In 2026, Marvel and Mattel are both releasing projects designed to capitalize on people’s love for iconic animated heroes from their childhoods. Masters of the Universe has put a live-action He-Man on the big screen, and the second season of X-Men ’97 is about to fling some of Charles Xavier’s mutants into an apocalyptic future. Both projects were clearly made by people who love the source material, and they are similarly filled with nerdy Easter eggs meant to get hardcore fans hyped up. X-Men ’97 and Masters of the Universe are both nostalgia plays, but the biggest difference between the two — and arguably the reason one of them hasn’t been all that much of a success — is the work that has gone into keeping their respective characters and worlds alive in the pop culture consciousness.
In its second season, X-Men ’97 splits its team of mutant heroes up into multiple teams that find themselves stranded at drastically different points in history. While one group winds up in ancient Egypt, another is transported thousands of years into the future. Though both teams want to get back to the ’90s, they’re also desperately searching for a way to stop the virtually immortal mutant villain Apocalypse (Ross Marquand) from destroying the world. And because Apocalypse happens to be alive in both time periods, the two X-Men squads agree that it’s worth spending some time exactly where they are.
Rather than adapting a single storyline from Marvel’s comics, the new season of X-Men ’97 combines narrative elements from a number of different limited series — chief among them The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix from 1994 and 1996’s Rise of Apocalypse. Using beats from those specific comics to expand its story makes some sense given the ’90s of it all. But more surprising is the amount of relatively recent X-Men comics lore the show introduces in order to flesh out the world around its core characters.
While X-Men ’97 is a continuation of X-Men: The Animated Series, Marvel has made it feel fresh by reworking the established canon in significant ways. Taking that approach is part of what made the series a ratings hit when it first premiered in 2024, but fans’ long-standing fondness and familiarity with the X-Men were also key factors in the equation.
One of the main reasons that fans have been foaming at the mouth for new X-Men projects like ’97 and the upcoming X-Men MCU film is that Marvel has never really let this property fade into the background. Even though 20th Century Studios’ X-Men features tended to be terrible, there were always enough X-Men comics and TV series in the mix to give fans hope that a studio would eventually come up with something excellent. And if Marvel spent less time cultivating the X-Men’s brand, the franchise might have found itself floundering the way Mattel’s Masters of the Universe currently is.
There have been a handful of newer series inspired by the original Masters of the Universe cartoon. But on the whole, He-Man’s pop cultural prominence has waned in the years since Prince Adam and his friends were explaining the lessons behind their adventures on television every weekday from 1983 to 1985. This is likely part of why Mattel’s new Masters of the Universe movie has been underperforming at the box office since its release last week. So far, the movie has raked in a paltry $54.4 million against a $200 million production budget, making it a massive financial dud.
Masters of the Universe has become a case study in Hollywood’s tendency to learn the wrong lessons from its previous successes. People flocked to theaters to see Barbie because it was a funny, feminist deconstruction of an ever-present icon, but Mattel interpreted that a sign that viewers are hungry for stories about toys in general. Masters of the Universe attempts to do some mildly critical exploration of toxic masculinity, but that clearly hasn’t been enough to convince audiences to care about He-Man. Aside from hardcore fans, many people simply aren’t that invested in 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 was a fixture in more people’s imaginations the way the X-Men are, the conversation around Masters of the Universe would likely be very different. Mattel would do well to internalize this as a valuable lesson, but there have yet to be signs of that being the case. Between X-Men ’97’s second season and Avengers: Doomsday, Marvel is rolling into a year of massive stories that put mutants front and center. And it’s a moment that the studio has been building toward for years.
The second season of X-Men ’97 hits Disney Plus on July 1st, and Masters of the Universe is in theaters now.

Vanessa Trump is staying optimistic amid her breast cancer fight … sharing a promising update after weeks of recovering from surgery.
She took to social media Saturday to let followers know she’s completed the recovery phase following her operation, and is now preparing to begin the next stage of treatment. She also used the post to offer encouragement to others navigating similar health battles. The update comes as she continues her high-profile relationship with Tiger Woods.
In her latest message, Vanessa said she’s spent the last month healing and focusing on her recovery … and while the journey isn’t over, she appears to be keeping a positive outlook as she moves forward.
As TMZ previously reported, Vanessa revealed in May she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and had already undergone a procedure as part of her treatment plan. At the time, the former wife of Donald Trump Jr. thanked supporters for their prayers and well wishes while asking for privacy.
We also reported that Tiger temporarily left his rehab stay to be by Vanessa’s side after her diagnosis … underscoring just how seriously the couple has approached her recovery journey.
Vanessa says she’s grateful for the support she’s received along the way and is focused on taking the next steps in her fight. There’s still a road to travel … but she sounds ready for whatever comes next!

