In 2026, Marvel and Mattel both released projects designed to help people with the love of bright heroes from their childhood. Masters of the Universe put a live-action He-Man on the big screen, as well as a second season X-Men ’97 is about to throw some of Charles Xavier’s mutants into a grim future. Both projects are clearly made by source material enthusiasts, and are similarly filled with nasty Easter eggs meant to please die-hard fans. X-Men ’97 again Masters of the Universe both games of nostalgia, but the main difference between the two – and the reason why one of them has not been so successful – is the work that has kept their different characters and the world alive in the consciousness of pop culture.
In its second season, X-Men ’97 splits its group of mutant heroes into multiple factions that find themselves trapped in very different places in history. While one group ends up in ancient Egypt, the other is transported thousands of years into the future. Even though both teams want to go back to the ’90s, they’re desperate for a way to stop the immortal villain Apocalypse (Ross Marquand) from destroying the world. And because Apocalypse is alive in both times, the two teams of X-Men agree that it’s worth spending some time where they are.
Rather than adapting a single storyline from the Marvel comics, the new season of X-Men ’97 includes narrative elements from a limited number of different series – chief among them The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix from 1994 and 1996 Rise of the Apocalypse. Using bits from those particular comics to expand its story makes some sense given the ’90s. But what’s more surprising is the number of recent X-Men comics the show has played to introduce the world to its core characters.
While X-Men ’97 is a continuation of X-Men: The Animated SeriesMarvel has made it feel fresh by revamping the established roster in significant ways. Taking that approach is part of what made the series such a great ratings hit when it premiered in 2024, but fans’ longtime love and familiarity with the X-Men were also important factors in the equation.
One of the main reasons why fans are foaming at the mouth when they just found out X-Men projects like ’97 and the upcoming X-Men MCU movie that Marvel has never let this property die in the background. Or 20th Century Studios’ X-Men features were often terrible, there were always enough X-Men comics and TV series in the mix to give fans hope that the studio would eventually come up with something great. And if Marvel spends less time cultivating the X-Men genre, the franchise may find itself moving in Mattel’s direction. Masters of the Universe at the moment.
There was a new series inspired by the original Masters of the Universe cartoon. But overall, He-Man’s pop culture prominence has waned over the years since Prince Adam and his friends explained the lessons of their adventures on television every weekday from 1983 to 1985. This is probably part of why Mattel’s new. Masters of the Universe The film is not doing well at the box office since its release last week. To date, the film has grossed $54.4 million against a production budget of $200 million, making it a blockbuster.
Masters of the Universe it has become an example of Hollywood’s tendency to learn the wrong lessons from its past successes. People flocked to the theaters to see Barbie because it was a funny, misogynistic throwback to the ever-present icon, but Mattel interpreted that as a sign that viewers were hungry for stories about toys in general. Masters of the Universe attempts to make a serious critical examination of toxic masculinity, but that’s not enough to convince the audience to care about He-Man. Outside of die-hard fans, most people just aren’t that invested or emotionally connected to He-Man’s world, and Mattel hasn’t done enough to convince audiences that there’s anything interesting about this latest film.
If He-Man were a part of many people’s imaginations the way the X-Men are, the conversation around it Masters of the Universe they may be very different. Mattel would do well to internalize this as a key lesson, but there have yet to be signs of that being the case. In the middle X-Men ’97‘s second season as well Avengers: DoomsdayMarvel is entering a year of big stories that put the mutants front and center. And it’s the moment the studio has been building towards for years.
The second season of X-Men ’97 hits Disney Plus on July 1, too Masters of the Universe it’s in theaters now.
