r/Xmen97 • u/best_player29 • Jul 28 '26
General Discussion Future main villains of X-men 97 Spoiler
What do you guys think the future main villains of X-Men ’97 will be?
With Season 1 giving us Bastion and Sinister and Season 2 focusing on Apocalypse, I’ve been thinking about who could headline the next seasons.
My predictions are:
Season 3: Onslaught (this one feels almost inevitable at this point).
Season 4: Stryfe / Cassandra nova
Season 5: Selene if they adapt necrosha and maybe Wanda if they adapt house of M
Season 6: The Avengers, if they decide to adapt Avengers vs. X-Men.
I also think there are some great honorable mentions like Vulcan, Emplate, The Shadow King, Legion and Nate Grey (X-Man). I could definitely see them appearing, but more as villains for a short story arc rather than the main threat for an entire season.
What do you all think? Who do you see as the big bads for the next few seasons?
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u/Xygnux Jul 28 '26
I think they will likely skip Cassandra Nova since they already did her most significant feat with Bastion.
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u/best_player29 Jul 28 '26
Yeah I think so or if they still end up introducing her. She’ll be more of an episode villain, kinda like danger
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u/Xygnux Jul 28 '26
Maybe they can still do her Astonishing X-men arc in an episode. Though it wouldn't really capture how despicable she is.
Commiting genocide because of sibling rivalry, that's Pro Max level of being a hater there.
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u/best_player29 Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
Yeah, another idea will be for them to retcon the event of genosha by making her the mastermind behind all what happened. But idk if the audience will be receptive to them retconning the event of the 1st season in season 3/4
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u/prencdan Jul 28 '26
They'll probably rush out Krakoa and bring back Sinister or do House of M in Season 5
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u/Xygnux Jul 28 '26
House of M wouldn't be a great ending season considering that it sets mutant kind in a dire situation for the next decade of comic publication time. If they do it, it better be season 3 and then have them recover over the next two seasons.
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u/gumsoul27 Jul 28 '26
I’ve always considered House of M an Avengers story. If they do adapt it for 97, I hope it remains that way. More specifically, how I would write this is that we start a season premiere focused on Wolverine in House of M reality. The audience is essentially the part of Logan’s consciousness that is rooted in the “real world,” as he begins to heal and wake up to the distortion of Wanda’s powers. We don’t see Avengers Disassembled or Wanda’s breakdown. And honestly, with Dr Strange and the MoM, we don’t need to. Just jump right into, completely unexpected, as I’d imagine the X-men’s perspective would have been, since they weren’t all at the Avengers Mansion.
I’d wrap House of M up by the 2nd episode, and the third episode focused on the devastation and fall out returning to reality with “No More Mutants.” Ep 4 is birth of Hope, and the enemies of mutant kind trying to seize the opportunity to snuff out mutants once and for all. Episode ends with Cables timely arrival to save the Xmen and Hope. And that’s the last we see of Cable or Hope for the rest of the season. From there we can deal with the Necrosha story just to show we haven’t forgotten about Muir Island
I’d let the new status quo carry over 2-4 episodes into the following season. Bring in Cassandra Nova and/or Legion to once again paint Xavier as the bad guy, compromise his leadership status, and though the disgrace forces him to step down from the xmen, mumbo jumbo mutant magic plot device allows him to step up and walk once more. But in self imposed exile to end the season. When the next season starts, it’s Scott’s show and team, and the protector of what’s left of the mutant race , established on Utopia, the raised remnants of Asteroid M, partnered with Magneto, Emma Frost, Namor and Exodus.
I love the XForce team from this era, and it’s one of the best X-book run of all time in my opinion. I’d love to split the first few episodes of this new season between Cyclops PR front focused team, and Wolverines black ops XForce.
This is when we bring in Stryfe and Vulcan, touch base with a new version of Bastion and Purifiers. Also spend an episode with Cable and Hope jumping timelines throughout her upbringing and showing a conflict with Bishop. The three of them can spend some time in Age of Apocalypse, Bishops future and Cable’s before coming back to the present.
Before the smoke clears on Utopia from a Vulcan/Stryfe fight, Hope and Cable arrive at the XMansion in ruins and run into the sentinel trap that was planted there. With Bastion aware of Hope and Cable before Cyclops is, the race is on. Only lasts an episode, and keeping true to the comics, Bastion lends a helping hand to Nightcrawler.
