Marvel Studios Seemingly Kills Off A Founding X-Men Member

2 weeks ago 21

Famke Janssen and Halle Berry in X-Men 2

Published May 30, 2026, 8:01 PM EDT

Ben Sherlock is a Tomatometer-approved film and TV critic who runs the massively underrated YouTube channel I Got Touched at the Cinema. Before working at Screen Rant, Ben wrote for Game Rant, Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop. He's also an indie filmmaker, a standup comedian, and an alumnus of the School of Rock.

X-Men ’97 is set to premiere its second season on Disney+ on July 1, and Marvel Studios is ramping up the marketing campaign to drum up excitement. Marvel recently dropped the first trailer for X-Men ’97, and it’s pretty much just a compilation of clips and images designed to generate hype, whether it’s Wolverine in his gorgeous yellow-and-brown suit or Morph taking the form of Deadpool, and it teased a larger story arc ripped from one of the greatest plotlines from the comics.

But honestly, there’s not much that X-Men ’97 has to do to get audiences excited about this sophomore season. X-Men ’97 satisfied as a nostalgic continuation of the classic animated series, but, going further than that, it was just one of the greatest superhero cartoons ever made in its own right. It deftly recaptured the original show’s blend of soapy interpersonal melodrama and dazzling superhero spectacle to create an unparalleled visual experience that’s exhilaratingly entertaining and emotionally engaging in equal measure.

So, all Marvel has to do to get viewers to tune in for season 2 is tell them when and where they can watch it. The only thing that worries me is that season 1 set the bar so incredibly high, it’ll be nearly impossible for season 2 to live up to it. That trailer is a very promising sign, and I can’t wait to see how the season unfolds, but a couple of discomforting shots from that trailer seem to suggest that a founding member of the X-Men has been killed off-screen.

Was Iceman Killed Off-Screen In X-Men '97?

Polaris looks at a picture of Iceman in X-Men 97

The trailer for X-Men ’97 season 2 might be hiding a major twist in plain sight. The editing of the trailer does a good job of teasing a lot of exciting things without spoiling too much. It cuts through lots of striking images and thrilling action beats at such a rapid pace, it’s impossible to comprehend exactly what you’re seeing — just that it all looks awesome. But if you pay close attention, the trailer has a couple of glaring hints that Iceman — one of the founding members of the X-Men — has been killed off-screen.

There’s a candle next to the picture of Iceman that Polaris is looking at, which seems like it could be a sort of memorial or vigil honoring a fallen hero. And that’s not all; you can also see the portrait of an all-white character in the Genosha memorial. It’s too unclear to make out if it’s supposed to be Iceman, but it could easily be him. Will season 2 retroactively kill off Iceman and reveal that he was one of the many mutants lost in Genosha? While he is an O.G. X-Man in this universe, just as he is in the comics, he never had too big a role in the original animated series.

The genocide on Genosha was one of the most unforgettable moments from X-Men ’97’s first season. Thousands of mutants were wiped out en masse. Having a major character like Iceman get wiped away as one of those thousands would really hammer home how devastating this tragedy was. Bobby is just one of thousands, and every single one of them is a human being just like him. Making Iceman an off-screen casualty would have a similar effect to the girl in the red coat in Schindler’s List, highlighting the humanity of everyone by highlighting the humanity of just one of them.