It Doesn't Sound Like ‘X-Men ’97’ Season 2 Will Change Much Under Its New Writers

Although X-Men ‘97 is now proceeding under the supervision of showrunner Matthew Chauncy, Season 2 isn’t undergoing a major overhaul. Anticipation for X-Men ‘97 was through the roof in the weeks and months leading up to its premiere, but the shocking news that Marvel had fired ex-showrunner, Beau DeMayo not long before its Disney+ debut poured some cold water on the animated series. Less than two months after Season 1 concluded with an epic finale, Marvel tapped Matthew Chauncy to write X-Men ‘97 Season 3, but it was unclear if the new showrunner was going to affect the already-recorded Season 2. Now, during a recent Indiana Comic Convention panel moderated by Collider’s Maggie Lovitt, X-Men ‘97 star Lenore Zann shed some light on where things are at with the series.

While talking about the evolution of her relationship with Rogue between X-Men: The Animated Series and the continuation, Zann remarked that, "We've finished recording Season 2, and that will be coming out in 2026." This isn't much of a revelation. Last summer, when Lovitt spoke with Zann and Matthew Waterson, they were both more or less done with recording the second season. Marvel executive producer Brad Winderbaum even mentioned last year that the vocal aspects of the series were nearly finished, noting that there's typically a delay between the first and second seasons: "It takes three years to do it." Which puts everything right on track for the 2026 debut date, following Season 1's 2024 release.

Duing the panel, where Zann was joined by original voice actors Chris Potter and Alyson Court, Zann also discussed meeting the new writing team:

"I met Matt Chauncy, who's our new head writer and showrunner, and I've met a lot of the writers, well, all of them, actually. It's great. And it's interesting because I wrote a memoir called A Rogue's Tale, which just came out in the fall, and he contacted me and said, 'I'd really like to give your book to each of the writers.' So he gave it as Christmas presents to the writers. It was really sweet."

 

Marvel Has More Animated Projects Coming This Year

While the firing of Beau DeMayo certainly led to some controversy ahead of its premiere, X-Men ‘97 certainly didn’t suffer for it in the long run. The show was an instant hit after debuting its first two episodes, and while some Marvel projects trail off and lose their audience as they move along, X-Men ‘97 remained a classic from premiere to finale. The show earned a sublime 99% rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, with fans even approving at a 91% clip. This 99% rating is enough to make X-Men ‘97 the highest-rated Marvel Studios Disney+ project ever, narrowly finishing ahead of Ms. Marvel and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.

Marvel kicked off the year with the hit animated series Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, and there are two more animated shows confirmed for release this year. The first is Eyes of Wakanda, from Black Panther writer/director Ryan Coogler. The show will follow Wakandan warriors throughout history as they travel the world to collect stolen and lost vibranium artifacts. The other animated series coming this year is Marvel Zombies, which is rated TV-MA and airs on October 3. Marvel Zombies will return MCU stars Florence Pugh, Hailee Steinfeld, Elizabeth Olsen, and more, and it consists of four episodes.

X-Men ‘97 Season 2 isn’t changing under Matthew Chauncey, but it still does not have an official release date. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates and coverage of the series and watch X-Men ‘97 on Disney+.