Editor’s Note: This article contains spoilers for Episode 4 of X-Men ’97.
Marvel fans have been turning to Disney+ for new episodes of MCU shows for much of 2026, with new releases such as Wonder Man and Daredevil: Born Again helping keep everyone busy before the studio’s first feature film of the year. Marvel makes its big-screen return in just a few weeks with Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which is expected to act as a catalyst for its second and final movie of 2026, Avengers: Doomsday, which opens on December 18. Now, here to keep fans occupied over the summer is the long-awaited second season of X-Men ‘97, which has already featured callbacks to Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Eternals, and even Moon Knight during its first four episodes.
One of the most gut-wrenching moments to come so far in X-Men ‘97 Season 2 was at the end of Episode 4, when Magneto (voiced by Matthew Waterson) meets his end at the hands of Apocalypse (voiced by Ross Marquand). Marquand previously told Collider last year that there would be no punches pulled in Season 2, and he’s already been proven right before the halfway point. Collider’s Maggie Lovitt recently caught up with Waterson for an interview for Collider Set Stories, and he revealed that he actually learned of Magneto’s fate in Season 2 long ago, when he was shooting Season 1 and could consult with Gambit actor A.J. LoCascio.
“I’d been given a heads-up, which was one of the nice things about it,” Waterson said. “It’s actually kind of funny, because I had what I call the ‘A.J. conversation’ — A.J. LoCascio and I were working on something else together around the time he found out what was going to happen to his character in Season 1. I already knew what was coming for me, too, so I asked him how it was going, and he said, ‘Good — It’s a lot, but it makes sense, and I understand why it’s happening. I’m just going to need a little while to process it.’”
Waterson continued, “I’d had a similar conversation with Beau before we started recording Season 2, where he laid out the broad strokes of what was going to happen to Eric,” he said, speaking of former X-Men ‘97 writer and showrunner Beau DeMayo, who has since been replaced by Matthew Chauncey. “So, by the time I actually got the script, it wasn’t a shock. I didn’t have every detail — I didn’t get into specifics until I read it — but it wasn’t like suddenly turning to page 32, and I was caught flat-footed. I knew it was coming, and I had a general sense of how it would happen.”
’X-Men ’97’s Matthew Waterson Teases More Death Coming in Season 2
Continuing his conversation with Lovitt, Waterson shared that Magneto’s tragic death scene in X-Men ‘97 Season 2, Episode 4, almost played out entirely differently: “My memory of this is a little sketchy, but the death you see now, the way it went down visually, isn’t what it originally was. Originally, it was a bit more out of sight.” He then teased that, before being reworked, it was more in line with “what happens to a certain character in Episode 5, where you don’t see it directly,” specifically referring to Gambit’s death in Season 1, Episode 5, “Remember It.” Waterson went on to explain why they decided for the audience to have to watch Magneto perish versus hearing about it through the accounts of other characters:
“But, I think the thinking was, in terms of ‘show, don’t tell,’ that letting Charles actually see what happens — have him experience it — was important for that character. So when I first recorded it, the end of the fight was a little different. It wasn’t as clear and in-your-face; not as much of a ‘watch this’ moment — it was left a little more nebulous, and you were basing what happened more on Charles’ reaction to it. It became much more direct over time.”
Check out the first four episodes ofX-Men ‘97 Season 2 on Disney+ and stay tuned to Collider for more updates and coverage of the show. You can watch Lovitt’s full episode of Collider Set Stories with Waterson below.
