X-Men ’97 has come out swinging from the gate, wowing fans and critics alike with its first two episodes. The episodes pick up a year after the assassination of Charles Xavier, leaving Scott Summers to lead the X-Men. However, he is soon replaced by Magneto, who becomes the heir to everything Charles Xavier owned, as dictated by his last will and testament.
However, Charles Xavier has been killed off multiple times, but his death rarely seems to stick, given how important he is to the X-Men and to the overall brand. While the character might be dead in the sequel series, there are a myriad of ways he could return, as is the case in comics more often than not.
Professor X’s fate has been left open-ended
While Professor X has been shown to die onscreen during Fox’s run with the X-Men and even the MCU, X-Men: The Animated Series left things a little more open-ended. At the end of the Animated Series, Professor X was ushered away to the Shia’r Empire by his love interest, Lilandra, the ruler of the alien empire.
It is yet unknown if the empire’s technology was able to cure the Professor, putting his fate up for debate among fans. However, given that it has been a year since the events, and the man responsible for the ‘assassination’, NSA agent Henry Gyrich has been arrested and is being tried, it might seem like the Professor’s ‘death’ is set in stone.
The team’s reaction to his absence definitely feels like the character has died, but the fact that Magneto waited a full year before assuming control of Xavier’s assets, signifies that the death might be an assumption that the entire team is making, rather than it being a tangible fact.
Charles Xavier could return when the team needs him most
While Charles Xavier might not return in this season of the X-Men, his fate may be going to be kept a secret until much later in the show. As far as the show is concerned, Charles Xavier might remain dead for the foreseeable future. However, there was the scene from the trailer where a casket was being lowered into the ground, which was assumed to be Charles’, until the fact that it failed to make an appearance in the first two episodes of the show.
However, the character may make an appearance on a later date, bringing news of some bigger threat that the X-Men must unite to face, perhaps a threat from the deepest reaches of space, like The Brood, or The Skrull. That may be the route the series takes, given how much more freedom the shadow has under Disney, with all the Marvel characters at its disposal.
