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Just a few days out from the release of the hotly anticipated second season of X-Men ’97, we’re still learning about new things to expect in the upcoming 9-episode series. Building on the success of the masterpiece first season revival, X-Men ’97 Season 2’s first half is great, but Marvel Animation kept back the rest of the season from the press to avoid too many spoilers. Since then, fans have found out that there’s an episode about Wolverine’s origin story (thanks to the announcement of the episode titles revealing one called “Weapon X, Lies, and DVDs”, and the expected return of Gambit (episode 8, “The Dead Man’s Hand”). And now, the final launch teaser has revealed another major detail.
Hidden in the critics’ hype trailer – which includes a major nod to ’s 4-star review – is a sequence showing Wolverine (complete with restored adamantium claws, no less) slicing through alien villains and spilling lurid green blood. Marvel fans will recognize the Xenomorph-like aliens as The Brood, the terrifying, savage race of parasitic insectoid predators intent on total dominion and the aggressive spread of their species. The trailer is the first confirmation that the aliens are back, after they appeared in the X-Men ’92 comics continuation. Here’s the trailer:
In one week, see why critics are saying #XMen97 Season 2 is “absolutely worth the wait.”
Marvel Animation’s #XMen97 Season 2 streams July 1, only on Disney+. pic.twitter.com/1UzrtQbe0A
— Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios) June 24, 2026
The Brood’s X-Men ’97 Appearance Fixes a 30-Year-Old Problem
In the original X-Men: The Animated Series, the Brood appeared so fleetingly that it’s easy to completely forget it ever happened. They appeared in Season 2 episode “Mojovision”, which also featured Skrulls and The Punisher, and saw the X-Men fight the aliens in the supervillain’s virtual reality nightmare. That was no more than a barely glorified cameo, as close to blink-and-you ‘ll-miss-it as you’ll ever get. But there was an even better opportunity for them to return, in Season 3, when “Love in Vain” called for an alien race to hunt the X-Men to use their bodies as super-powered hosts for their young. Only, for some reason, the show chose to invent a completely separate alien race, the Colony, who copied the Brood’s powers and motivation, but looked more like humanoid aliens. This was apparently to help animators avoid the complexity of the original design. Here’s what they settled on…
Now, though, X-Men ’97 can give us the real version of the Brood, and hopefully in a more substantial appearance than their appearance in “Mojovision”. If I were a gambling man, I’d say this would come after the Weapon X episode, given Wolverine has his adamantium claws again, which can surely only come from returning to where he got them in the first place. Could the Brood be used as part of “Danger.EXE”, which is said to be an episode about the X-Men’s Danger Room becoming sentient (perhaps due to Mojo again)? That would be unfortunate, because the villains deserve to be center stage in their own storyline. That might be a little complex with so many concurrent storylines and the presence of Apocalypse as the overarching bad guy.
But it there’s any justice, that’s how it will play out. Unlike other, more complex Marvel villains, the original iteration of the Brood is relentless, remorseless killing machines that actually revel in the pain they inflict. They’re basically giant, sadistic cockroaches with a far worse bite. I’ve waited 30 years to see them on screen properly, and never felt a live-action appearance was particularly likely, so hopefully X-Men ’97 Season 2 can deliver on the promise when the show returns with a 3-episode premiere on Disney+ on July 1.
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X-Men ’97: Every Avenger & Marvel Superhero Confirmed to Exist Ahead of Season 2
