiences to the X-Men with a look at one of the most pinnacle eras of the X-Men comics, which was the '90s. That iconic style that has its roots in Chris Claremont, and is celebrated in Jim Lee, and then again in The Animated Series."

Added Dana Vasquez-Eberhardt, VP of Animation at Marvel Studios: "As an animated show, the original X-Men was the forerunner to some amazing action series. Everyone that is making X-Men '97, top-down, is a fan. On this project, instinctually, we knew exactly what this is. To bring this series forward and pick up that baton, and not just keep running at the same pace, but to really elevate. That's the responsibility."

Marvel Studios will reveal more from X-Men '97 in the weeks ahead.