With rumours swirling that Marvel Studios plans to move away from live-action TV series, Marvel Television's focus is expected to shift to animated properties such as Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and X-Men '97.
The latter's second season wraps up on Disney+ next week, and Marvel Studios Head of Streaming, Television and Animation Brad Winderbaum has now confirmed the release windows for X-Men '97 Seasons 3 and 4.
There was a two-year gap between Seasons 1 and 2, and similar to Prime Video's Invincible, that's been a source of frustration for comic book fans. Fortunately, Marvel Animation has knuckled down, with Winderbaum telling Collider, "Season 3 is going to come out next year and Season 4 the year after that."
That means X-Men '97 Season 3 will debut in 2027, with Season 4 set to follow in 2028, the same year Marvel Studios' live-action X-Men reboot is expected to arrive in theaters.
Winderbaum added, "Even a year feels too long. I remember watching these every single day after school, and then they would be on as reruns. I guess you could rewatch these episodes on streaming, because you can watch anything now."
While X-Men '97's future beyond Season 4 has yet to be decided, the executive noted, "X-Men was a constant element of my life growing up, and I just want to make as many [seasons] as fast as possible for people to see."
The site also asked Winderbaum about the show's episode count. Season 1 had 10 instalments, but Season 2 falls short with 9. X-Men: The Animated Series has seasons with as many as 19 episodes, but it doesn't sound like that's ever going to be the case for the Disney+ revival.
"It’s a whole different business now, and streaming has its own limitations," he explained. "Episode count is always a factor, and sometimes you have to decide, 'Do you want a season to come out sooner or do you want more episodes?' I tend to vote to get them out as soon as possible, even if you have to save some stories for subsequent seasons."
Season 3 will be overseen solely by What If...?'s Matthew Chauncey, who takes over as showrunner from Beau DeMayo. Whether X-Men '97 can maintain its quality with yearly releases is hard to say, though the response to Season 2—which DeMayo was less hands-on with following his firing—hasn't been quite as strong as Season 1.
X-Men '97 is now streaming on Disney+, with the Season 2 finale set to be released on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.