UPDATE: NetEase has officially confirmed Season 9 as The Mystery of Thebes, revealing Jubilee as a vampiric Strategist and Apocalypse’s Horseman of Famine. We break down the full Season 9 here. The Hood has also leaked which we cover in detail.
Dataminers have beaten NetEase to its own announcement, as Jubilee has leaked ahead of her official reveal for Marvel Rivals Season 9, with ability descriptions and a role classification pulled straight from the game files ahead of the season’s July 10, 2026 launch.
The surprise isn’t that Jubilee is coming, it’s how she’s coming.
Jubilee Lands As A Strategist, Not A Duelist
Per the datamined files, Jubilee is classified as a Strategist, not the Duelist her comic book identity would suggest.
On paper, a mutant who fires explosive plasmoid fireworks screams damage dealer, but the Duelist queue in Marvel Rivals is already a parking lot. NetEase has made a habit of reframing characters away from their obvious archetypes, as Cloak and Dagger and Loki both raised eyebrows at reveal before their kits clicked with players.
Expect Jubilee to play as one of the more aggressive supports in the game if the leak holds, with her pyrotechnics likely translating into zone control or burst healing rather than the passive sustain style of a Mantis. Actual cooldowns, ultimate details, and team-up interactions remain unknown until NetEase makes it official.
The Hood Joins As A Vanguard
Jubilee isn’t arriving alone. The Hood is expected as the season’s second hero, slotting into the Vanguard role with a leaked kit built around clone mechanics — potentially one of the more disorienting tanks to play against — with his magical cape feeding the survivability side of the classification.
Story details tie him directly into the seasonal narrative as a major opponent of Apocalypse himself.
One of the two launches day one as the game’s 52nd playable character, with the other expected at the Season 9.5 mid-season update roughly four weeks later. Which hero drops first has not been confirmed.
The Mystery of Thebes Storyline And A “Thebes” Map
Season 9 leans into Marvel’s alternate-timeline The Mystery of Thebes arc, which NetEase has been seeding through Season 8.5’s Gallery Cards — cards that described two incoming characters without naming them.
The leaked Jubilee and Hood profiles match those descriptions closely enough to remove most doubt.
A new map tied to an ancient Egyptian location, referenced internally as Thebes, has also surfaced in the files. Given the season’s Egyptian mythology thread, a playable version seems likely, though no mode assignment has been confirmed.
When Season 9 Launches
Season 9 goes live Friday, July 10, 2026 at 9 a.m. UTC, with servers expected back around 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. UTC following maintenance.
A full Season 9 trailer and Dev Vision video from NetEase are expected imminently — July 7 or 8 is the likely window — which should lock in ability specifics, Battle Pass details, and full patch notes.
Jubilee Is Having A Moment
The timing couldn’t be better for the character, as Jubilee is also featured in X-Men ’97 Season 2, now streaming on Disney+, which delivers a standout Jubilee scene within its first three episodes — episodes we scored a perfect 10/10.
Between the animated series and a playable debut in Marvel Rivals, the X-Men’s resident fireworks queen is about to be everywhere this summer.
(note: featured image is Jubilee art by David Nakayama at SideShow Collectibles)
