The present wasn’t known as “Wolverine and the X-Males” simply because that is how most informal followers consider the group. It additionally made Logan into the central character and group’s chief (although it was conscious what a bizarre selection that was).
Within the sequence’ three-part premiere “Hindsight,” Xavier’s College is attacked and each Professor X (Jim Ward) and Jean Gray (Jennifer Hale) vanish. The X-Males disband, however a 12 months later, issues are worse than ever for mutants. Wolverine (Steve Blum) decides the world wants the X-Males once more, so he and Beast (Fred Tatasciore) progressively reassemble the group: Cyclops (Nolan North), Iceman (Yuri Lowenthal), Shadowcat (Danielle Judovits), Storm (Susan Dalian), Nightcrawler (Liam O’Brien), Rogue (Kieren van den Blink), Forge (Roger Craig Smith), and newcomer Emma Frost (Kari Wahlgren).
Jean stays MIA for a lot of the present, however the X-Males discover a comatose Xavier on the finish of “Hindsight.” He telepathically contacts them from a darkish future, the place the Earth is a wasteland and mutants are hunted by robotic Sentinels. That is, in fact, based mostly on Chris Claremont and John Byrne’s well-known “Days of Future Previous” comedian, which was “Terminator” earlier than “The Terminator.” The remainder of the season cuts forwards and backwards between current and future; Xavier’s future X-Males battle towards the Sentinels whereas Wolverine and co. attempt to cease that future from ever taking place.
With Xavier out of motion and Cyclops extra centered on Jean, Logan has to carry the group collectively. Sequence’ co-developer Greg Johnson stated in 2023 that, removed from the premise being simply an excuse to highlight Wolverine, it shook up the same old X-Males group dynamics in compelling methods:
“To me, placing an individual in cost who ought to by no means be put in cost was an important place to start out. The interpersonal conflicts that arose as a result of a loner like Wolverine was unwillingly put in a management position supplied for some dynamic storytelling. So long as I used to be true to Wolverine’s character, the outcomes felt real. In the end, these vigilant followers did come aboard and loved the sequence.”
Blum’s efficiency as Wolverine helps promote this too. You possibly can really feel Logan holding in his anger, making an attempt (and never all the time succeeding) to be the sort of chief he admires Charles Xavier for being.
Within the season finale “Foresight,” the X-Males cease a human-mutant battle from breaking out. They contact base with the long run Xavier, who confirms they’ve succeeded: The Days of Future Previous won’t ever come to be. However all shouldn’t be proper; now, Apocalypse will rule the world as an alternative. The X-Males have traded a future the place mutants are hunted for one the place they’ve change into the oppressors as an alternative. The final scene of the sequence reveals that future as Apocalypse hails his cheering crowds.
This cliffhanger ending arrange an adaptation of the 1995 comedian arc “Age of Apocalypse,” which befell in a timeline the place Professor X died younger, Magneto based the X-Males in his place, and Apocalypse seized management of the world then enacted his imaginative and prescient for Social Darwinism. As Nice defined in that aforementioned interview, the setting can be reimagined as a potential future as an alternative of an alternate current; season 2 of “Wolverine and the X-Males” would’ve had the identical parallel timeline construction as season 1. “A part of our activity in adapting the story was determining which parts to tug into our current day storyline and the way we have been constructing in direction of this darkish future,” stated Nice.
However we by no means obtained to see them determine that out.
