Marvel Animation has released the first trailer for X-Men ’97 Season 2, confirming a July 1, 2026 premiere on Disney+.
The new season will also get a world premiere at the Tribeca Festival on June 13.
The trailer leaked online out of Comic Con Revolution Ontario before Marvel officially released it, and it confirms what fans expected after Season 1: Age of Apocalypse is coming, the X-Men are scattered across time, more than 30 mutants are in play, and Wolverine is getting his adamantium back.
It’s a strong trailer. It has the mutants, the scale, the comic book callbacks, and the fan-service moments Marvel needed.
But X-Men ’97 Season 2 also arrives with Beau DeMayo no longer involved, and the fired showrunner has spent months warning fans about the state of Marvel behind the scenes. More on that below.
Watch the trailer:
The Beau DeMayo Problem Marvel Isn’t Talking About
Beau DeMayo was the architect of Season 1. The season finale he built was widely treated as the best thing Marvel had put out in years. Then Marvel fired him on the eve of Season 1’s premiere in March 2024, never publicly explaining why. Matthew Chauncey took over as showrunner for Season 2.
Since the firing, DeMayo hasn’t gone quiet. He’s done the opposite. In a series of public statements and Twitter threads through 2025, he laid out what he describes as a “broken” Marvel Studios machine and made clear he has no faith in Marvel’s broader X-Men plans.
“Do I have faith in the MCU’s Mutant Saga? Short answer: Not yet, no,” DeMayo said. He cited “poor planning, ego-driven decisions, and a lack of respect for the X-Men’s legacy” and called the Ms. Marvel mutant retcon an “f-ck you to fans” that was “absolutely all ego.”
DeMayo also alleged that Kevin Feige and what he called Marvel’s “Parliament” actively worked to undermine X-Men ’97‘s success because fans were using the show as a referendum on how the broader MCU is failing.
He said Marvel censored crew members from praising his leadership and stopped an IGN interview “for giving me too much credit.”
His broader critique of Marvel Studios as a “broken machine” and his criticism of Marvel Animation and the comics division paint a picture of a studio in disarray, from a person who was inside the room when the decisions were being made.
Season 1 Had The Buzz, But Not The Nielsen Numbers
The big question is whether X-Men ’97 Season 2 can turn fan hype into wider viewership.
Season 1 was praised by critics and fans, but it never charted on Nielsen’s streaming rankings. Not even the finale cracked the weekly Top 10 originals chart.
Disney and Marvel promoted X-Men ’97 as a hit with fans, and the online reaction was strong. But Nielsen is one of the few outside measurements the industry uses to judge streaming performance (which Disney+ has turned on in accounts).
By that standard, the show did not break through in the same way the online hype suggested, similar to what is happening with Daredevil: Born Again.
Season 2 now has to prove the audience is bigger than the social media conversation.
