The first trailer for X-Men '97 dropped a few days ago and excitement among fans for the X-Men: The Animated Series has subsequently gone through the roof. However, it appears that won't be the only animated version of the X-Men we see on Disney+ in the not-too-distant future.
According to scooper @CanWeGetToast (via Toonado.com), there are plans for Storm to make an appearance during What If...? season 3.
We have no additional details about what role she'll play in the series, but this is bound to send speculation into overdrive. For example, will we see the Variant of Storm from X-Men '97 or is a completely different Ororo Munroe set to take centre stage? We'll have to wait and see.
"They were pretty much off the table," What If...? director Bryan Andrews previously said of the X-Men not being in season 2. "They're like, 'We got to do it first in live action and then you get to do it.' And we're like, 'Ah, man!' We would've loved to have played with all kinds of toys. But there's limitations."
Something must have changed since then and we honestly wouldn't be surprised if this Storm cameo ties into Marvel Studios' wider Multiverse plans. Then again, it could be a standalone story which explores the mutant's first meeting with T'Challa in Wakanda (something we're unlikely to ever see in live-action).
When will we get to see What If...? season 3? "They move stuff around," Andrews acknowledged last year. "Every time I thought it was like, 'Oh, it's going to be this!' It's like, 'It's going to move a little bit!'" he explains. "So, even I would hate to say something and have people's hopes come up and then have them be dashed because of the beast of production and when things move around."
"I thought that it could come out at the end of the year in 2024 possibly, but that would be tight."
"There's some other group of people that are masterminding when things [release] and they're moving things on the board, and I don't know where we exist on that at this moment, as well as [Marvel Zombies]," the filmmaker added. "Zombies, I'm still working on at the same time, and that's going to be crazy and that's coming out, but that keeps moving around too, right? So I wish I could help you but I can't!"
The X-Men will eventually be rebooted in live-action but, before then, we'll see the team in Deadpool 3 and likely the next Avengers movies as well. However, the team's future is looking every bit as bright in animation based on this report and that X-Men '97 sneak peek!