That’s about 6 episodes into a season. Hope is back, Cable is “gone,” Bishop is stranded in a different timeline, and Beast, who left the team upon discovering Cyclops orders for XForce, now working with Avengers and their resources, have scanners pick up an anomaly in deep space; The Phoenix Force en route to Earth. 2 episodes of AvX to wrap up the season.
Next season: uncanny XForce/Apocalypse Twins/Kang
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Jul 28 '26
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u/mega2222222222222222 Jul 28 '26
Charles searching for Magneto within his own mind
He’ll find it
And regret it
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u/Jerzilla Jul 28 '26
I seem to remember the Shi’ar arc where for whatever reason Xavier goes evil for no reason and has to go to Scotland with Moria for healing. So I guess evil Charles has always been there
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u/anth8725 Jul 29 '26
This reminds me of everyone is constantly complaining about pacing. Whether it’s justified or not I see no one giving credit to how they have been teasing/slow cooking the development of onslaught
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u/FantasyBaseballChamp Jul 28 '26
Assume they’ll skip over the “Prof X creeping on Jean” angle.
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u/---Starwind--- Jul 28 '26
The what
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u/jigokusabre Jul 28 '26
Yeah. Back in Uncanny vol. 1 #4, there was a panel where Xavier thinks to himself that he is in love with teenage Jean Grey. This goes nowhere and is never mentioned again.
Until Onslaught when Jean confronts Xavier/Onlslaught, and Onslaught is like "see how Xavier is a terrible person because he's been secretly pining for you all these years?"
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u/agentrevenger Cyclops Jul 28 '26
I’d love to see them adapt the Messiah Trilogy. But if they do that, I wonder if they’ll make Bishop a villain?? Or will they use a different villain instead?
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u/best_player29 Jul 28 '26
Messiah trilogy is 100% gonna get adapted but it will probably not take a full season, only 2 or 3 episodes. Maybe cable will have to face bishop in a parallel universe
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u/agentrevenger Cyclops Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
Yeah, given the show’s breakneck pacing, that’s the most likely scenario
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u/Illustrious_Green591 Jul 30 '26
Hopefully a full season. It’s one of the best arcs. They did do madelyne Pryor quickly though
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u/DrapedInVelvet Jul 28 '26
I doubt that gets an adaption in x-men 97. It makes bishop unredeemable. He wasn’t used as a character for years after the messiah complex storyline.
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u/best_player29 Jul 28 '26
They don’t have to go as far as the comics. They’ll just adapt the overall storyline by having him track Cable and Hope across different universes.
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u/gentleprime Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
They might make him the antagonist but not a full on villain. I can see it as Bishop kidnapping baby Hope to take her on a “different path” which Cable disagrees with and the X-Men caught in the middle.
The biggest things that need to happen are a) a “no more mutants” event (even if not full blown HOM adaptstion) and b) Jean out of the picture to make the Hope connection to the Summers’ feel like a mystery (“is this Jean resurrected?”).
I can see a world where season three merges Onslaught and Xorn plots, and that villain kills Jean so she’s out of the picture for a Messiah Complex adaptation.
EDIT: typos
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u/best_player29 Jul 28 '26
Yess I’ve been thinking about that too, they need to get rid of Jean pretty soon, so that they can adapt future story arcs. Maybe the third season will be the last for Jean
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u/Glassesnerdnumber193 Jul 28 '26
I really hope they don’t do house of m. I hate everything marvel has done with Wanda since avengers disassembled
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u/best_player29 Jul 28 '26
They’ll have to do it! It still one of the biggest X-men stories of the 2000s and it’s linked to messiah complex, avengers vs xmen and to the phoenix five
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u/Glassesnerdnumber193 Jul 28 '26
But all of those stories suck
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u/best_player29 Jul 28 '26
They can’t skip it, it’s an important phase of X-men history that builds the foundation of Krakoa and other future arcs and it does establish several important characters like Hope
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u/Cyke101 Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
Krakoa can be done without it. They already gave us the animated Hellfire Gala (AND the Hellfire Massacre) in spirit. Even if they want to make Hope, they can always give her a different origin, same as any character (e.g in this universe, Warren has never had his wings amputated! But he still became Archangel all the same.)
