X-Men ’97 has found its Polaris for Season 2, and she is best known for playing Scream queen Sidney Prescott. On social media on Monday, X-Men ’97 showrunner Beau DeMayo revealed that Neve Campbell will Lorna Dane, a.k.a. Polaris, the daughter of Magneto who inherited his magnetic powers. In the process, DeMayo debunked a rumor that Campbell would be playing Polaris in live-action for the MCU. Instead, he said that he chose Cambell because it “felt right to have a 90s icon pick up where Lorna’s story was left in ‘Cold Comfort,’” adding, “She’s got some thoughts on Genosha.” X-Men ’97 Season 2 is in the works now, and is expected to premiere next year.
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DeMayo was responding to a post claiming that Campbell will play Polaris “in the MCU” on Monday, writing, “Incorrect. I cast her as Polaris in Season 2 of X-Men ’97. She does amazing work bringing something new” to the role. Fans were glad to have clarification direct from a reliable source like DeMayo, even if it is a refutation of the earlier story. Of course, some contended that X-Men ’97 is technically “in the MCU,” it’s just an alternate reality.
Polaris appeared in just two episodes of X-Men: The Animated Series back in the 1990s, and she is portrayed pretty differently from her comic book counterpart. There, she was an former member of the X-Men and she was in a relationship with Iceman, but she left the superhero team in the hopes of living a “normal life.” After they broke up, she joined X-Factor and entered a relationship with Havoc.
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Polaris also made a non-speaking cameo appearance in X-Men ’97 already. We saw her in Episode 8, “Tolerance is Extinction – Part 1” during Magneto’s visions of alternate futures. He saw Polaris using her powers to help rebuild civilization for mutants after humanity had been converted into Sentinels by Bastion.
DeMayo’s reference to Genosha makes a lot of sense for Polaris, as she has a lot to do with the mutant-only nation in the comics. However, the show is still different enough from any single comic book storyline that we can’t say for sure what’s coming for Polaris in Season 2.
It’s an exciting role for Campbell, at a time when she is already generating a lot of press for reprising her role in Scream 7. Campbell is a familiar face in geek culture thanks mostly to the horror genre, but she has yet to take a role in the superhero genre. This might be the opening that she needs to get more involved in the years to come.
X-Men ’97 is streaming now on Disney+, with new episodes expected next year. A third season has also been greenlit.
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