In the X-Men '97 season 1 finale, the team was thrown backwards (and forwards) in time. In 3000 B.C., we watched as Professor X, Magneto, Beast, Rogue and Nightcrawler encountered a young En Sabah Nur, a.k.a. Apocalypse.
Meanwhile, in 3060 A.D., Cyclops and Jean Grey crossed paths with a younger version of their son, Cable. As for Wolverine, Morph, Jubilee, and Storm, they're currently unaccounted for (though it's been confirmed they're not in the present and are scattered across one or both timelines).
Talking to IGN (via Toonado.com), supervising director Jake Castorena teased plans for Apocalypse in X-Men '97 season 2, explaining why the decision was made to put the spotlight back on the iconic villain.
"With the X-Men, for better or for worse, all roads usually end up leading to Apocalypse, right? It's either Apocalypse, Sinister, or Magneto," he says. "What I will say is we do things on purpose. Everything is meticulously done for a reason."
"For those looking to see where Apocalypse goes with the tattered card in his hand, just have to watch Season 2 to find out. But I guarantee you we wouldn't plant stuff if it wasn't going to go on."
That's a nod to the fact we saw the present-day Apocalypse recover one of Gambit's playing cards from the ruins of Genosha. Just like in the comics, it seems the plan now is for Remy LeBeau to "live" again as one of the villain's Four Horsemen: Death.
Addressing the significance of introducing the younger version of En Sabah Nur, director Chase Conley adds, "It is not a deconstruction per se, but it is nice to kind of see the steps of how a character becomes someone like Apocalypse, and so just hinting and setting that up I think is something that I would personally want to see."
"Even if I wasn't working on the show, I'd love to learn more about En Sabah Nur and just the way that he navigates the world given his immense power and what corrupts him."
Of course, it wasn't just the finale which featured a huge surprise because X-Men '97's penultimate episode saw Magneto tear the Adamantium from Wolverine's skeleton. Comic book fans will know that had a huge impact on the mutant and, moving forward, Conley promises we'll see a lot more of Logan after he was largely sidelined in season 1.
"As you can see in Episode 9, we teed up a lot as far as a pivotal stage in Wolverine's history as far as comic runs go," he teases. "So we'll get a chance to really explore more of Logan and his own personal kind of rogues gallery coming up."
Finally, Marvel Animation head Brad Winderbaum offered an update on X-Men '97 season 2 and exactly how far along in the production process it is.
"We're about, I would say, halfway through," he confirms. "We're still in animatic phase where a lot of narrative changes can still be made. We're about halfway done with [voiceover] recording. The storyline is really fun. I don't want to say too much, but I think it delivers on the promise of the second season."
Based on these remarks, we'd expect X-Men '97 to return to Disney+ next year. Next up is What If...? season 3 and, beyond that, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and Marvel Zombies are also on the horizon.