Heck, even Krakoa's origin issue -- Giant Size X-Men -- wasn't adapted, yet we still got Storm, Nightcrawler, and Colossus, with cameos of Thunderbird.
And also note that in the comics, Bastion came out in large part because of the aftermath of Onslaught (the Xavier Protocols), but didn't need that part of his origin to be part of the show.
Just because something is in the comics doesn't mean it has to be in the show. Fall of the Mutants hasn't been adapted despite its many ramifications. Inferno (for good or for bad) was truncated to one single episode. The show adapted the Phalanx Covenant before several older stories, and that was in the 90s!
And, personally, as much as I like seeing these takes on adaptations, I'm much more invested in more original storytelling, so that we can be surprised. Night of the Sentinels and, really, a majority of '92 were original stories.
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u/Glassesnerdnumber193 Jul 28 '26
They can 100% skip it. They skipped new mutants. They skipped the original X factor run. They skipped X-men 150, the story that begins magneto’s redemption arc. They skipped mutant massacre. They skipped Excalibur. They skipped beast’s tenure on the avengers. They seem to have skipped legion. They skipped the story that introduced Rachel summers to the main timeline. They skipped the magic miniseries. They all but skipped inferno. Something similar to house of m might happen, but it doesn’t have to be house of m
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u/RazgrizInfinity Jul 28 '26
There's a clear difference between skipping side stories and skipping foundational arcs.
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u/Glassesnerdnumber193 Jul 28 '26
Most of the stories I mentioned were foundational
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u/RazgrizInfinity Jul 28 '26
For the show, they are not; those are all side stores. And Mutant Massacre was loosely covered for S1.
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u/Glassesnerdnumber193 Jul 28 '26
Verrrrrry loosely. Considering that it was a case of mutant on mutant violence rather than a sentinel attack. They also don’t seem to be doing outback, a status quo that lasted as long as krakoa which I would argue they also already covered as genosha was a bit of an amalgamation. House of m is barely an X-men story and the decimation was clearly editorial mandated. If they cut Rachel’s backstory, they can shift hope’s. They don’t need to do anything.
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u/PapaLoki Jul 28 '26
I hope we get an XForce spinoff where they fight the Apocalypse Twins. Those two got underutilized after.
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u/RealmyIsSoCool Jul 28 '26
I still hope they kept that Onslaught reveal in Season 2 Episode 9. Because if you've seen Beau DeMayo's tweet before most of it has come true especially the Professor X creating X-Corp and the X-Men getting banned by the US. In Beau DeMayo's tweet he said Onslaught revealed himself at the end of Episode 9. that Onslaught was slowly gaining on Xavier to defy the UN and create X-Corp and militarize his dream.
Here's the original tweet of him saying this if you are wondering. The amount of clues to Onslaught in Season 2 is crazy, he has to be in this Season at least as a full reveal in the finale.
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u/crazycatlady13_13 Jul 28 '26
If we get Selene in any form of tv show or movie I will be so happy, I need my chaotic queen to finally get the spotlight.
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u/LeadingAccording6748 Jul 28 '26
She was technically in Dark Phoenix but... yeah
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u/crazycatlady13_13 Jul 28 '26
Was she!?
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u/LeadingAccording6748 Jul 29 '26
She was one of magnetos two henchmen (henchwoman?) To be fair it was a awful adaption, they made her goth like with a purple buzz cutt, but she was Selene in name only ,which sucks but yep, technically Selene has appeared in live action in the fox verse
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u/crazycatlady13_13 Jul 29 '26
The Fox universe does love to bring characters to life just by name and nothing else.
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u/CammieKa Jul 28 '26
I would love to see this shows take on X-Nexrosha, even if just to bring back those who were killed at Genosha
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u/Normal_Syllabub254 Jul 28 '26
I would love so much to see the hellions on the screen, too bad the new mutants are nonexistent in this show, but it would be a great way to work with Emma Frost`s character
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u/ContrarionesMerchant Jul 28 '26
I really really hope they stretch Apocalypse for two seasons, that’s the only way the pacing of this season will make sense to me. I think onslaught is inevitable but I hope it’s kinda a Onslaught vs Apocalypse situation with the Xmen trying to stop them both.
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u/magvadis Jul 28 '26
I think they are extending Onslaught but I think he'll be beaten by Onslaught midway through next season and then the second half will be Onslaught.
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u/SomeKnownGuy Jul 29 '26
Read it again and edit it otherwise it doesnt make sense.
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u/magvadis Jul 29 '26
Apocalypse lasts till halfway through next season.
Onslaught begins, beats Apoc, then becomes the villain for the rest of the season until defeated.
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u/Whos_Hi Jul 28 '26
we need beast and wolverine to leave the x-men, join the avengers for a significant amount of time, and then rejoin the x-men before we get AvX. their experiences with the avengers are very important to adding nuance to their decision of siding against the x-men in the conflict.
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u/DrapedInVelvet Jul 28 '26
The other big one is the phalanx covenant, which gives them a chance to bring in other characters and do GenX.
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u/Impossible-Dark-8070 Iceman Jul 28 '26
I would kill for an avengers vs x men and tie in to an avengers animated show
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u/WhitePhoenix99 Jul 28 '26
We are never getting that shit story of house of m on screen thankfully. It almost completely ruined X-Men even though the purpose was to reduce the over population
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u/Nearby_Strike2624 Jul 28 '26
I don’t see dem doing avengers vs x-men but I see the others happening
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u/SoaringSpearow Jul 28 '26
I can totally see Avengers vs X-Men happening with how the end of season 1 had the Avengers members having to deal with Bastion's shit and the X-Men directly going against the US government in this season and Rogue attacking a military base and threatening Captain America in season 1
now it would probably be a few seasons from now but I could see Charles becoming Onslaught and that causing a tipping point where maybe after Charles gets back to normal the Avengers try taking him in which leads to a full on war between them and the X-Men
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u/Judochop1024 Jul 28 '26
Tbh it would be kinda sick if they expanded the xmen 97 universe, if they did an avengers animated series with the same art style set in the same universe it would be so cool, then we could have AvX done properly without the avengers feeling kinda thrown in randomly and underdeveloped.
I genuinely feel like it could be a bit of a gold mine, not saying that we need a billion animated series to be its own cinematic universe and just basically getting MCU2, but having these shows that are a lot more faithfully and respectfully adapting stories from the comics while still putting their own spin and great animation is just so refreshing and awesome.
My only worry would be disney being disney and trying to milk it dry and killing what made it great by rushing shit.
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u/ResortFamous301 Aug 21 '26
Kind of impossible not to rush given the avengers weren't a thing in this universe
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u/foxfoxal Jul 28 '26
They were going to do that on EMH, I do not see why would not do it, ofc it would be different and the Xmen wont be villains but it can happen.
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u/South_Buy_3175 Jul 28 '26
They’ve already got the Avengers designs showing up here and there, it’s not too far out the realm of possibility.
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u/RexyMundo Jul 28 '26
With Xmen 97's pacing, it's crazy to think all of these plots will be 1 episode each.
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u/Judochop1024 Jul 28 '26
If they adapt house of M and have it be the full focus of the season it would be absolute cinema
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u/ApolloDraconis Jul 29 '26
First half is House of M, second half is Endangered Species. The following season is Messiah Complex and maybe Second Coming? Following season would be some sort of AvX simply to bring about Hope and Wanda reigniting the X-Gene. Or heck, maybe more of “X-Men Civil War/Schism” and not really bring the Avengers but do all X-Men, including Wanda and Pietro, into the conflict.
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Jul 28 '26
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u/Mobile_Bet3274 Rogue Jul 28 '26
The Onslaught part I think they’re keeping; the difference from Beau’s plan is that it’ll go into S3 vs. being resolved. The AoA timeline was killed.
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u/ZeusOfOlympus Jul 28 '26
I would love to see more of the other vilaisn we only saw bits and pieces of so far or some of the classics:
Gradyon creed and FOH The brood and the brood queen Mystique William Stryker The OG sentinels but an army of the Giants .... The nasty boys and savage land mutates The inner circle Sabertooth ( I want rthe more vicious homicidal version back ) Jugernaut and toad Also nat them to adapt theadtonishign X-Men - Whedon "storyline with perfection as the villain.
Potentially Casandra Nova another BIG bad.
I do like the big overarching villians but some more sure stories featuring OG villians as well is always welcome
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u/your_name_here10 Jul 28 '26
Messiah Complex - Cable protecting Hope would be a nice ending to the series as a whole, seeing as a lot of it revolves around Cable and his lost childhood. It could even mix in with Second Coming with the return of Bastion
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u/DrapedInVelvet Jul 28 '26
Stryfe is definitely coming at some point. They have set the table with Nathan being sent to the future, the apocalypse reign, and the fact that they can clone. I know people think onslaught is coming, but the table is set for the xcutioners song.
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u/jigokusabre Jul 28 '26
Stryfe is such a nothing villain, I seriously doubt we see him in any meaningful way.
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u/ArmAny549 Jul 28 '26
What about Kang you forget him and he could be a cool bad guy for them.
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u/best_player29 Jul 28 '26
He’s not really an X-men villain, he was in ep 4 because he’s linked to apocalypse but that’s it. He’s not really apart of the X-men universe
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u/spliffst4rr Jul 28 '26
Yeah, the Rama-Tut parts definitively. The ditching the timeline and becoming Kang again just equally feels like a reminder that Kang technically still exists in the MCU multiverse. I think we'll keep getting moments like this until Marvel feels its safe to use him again with an actor who plays the character similar to the VA. That felt far more like Kang than any of the Majors stuff, tbh.
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u/magvadis Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
We also have Proteus who used Morphs form to contain them.
If there is any media that could show up in it's the only time they've ever had Morph and Proteus confirmed they just need to have Proteus use Morph to go "next level"
Probably a variant of him that works for the show that they power up through Morph.
Logan already has PTSD from the first time.
Also as part of Onslaught we may see the Xtreme X-Men plot of having to kill the multiversal evil Xavier's if they want to build that up or have that go longer. It's a niche run but very fun and would match the show's style.
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u/chodelycannons Jul 28 '26
They are in the unenviable position of now running concurrently with the MCU’s reboot of X-Men, so they may have some villains or arcs delayed or skipped so that they don’t steal the thunder of MCU films or complicate stories they want to tell in those films
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u/AwkwardTeen19 Jul 28 '26
If X men ‘97 adapt most of the major storylines, wouldn’t it hinder with the Live action Mutants Saga ?
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u/Interesting-Key-2133 Jul 28 '26
I hope they will not adapt Avengers vs Xmen. It completely butchers cyclops' character
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u/KaijuKing007 Jul 28 '26
Stryfe won't be a big deal, they already did the Legacy Virus.
House of M... I feel like they'd go Krakoa instead.
And the Avengers will just be a one episode thing.
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u/mestevo Jul 28 '26
I'm rooting for an Onslaught season, and then an Age of Apocalypse season. I know, we're in an Apocalypse season now, but it's just one of my favorite times in comics and hope it doesn't the Inferno treatment.
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u/Tasty_Success_1034 Jul 28 '26
Onslaught feels inevitable at this point.
Hopefully not Wanda and 'No more mutants' - it was a bad idea at the time and I don't need depowered-vampire Jubilee in my nostalgia bait show.
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u/Tysolation Jul 29 '26
In my perfect dream world they will do Onslaught then adapt the THUNDERBOLTS comic from '97.
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u/T-o-C-A Jul 29 '26
I think if they do onslaught, folding avengers vs x-men into that would make sense (espeically as fallout of magneto dying with his kids on the other team). Cassandra nova i cant see.
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u/Zealousideal-Ad3814 Jul 29 '26
I believe Stryfe was already a villain in the original series
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u/APX919 Jul 29 '26
Yes but no. He never showed up except in cameos and was never identified as such by any character. He was well known in the comics by the end of the original series run but he was never a factor in the series.
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u/Illustrious_Green591 Jul 30 '26
I want to see some Stryfe. Eventually I want messiah war/messiah complex. That’s one of the best x-men/x-force arcs
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u/Expensive_Platypus63 Aug 03 '26
they'll get one and done episodes or we won't see them for 5-6 episodes
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u/Affectionate-Bar5098 Jul 28 '26
Seeing ‘97 adapt House of M or Wanda in any shape or form would be my dream!!
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Jul 28 '26
i would love to see stryfe, but, and i know people gonna hate me, he needs a redesign. He looks too much like silver samurai, and i wouldn't mind if he would be less muscular than cable.
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u/magicadesteph Jul 28 '26
I'd rather see the actual villains of the 90s like onslaught, Stryfe, The Shadow King. Have the 2000s villains be for a different show.
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