Marvel’s acquisition of Fox several years ago meant that all of the rights for Marvel characters that Fox retained would come home. Or, put differently, the Avengers would get to interact with characters from the X-Men and Fantastic Four comics. For now, the MCU is only getting a Fantastic Four movie, as Marvel is taking its time with its own live-action X-Men.
However, mutants are here. The best example of that is Deadpool & Wolverine, which will hit theaters in late July, featuring the Fox versions of Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). But we’ll see plenty of other X-Men in action before that.
X-Men ’97 premieres on Disney Plus later this month, building upon the animated series plenty of Marvel fans loved in the ’90s. Now, Marvel has released the titles of the ten episodes in anticipation of the two-episode premiere. Unlike What If…?, this might be a more cohesive story from the start. Mind you, some MCU spoilers might follow below.
What If…? is more of an anthology series that takes us on a variety of disparate journeys all across the multiverse. These are exciting standalone stories and only converge towards the end of a season. That won’t be the case with X-Men ’97.
In X-Men ’97, the story will seemingly span the full season. If that’s not the case, we still have two separate instances of connected episodes. Lifedeath is a two-part event, while Tolerance Is Extinction is a three-part story that concludes the first season of X-Men ’97.
Here are the X-Men ’97 episodes in chronological order, as shared by Marvel on social media:
- To Me. My X-Men and Mutant Liberation Begins | March 20th (2 Episode Premiere)
- Fire Made Flesh | March 27th
- Motendo / Lifedeath – Pt. 1 | April 3rd
- Remember It | April 10th
- Lifedeath – Pt. 2 | April 17th
- Bright Eyes | April 24th
- Tolerance Is Extinction – Pt. 1 | May 1st
- Tolerance Is Extinction – Pt. 2 | May 8th
- Tolerance Is Extinction – Pt. 3 | May 15th (Season Finale)
That said, we have no idea what happens in X-Men ’97 or how it connects to the rest of the MCU.
Remember that we’re in the Multiverse Saga. Deadpool 3 should feature plenty of X-Men from the Fox movies, and the mutants should appear in at least one of the final Avengers installments that will conclude the current saga.
Not only that, but there’s an exciting Avengers rumor about the return of Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Secret Wars, and Wolverine out there.
I will point out that we have met mutants in the MCU already. Two come from the main universe: Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) and Namor (Tenoch Huerta).
Then there’s the Professor X (Patrick Stewart) variant that Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) killed in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Finally, we have the Beast (Kelsey Grammer) variant appearing in the credits scene of The Marvels.
Could X-Men ’97 connect to the non-MCU mutants that have shown up in the MCU so far? It’s always possible. Are these X-Men linked to Deadpool & Wolverine in any way? That’s also an exciting possibility. We’ll start finding out the answers soon, though we might have to wait until Deadpool 3 hits theaters for a more complete picture.
Meanwhile, watch the X-Men ’97 trailer to get a taste of what’s coming on March 20th: