News X-Men 97 Every X-Men ’97 Season 2 Trailer Easter Egg: “The Twelve,” Deadpool, and So Many Outfits Emma Frost, Apocalypse, Jubilee goes anime… what else do we have to say? By Chris Lough | Published on May 27, 2026 Screenshot: Disney+ Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: Disney+ Have you been obsessively watching the recently released X-Men ’97 Season 2 trailer trying to find every Easter egg? Have you frozen every frame and cross-referenced it with every fan wiki page? Have you contacted your local dark magic practitioner and asked them to divine the answers with help from a mysterious deity? Until now, that was the only way to get Easter eggs from a trailer. But now, there is a better way. Here’s a breakdown of (nearly) every Easter egg in the new preview: 00:00 – We begin with Bishop, Nightcrawler, Rogue, and Beast in the smoking ruin of what seems to be the hollowed-out head of Krakoa, the living island. The most recent run of X-Men comics just concluded its “Krakoan Age,” where mutantkind as a whole lived on Krakoa and established itself as a sovereign nation and unified culture. This culture even included a place for monsters like Apocalypse, the overarching villain of X-Men ‘97 Season 2. What this scene could be telling us is…ominous. Perhaps this is an ideal future for mutantkind that Apocalypse has laid waste to? Perhaps this is a dive through Apocalypse’s history, which at one point included an epic struggle against demons that resulted in the inadvertent creation of Krakoa? Hopefully this doesn’t preclude the Krakoan Age storyline coming to the animated series at some point, as it is considered a high point of the 60+ year run of the X-Men books. 0:05 – A faceless X-Man is handing Rogue evidence that Gambit is alive. Who is it? 0:30 – Charles Xavier is somehow mind-hopping through Apocalypse’s history here. The imposing blue mutant overlord goes through long periods of sleep/regeneration throughout his millennia-long life, so it may be that Charles and Magneto and company have traveled to a place and time where the big A is sleeping, allowing Charles to gather information on Apocalypse. (And, knowing how Xavier’s good intentions often go south…possibly waking Apocalypse up and starting this whole thing in the first place.) 0:32 – Jean and Cyclops are in the future, where Apocalypse reigns supreme over a truly disturbing field of corpses. With them appears to be a young Nathan Summers, meaning we’re probably getting a version of the classic 1994 Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix mini-series where Jean and Scott’s minds travel forward in time into the bodies of surrogate parents that end up raising the time-displaced Nathan. Scott and Jean seem to be present in the flesh here, since Scott’s visor is necessary. For some reason, they’re also wearing their costumes from their brief time as X-Factor! Screenshot: Disney+ 0:40 – “I must strike them at their most vulnerable…the 1990s.” is just an absolute meme sandwich. It’s so filling, I cannot possibly eat another bite. Seriously, though, one of the aspects that made X-Men ‘97 so unexpectedly incredible in its first season is that it completely owned the full blast soap opera aspect of the comics. Maximum drama always. So it’s great to get confirmation here that the second season is still running up those walls like an over-sugared ferret. 0:43 – A young punk Lorna Dane/Polaris wanders through her old room and we see photos of her and a gay-but-masking-because-it-was-the-’90s Iceman in happier times. There’s also one of Lorna with Storm and Jean, and one of her with the original X-Men. Lorna and Scott’s brother Alex a.k.a. Havok did briefly join the original X-Men way back in the 1960s, so why is Havok conspicuously absent here? Oddly, it feels like this is a young Lorna looking at her older self? If so…why? (Also, why is Lorna’s old surge protector so huge look at that thing. And it’s not a perspective trick because it’s still gigantic in the next close-up shot. I will never let this go.) 0:49 – Morph has picked up a Wolverine who is now all better from the bone-ripping events of the previous season. Will we get an episode that focuses on remedying that situation, or will this be largely offscreen like it was in the comics? (More on THAT below.) 0:51 – Jean makes some telekinetic Wolverine claws so that Scott can do something. But who cares about Scott. This is rad. This is also notable because Scott and Jean are now in their yellow leather jackets from the 2000s Grant Morrison New X-Men run. (Jean’s hair is also longer.) They have so many outfits in this trailer, you guys. Overall, it seems clear that the X-Men now wear the 2000s-era uniform following the traumatic events of season 1. 0:53 – I am VERY into Sunspot and Jubilee giving the power of god and anime here. Pairing these two was such a smart move on the part of the show. Screenshot: Disney+ 1:05 – We’ve moved into a new part of Nathan Summers’ story here, as Storm and a hooded member of the Askani Clan (possibly Rachel Summers!) prompt him to put his techno-organic hand into that l’il magic ring. In the comics, Nathan is central to a prophecy detailing Apocalypse’s downfall, and this seems like it’s a “you are ready” kind of moment in that journey. Storm is generally popping all over the place in this trailer. There’s a lot the show has yet to reveal about her story. 1:13 – As Cable/Nathan intones “You fight a battle that cannot be won.” we revisit the Sentinel attack on Genosha from last season’s shocking episode “Remember It”. Considering the absolute devastation left in the wake of that attack (and the fact that Cable seemed surprised he had time traveled there and scooted out of there as fast as he could), one wonders if time travel shenanigans will be employed to hit the reset button on that event. 1:13 – Our first glimpse of Colossus, holding a dead Illyana/Magik following the Genosha attack. 1:13-1:15 – A rapid-fire montage of other characters we’ll be seeing, including Exodus and Cerebra. The latter is Xavier’s mutant-finding machine put into a Sentinel body. Perhaps she is a kind of kill switch left behind by Bastion from the previous season. Alternately, she could just as easily be a construct of Apocalypse. It’s also possible that Exodus and Cerebra are actually two of the four Horsemen of Apocalypse. It would be in character for Apocalypse to pervert Xavier’s mutant-locating machine into his own servant. 1:20 – Here’s an interesting shot. Rogue, Beast, and Nightcrawler visit a memorial to those killed in Genosha, but who is the huge dude in the middle with the epic shoulder pads? Apocalypse? But…not trying to kill everyone? In the next shot we see a close-up of Rogue’s face at the memorial, and the person behind her is wearing the 2000s era X-Men uniform and has two lines coming down from the side of their bluish-grey mouth. It could be Apocalypse but that seems odd. Xorn, perhaps?  1:24 – WHO IS MAKING JUBILEE CRY. WHO IS MAKING JUBILEE CRY IN SPACE. 1:26 – THE BIG REVEAL: An etching showing some of the X-Men (plus Magneto and a mystery figure on the left) looking up at an ascendant figure. This makes me think we’re getting a partial adaptation of “The Twelve” storyline from the early 2000s X-Men books. It gets overshadowed because Morrison’s legendary run came RIGHT after it, but “The Twelve” was one of the more interesting storylines that the X-Men books attempted, as it successfully woven together a bunch of the more esoteric plot threads in the series into an epic more substantial than its parts. Screenshot: Disney+ It went like this: Someone is hunting and capturing various mutants with specific powers. Surprise! It’s a weakened Apocalypse! Cable is tasked by the Askani Clan to derail this plan and this, in fact, turns out to be the entire purpose of his training as a youth. There are twelve captured mutants in total and “the twelve” basically turn out to be an Infinity Gauntlet-type situation, where a mutant with the ability to absorb other mutants’ powers (like, um, Apocalypse) could become all-powerful by combining the abilities of all twelve individual mutants. Amongst those twelve in the comic storyline are: Magneto, Xavier, Storm, Cyclops, Jean, Cable, and Bishop, as well as Iceman, Polaris, and Sunfire. Polaris makes her debut in this trailer, and Sunspot’s powers could easily be subbed in for Sunfire’s. So it really seems like we’re getting X-Men: Infinity War this season, is what I’m saying. (A little fun additional fact: In the comics Wolverine gets his adamantium back because, off-screen, Apocalypse brainwashes him into being one of his Horsemen but wants Wolverine-With-Metal-Claws like we all want. This seems relevant!) 1:27 – Here we see Polaris and Bishop having fun with a T-Rex in either the Savage Land or the distant past. They’re both wearing the 2000s-era uniforms, and there appears to be a GIANT version of the uniform draped across a fallen tree in front of them. Do we know any…really big? X-Men? 1:29 – Morph changes into Deadpool to take on a Brood. No shade on hard-working voice actors who deserve better recognition and pay, but a small Ryan Reynolds voice cameo would be really funny and appropriate in this show. 1:30 – Psylocke! Archangel! We sure seem to be seeing all the original X-Men except for Iceman and Havok! 1:31 – It’s going to take a lot of effort to explain this shot to my therapist. Screenshot: Disney+ 1:35 – I’ve been wondering when the massively popular Emma Frost was going to show up.  1:38 – Don’t blink! Lots of cameos from the old Generation X comic in this shot, including Synch, Chamber, Penance/M/Monet, and possibly Banshee on the gurney in the back. Very interesting cameo from Quentin Quire on the left there, sporting a “Magneto Was Right” t-shirt. A shirtless Bishop is also in the foreground to the left, visible when the shot zooms out. (Also, Synch seems to be duplicating Lorna’s magnetic powers to make Banshee’s gurney hover and it’s just…get some wheels??? Mutant teens dunno how to do shit, I swear.) 1:39 – I feel like Nightcrawler tricked Exodus into sword-fighting here and I am all for it. 1:43 – HERO SHOT! Looks like we’ve got Beast, Morph, Cyclops, Storm, Archangel, Jean, Wolverine, Forge, Cable, Jubilee, Psylocke, and Sunspot. Screenshot: Disney+ Xavier, Magneto, and Rogue are conspicuously missing from this line-up. Considering that we don’t really see them past their jaunt to Apocalypse’s temple, and that Rogue can potentially absorb and combine mutant powers permanently, it feels very likely that she is the key to Apocalypse’s plans to become an all-powerful being. (In the comics, Apocalypse’s plan is to basically inhabit/take over the body of a mutant who can combine powers like Rogue can.) In fact, that might be the very reason that Apocalypse revives Gambit into being one of his Horsemen, so that Rogue can be lured in and betrayed by him. Even crazier, Apocalypse’s plan might work perfectly, meaning that the only way to stop him would be to go back in time and make sure the destruction of Genosha never happens, so that Gambit is never killed and used by Apocalypse. UGH. So dramatic. I cannot wait for this season to start. July 1st, everybody. [end-mark] The post Every <i>X-Men ’97</i> Season 2 Trailer Easter Egg: “The Twelve,” Deadpool, and So Many Outfits appeared first on Reactor.