X-Men ’97’s Season 4 Confirms A Major Marvel Change

Published May 30, 2026, 8:30 AM EDT

Now, the latest update about X-Men '97 season 4 makes this prospect seem even more cemented. With it, one side of Marvel's overarching approach to its on-screen releases looks to be locked in - and armed to help transform the franchise's show offerings going forward - even if there's still quite some time left before we will get to see the fourth season of the animated superhero series on our screens.

X-Men '97 Season 4's Production Update Cements Marvel's New Approach With TV Shows

The latest updates about X-Men '97 season 4 confirm that this chapter of the show is already being worked on, as series producer and writer Eric Lewald stated in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that: "They want everyone to know it's only gonna be a year now between seasons, not two-and-a-quarter years... It's gonna be a year until the next one and a year until the next one [after that]... we are in season 4 giving script notes. So that's how deep they are into the development."

This is promising not only in that it shows X-Men '97 is getting a fair production period despite the hopes for shorter turnarounds for the seasons, but also because it further cements that the intention is to allow Marvel shows to get a longer overall run so long as they resonate with audiences.

Given Marvel had a long track record of running shows for only one or at an absolute maximum two seasons in recent history, the progress on giving X-Men '97 a far longer run is certainly promising, and suggests the franchise can mirror the kind of success it previously had with more long-term shows in its next era thanks to releases like X-Men '97 and Daredevil: Born Again, which is moving into its third season with no sign of slowing down in sight.

Why The Marvel Show Change Could Be Exactly What The Franchise Needs

When the MCU began releasing fully canon TV shows, it made a lot of sense for them to run for brief amounts of time. Series like WandaVision best suited a more self-contained length, and running only one or two seasons of a show ensured that the MCU could release a wider range of projects over a short span of time, allowing the franchise to test what suited it best when it came to this format.

However, following several years of most Marvel shows taking this approach, it makes far more sense for series to delve into a longer-term run, particularly since the drought of releases that have been able to go in this direction means audiences are more hungry for this style of show than ever before.

X-Men '97 is a particularly perfect example of the potential that longer Marvel shows have for the franchise. Since the X-Men have gotten less time on the big or small screen in the past few years, but have clear and extensive appeal to a wide audience - and a truly broad assortment of stories to adapt onto the small-screen - giving them a more expansive show skeleton to work with seems sure to pay off in the long run, and help Marvel look at crafting more similar series going forward.