Who is ‘X-Men ’97’s big bad? Theo James’ secret Marvel role, explained

Warning: This article contains spoilers for X-Men ’97 episode 7.

X-Men ’97 has already featured a number of the mutant team’s most fearsome foes in just a handful of episodes — Sentinels, Mister Sinister, Mojo… There was even a hilarious Apocalypse namedrop. However, it wasn’t until episode 7, “Bright Eyes,” that the show’s real big bad emerged out of the shadows. And they are voiced by a major guest star.

In the run-up to the show’s release, the makers confirmed that The Gentlemen‘s Theo James had a secret role on X-Men ’97 but wouldn’t be budged on who his character was, other than that they were sure they would become a “fan favorite.” This suggested James might be playing a new hero of some kind, but now we know that James is really this season’s main villain. And he seems more likely to kill off some fan favorites than to become one.

But who is X-Men ’97‘s dangerous and powerful new villain, Bastion?

Who is Bastion in X-Men comics and how does he fit into X-Men ’97?

In “Bright Eyes,” we learned that the true mastermind behind the massacre on Genosha was not Mister Sinister, but someone so scary that even Nathaniel Essex is playing second fiddle to them. As well as having technology that’s “lightyears” ahead of current Earth levels at his disposal, this villain is revealed to have faked Magneto’s death and now has him helpless and incarcerated. Mister Sinister and Magneto under his thumb? This guy means business.

The villain in question’s name is Bastion, and in the comics they are — simply put — a human/Sentinel hybrid. If you want the long version, here goes: Once upon a time, Master Mold merged with Nimrod, a super-powerful Sentinel from a dystopian future, and the only way for the X-Men to defeat this mega-Sentinel threat was to cast it into the Siege Perilous, a kind of mystical interdimensional gateway that grants those who go through it new life. So when the Nimrod-ified Master Mold went through it was reborn as a human, named Sebastion Gilberti.

Gilberti’s hatred of mutants lived on through his metamorphosis, however, and he ended up gaining significant military power as the leader of the Operation: Zero Tolerance strikeforce — the mysterious OZT organization introduced in “Bright Eyes.” What’s more, he created Prime Sentinels, humans upgraded with nanotech — which we are introduced to through the Trask-Sentinel in this same episode.

With his political might and cybernetic upgrades, Bastion represents a formidable threat to mutantkind on a personal and sociological level, so it’s no surprise that he’s the final boss of X-Men ’97 season 1. And with a big name like James in the role, we can’t rule out Bastion hopping into live-action sometime either.