After the shocking news that Milania Giudice, daughter of reality TV legend Teresa Giudice, was arrested for domestic violence back in May, the other ladies of The Real Housewives of New Jersey are speculating about who else may have been involved in the incident.
According to sources who spoke to Rob Shuter’s Naughty But Nice newsletter, Teresa’s cast mates believe that her husband Luis Ruelas was the alleged victim.”The first question everyone asked was, ‘Was it Luis?'” a source told Shuter. “He’s very controversial, so that’s where the speculation immediately went.”
Milania, 20, was charged with “simple assault” and “purposely/ knowingly causing a bodily injury,” and the alleged incident took place in Montville, New Jersey, where Teresa, 54, and Luis, 51, reside. Milania is currently a student at the University of Tampa, but is presumably home for the summer break.
“Nobody knows who was allegedly injured,” a source told Shuter. “But a lot of people assumed [Luis] could be involved.” Law enforcement has not released any details about the alleged victim, and no one in the Giudice circle has spoken publicly about it. As InTouch previously reported, RHONJ was filming at the time of the arrest, but the altercation was not caught on camera.
“Everyone thinks it is Luis,” said another source. “The secrecy is creating more questions than answers.”
Time will tell if fans get more information when season 15 premieres—currently no date has been set.
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It was a perfect sunny day for lounging poolside at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The sky was a keen pale blue, with that piercing quality familiar in Southern California. The pool, where a man with straight black hair drifted on a pink and green striped raft, was a deeper, cerulean blue.
It looked a lot like a painting by David Hockney, the British-born L.A. transplant whose death on Thursday drew tributes from all corners of the world.
And Hockney had had a hand in this pool. In 1988, already famous, he spent a day here with a paint brush attached to the end of a broom, painting bright blue swooshes on the pool’s bottom. Now, even though many of the marks have faded, the remaining curves powerfully mimic and accentuate the flickering light on the water’s rippled surface.
The pool mural, which I visited on Friday, is one of the many gifts that Hockney has given us as residents of Los Angeles. In his five decades of living here, becoming as he would say an “English Angeleno,” he made his mark on the city in ways both dramatic and subtle, inflecting our image of the California lifestyle as well as influencing generations of artists. His influence is felt not just on the walls of museum, but everywhere.

Bill Ritter, the veteran journalist who anchored WABC’s “Eyewitness News” 6 p.m. newscast since 2001, announced on Friday that it was his last broadcast after he was diagnosed with early stage Alzheimer’s disease.
In a statement to viewers, Mr. Ritter described how he had received the diagnosis “after a series of tests,” and that “unless someone finds an amazing cure, and really soon, tonight will be the last newscast I anchor.”
Although he is stepping away from anchoring, Mr. Ritter, 76, said he’s not going far.
“I will continue helping the younger journalists here at ‘Eyewitness News,’” he said. In a new role, he added, he will cover “the rising tide of Alzheimer’s, and other similar diseases, how it’s affecting patients and their families, how the price of treatment and the price of caring for patients is simply unaffordable and how this country might begin to change all that.”
Mr. Ritter is intimately familiar with the disease he now faces.
In his statement, he shared that he lost his father to Alzheimer’s in 1998 and that since then he has been active in the fight to stop it.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most commonly diagnosed form of dementia, accounting for 60 to 80 percent of cases, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.
There is no cure for the disease, which is the seventh-leading cause of death in the United States, according to the National Institute on Aging.
Speaking of his decades-long career, Mr. Ritter said it was “not easy” to share the news with “our viewers, and the people I work with, like the man I’ve worked with for 25 and a half years, our producer, and my friend, Zahir Sachedina.”
“I believe we are the longest-running, behind-the-scenes newscast team ever, here, or maybe anywhere — a Muslim producer, and a Jewish anchor,” he said, adding that it is “what the melting pot of New York and the tristate — and I would hope the country — is all about.”
Mr. Ritter also paid tribute to his fellow journalists at WABC, including Liz Cho, Ryan Field, Sade Baderinwa, and the meteorologist Lee Goldberg.
In a social media post, Ms. Cho, who was an anchor alongside Mr. Ritter for 23 years, praised his long and storied career, noting that he has led “our show and our newsroom every step of the way.”
“Every single person in our newsroom has something they love about Bill,” she said, adding that she is “the journalist and anchor I am today because of you.”
Mr. Ritter ended his statement with a moment directed at viewers, telling them that he will miss reporting the news to them “with the truth, and the facts, no matter where they fall.”
“It has been my honor to do just that,” Mr. Ritter added. “But for now, I wish you health and peace, and let’s take care of each other.”