Marvel’s Next TV Show Breaks A 3-Year Trend For The MCU’s Disney+ Projects

Premiering on March 20, 2024, Marvel Studios Animation’s X-Men ’97 will break a major trend that the other Disney+ shows in the MCU haven’t yet matched. Shortly after Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox was finalized in 2019, Marvel Studios announced a revival of X-Men: The Animated Series was in development. The original series ran for five seasons between 1992 and 1997 before being canceled amid Marvel Entertainment’s financial difficulties, but X-Men ’97 will pick up immediately after The Animated Series, dealing with the fallout of Professor X’s departure from Earth, and catching up with the classic X-Men team.

The first trailer for X-Men ’97 was released on February 15, 2024, which confirmed the premiere date for the series, and provided a new look at the new-and-improved, but still classic, animation style. In March, Marvel Studios confirmed the episode titles for X-Men ’97’s first ten-episode season, beginning with “To Me, My X-Men” and “Mutant Liberation Begins” on March 20, 2024. Aside from breaking the record of most episodes for a full MCU Disney+ season, X-Men ’97 is also breaking another Marvel Studios pattern by continuing a brilliant technique from X-Men: The Animated Series for the upcoming show’s epic finale.

X-Men ’97’s 3-Part Finale Is A First For Marvel Studios’ TV Shows

X-Men ’97 will be the first TV series produced by Marvel Studios that ends in a three-part finale, “Tolerance is Extinction.” Multi-episode stories were commonplace in X-Men: The Animated Series, with episodes such as season 3’s “The Phoenix Saga” and “The Dark Phoenix,” and season 4’s “Beyond Good and Evil” spanning four or five episodes, while several more took place over two episodes. The continuation of this pattern in X-Men ’97 will provide nostalgia and continuity, solidifying the fact that this is a revival of the original, but this also breaks records for the current slate of MCU Disney+ projects.

The only MCU TV show that has come close to matching X-Men ’97’s three-part finale has been What If…? season 1, which arguably ended in the two-part finale of “What If… Ultron Won?” and “What If… the Watcher Broke His Oath?.” However, even What If…? didn’t specify that these two episodes were “Part 1” and “Part 2,” unlike X-Men ’97’s “Tolerance is Extinction.” X-Men 97’s three-part finale will release episodes on May 1, 8, and 15, 2024, and while the exact storyline of “Tolerance is Extinction” hasn’t yet been revealed, X-Men ’97’s other episodes hint at the series’ overarching narrative.

What Could X-Men ’97’s “Tolerance Is Extinction” Be About?

Humanity’s hatred of mutants was an important story thread throughout X-Men: The Animated Series, just as it was in Marvel Comics following the X-Men’s debut in 1963. The episode titles for X-Men ’97 seem to imply that this idea will be taken to the extreme, as the idea of mutant liberation and tolerance are put center-stage. X-Men: The Animated Series adapted some of the most popular Marvel Comics storylines, so it can be assumed that Marvel Studios Animation’s X-Men ’97 will do the same, though it’s unclear which ones the three-part “Tolerance is Extinction” finale will focus on.