X-Men '97 Officially Returns Early In Surprise New Release

Published Sep 17, 2026, 7:03 AM EDT

Nicholas Becher is a gaming journalist with an MFA in Creative Writing from FAU. With extensive experience playing video games, he covers all forms of gaming content at Screen Rant, from breaking news to the latest fan theories. Most-played games range from Clair Obscur to Civ to Elden Ring to Halo 2 and beyond. 

X-Men '97 has become a phenomenon over the past two years since its debut, successfully reviving the beloved 1990s animated series while introducing Marvel's mutants to an entirely new generation of viewers. The first season premiered in March 2024 and quickly earned widespread acclaim for capturing the spirit of X-Men: The Animated Series without simply relying on nostalgia.

'97's success is largely owed to the show's darker storytelling and willingness to tackle major storylines from the comics. Season 2 finally arrived in July 2026, picking up after the first season's dramatic finale scattered members of the team across history. It also expanded the scope considerably, diving deeper into Apocalypse and several other corners of X-Men lore while continuing the character-driven storytelling that made the first season successful.

With two acclaimed seasons already out, fans are waiting with bated breath for an official announcement for Season 3's release, which will reportedly arrive much faster than Season 2 did. That said, X-Men '97 is officially returning early with a surprise release that will be available in the coming weeks (via Reddit).

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Thanks to new images posted on social media, fans of X-Men '97 will be able to download an official 97-themed skin in Insomniac's new action game, Marvel's Wolverine, which just launched earlier this week. The suit appears to be designed as a '97-style replica, copying the exact style from the show and from The Animated Series to give players a unique hybrid variant that taps directly into nostalgia as well as the X-Men '97 hype.

Officially titled Animated Suit and Claws in-game, players will need to complete the "Way Down Low" mission, and it will cost them 200 materials to unlock both items. You cannot equip the claws without the suit, and you won't be able to make any alterations to the claws, unlike some of the other suits in Marvel's Wolverine. Here's a look at the suit design:

Courtesy IGN

Marvel's Wolverine has seen a rather underwhelming release in terms of critical reception, relatively speaking for a AAA game from a massive studio like Insomniac at least. The game currently sits around a 77 on Metacritic, making it Insomniac's lowest-rated original release in roughly a decade and putting it noticeably below the studio's acclaimed Spider-Man games.

Much of the criticism has centered on Wolverine feeling overly safe and restrictive, with ScreenRant's own review by Austin King noting the combat was "exhausting and repetitive hack-and-slash ... with very little in between." Reviewers have pointed toward repetitive combat, extremely linear levels, an abundance of waypoints, and other "hand-holding" elements that rarely leave players to figure things out themselves.

Many of those navigation and tutorial assists can be disabled, but one particularly controversial example involves the game's QTEs. Wolverine officially includes no-fail QTEs that more or less defeat the purpose of the mechanic in the first place, and have been criticized heavily since launch.

Players, however, appear considerably happier with the finished product. Shortly after launch, Wolverine was sitting around 4.8/5 on the PlayStation Store from thousands of verified purchasers, creating a substantial gap between professional reviews and early audience reception. For plenty of players, the brutal combat, cinematics, and unique story seem to be delivering exactly the Wolverine experience they wanted.

That said, if you're interested in trying Marvel's Wolverine out for yourself and acquiring the X-Men '97 skin to play through on nostalgia mode for The Animated Series, it's available now for PlayStation 5.

X-Men '97

8/10