X-Men '97's three-part finale, "Tolerance Is Extinction," will play out on Disney+ over the next few weeks. Will Cable be able to help the X-Men stop Bastion and can time travel undo the deaths of Gambit and the countless mutants who died on Genosha?
Time (no pun intended) will tell, but X-Men '97 showrunner Beau DeMayo has now pointed fans to four specific X-Men: The Animated Series episodes it's worth watching before "Tolerance Is Extinction" kicks off.
The first is a two-part story titled "One Man's Worth" (season 4, episodes 2 and 3). In that, Nimrod travelled back in time to assassinate a young Charles Xavier, Terminator-style. He succeeded, meaning the X-Men never formed and the "Age of Apocalypse" timeline became a reality.
Bishop later teamed with Wolverine and Storm to stop Nimrod and Master Mold (in the comics, they combine to create Bastion), and after plenty of time-travel shenanigans, things are eventually made right.
DeMayo later suggested fans should also check out the two-part "Sanctuary." In that, Magneto creates Asteroid M, though it's ultimately destroyed. Genosha and Apocalypse also factor into these episodes, though it's a little harder to decipher how that will influence "Tolerance Is Extinction."
"It's always interesting to take Xavier's dream and turn it on its head," DeMayo previously said of his approach to X-Men '97. "When I first came to this, I was thinking about what the world of the '90s was like, even issues of social acceptance and what does it mean to be different. It was so much more simplistic than it is today."
"[The X-Men] spent years telling humanity to embrace the future, walk into the future together. What happens when they get hit with a future they didn't see coming? What does it feel like to be on the other end when you feel like that future is leaving you behind?"
Check out DeMayo's comments in the X posts below.
X-Men '97 revisits the iconic era of the 1990s as The X-Men, a band of mutants who use their uncanny gifts to protect a world that hates and fears them, are challenged like never before, forced to face a dangerous and unexpected new future.
The first seven episodes of X-Men '97 are now streaming on Disney+ with new instalments following weekly.