A few weeks ago, X-Men '97 delivered its most devastating episode to date when the master Mold Sentinel was unleashed on Genosha and killed countless mutants.
Tragically, Gambit was among them. However, following Cable's arrival in the present day, the prevailing theory among fans has been that time travel will ultimately be used to undo Bastion's attack and likely bring the fan-favourite Cajun mutant back from the dead.
Today's episode of X-Men '97, titled "Tolerance Is Extinction - Part 1," appears to dispel that notion once and for all. We learn that Cable has travelled back in time to the attack on Genosha countless times, only to be temporally pulled away from the event before he can stop it.
To that, Beast says, "Strange, the mystics of Kamar-Taj speak of absolute points. Events that occur across all timelines. Cable could travel to the very moment Genosha fell, but time would stop him."
What If...? has established that these are moments in time which cannot be changed, lest the universe end. Avengers: Endgame, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Loki have all also alluded to fixed points in time which can't be altered, and the destruction of Genosha appears to be one of them.
In fact, it seems that across every timeline, Genosha is destined to be destroyed. This suggests the island nation will eventually fall on Earth-616 as well, a hint perhaps of what's to come in Marvel Studios' eventual live-action X-Men reboot.
Former X-Men '97 showrunner Head Writer Beau DeMayo has also essentially confirmed that time travel won't undo the events of previous episodes with the following post on X...
Marvel Studios has yet to announce a creative team for the next X-Men movie, though many fans believe X-Men '97's creative team should be allowed to take a crack at the movie (even if it's just a big screen continuation of this revival).
"First off, it would be a slam dunk," director Chase Conley recently said of the possibility. "I think that would absolutely be something the audience would want to see, and we would want to be a part of."
He'd add that the benefit of an episodic format means the creative team can get through "a lot of adapted comic runs," but acknowledged that a movie budget would allow them to "do as much as we can and spend a lot of time massaging each shot."
"With animation, the more time and money we get, the better it will be," Conley concluded. "That's just a fact."
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.
Eight episodes of X-Men '97 are now streaming on Disney+ with new instalments following weekly.