Disney+'s Best Marvel Show Officially Returns In 2027

Marvel is bringing back its best Disney+ show with a new season in 2027, and it should be one of the most exciting releases in the franchise in years. The MCU's slate of projects got a major boost with the creation of Disney+. Before it, most of the interconnected shows in the franchise came through Netflix's The Defenders Saga, which is making a comeback.

That said, Daredevil: Born Again, The Punisher: One Last Kill, and other possible street-level MCU shows and Special Presentations that come to pass only exist due to the Marvel Studios TV shows on Disney+ that paved the way for them. After the streaming service was created, Marvel turned to either spotlighting supporting characters whose roles in the franchise had to grow, or debuting exciting new heroes.

While the MCU is the main focus of the Disney+ Marvel series, the studio still keeps an eye on opportunities to tell stories with major Marvel characters in standalone universes. One such project is the animated Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, which will return with season 2 later this year. Another option is the best Marvel series on Disney+.

That would be X-Men '97. Sure, the MCU has had some truly excellent TV shows, which include the time-hopping Loki and the reality-altering WandaVision. However, X-Men '97 stands in a league of its own, as it takes one of the most popular Marvel teams ever and shows that the studio knows exactly how to right by the mutants after the Fox movies failed many of them. The show returns in 2027.

X-Men '97 Is Addressing Streaming's Biggest Problem

In the age of streaming, viewers have gotten used to TV shows taking multi-year leaves of absence between seasons, but that has not made it any easier. Instead, that has become the main criticism surrounding streaming services. X-Men '97 seasons 1 and 2 ended up playing right in to that issue. The animated Marvel series first came to Disney+ on March 20, 2024, with X-Men '97 season 2 only dropping its first episode on the streaming service on July 1, 2026. As such, after an excellent first Marvel Studios exploration of the X-Men, fans had to wait over two years.

Many view that as unacceptable, no matter how good X-Men '97 season 2 turned out to be — the animated Marvel series' new season holds a rare perfect 100% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes. Timed to the release of the X-Men '97 season 2 finale, Collider spoke to Marvel Studios' Head of TV and Streaming, Brad Winderbaum, and got confirmation of when X-Men '97 season 3 would be released. According to Winderbaum, fans will be freed from another long wait, as season 3 will come in 2027, with the already confirmed season 4 set to be released in 2028.

Why X-Men '97's Annual Releases Are Perfect For The Marvel Series

As confirmed by Winderbaum, new seasons of X-Men '97 will be released annually. That is the best path forward for the animated series, with the executive also claiming that he wants to make as many seasons as he can and get them out as fast as possible to make X-Men '97 a staple of Marvel fans' lives in the same way that X-Men: The Animated Series was for Winderbaum growing up. With the MCU's X-Men movie reboot on the horizon, getting new seasons of X-Men '97 out annually will help get as many fans as possible up to speed on whom the mutants are.

Additionally, in terms of X-Men '97 itself, the best course of action is to avoid multi-year gaps. For instance, Gambit's death and subsequent return to life were separated by two years. With how many impactful cliffhangers this show puts out, annual seasons of X-Men '97 to solve them and keep the animated series moving in exciting new directions is what works best for the best Marvel show on Disney+.