Disney Plus just pulled off the most mind-blowing crossover in Marvel Studios history, and I guarantee you missed it

X-Men ’97 is excellent, you guys. If you haven’t checked it out yet for whatever reason, you need to put that right ASAP. I get it, there are a few reasons why you might consider the series to be a non-essential entry from Marvel Studios — it’s a cartoon, it’s a sequel to X-Men: The Animated Series, and most of all, it’s categorically not set within the continuity of the MCU.

Well, that’s what we’ve been told at least. They’ve tried to hide it with the brand-new Marvel Animation label, but X-Men ’97 is 100% a Marvel Studios baby, and given that Kevin Feige has been keen for everything that comes out of his studio to be connected, it’s no surprise that the series is starting to show its hand with how it actually links up to the wider franchise. X-Men ’97 episode 5 marks the show’s first hint at a major crossover to come, and it does so in the subtlest, sneakiest way possible.

X-Men 97′ episode 5 contains an Earth-shattering Easter egg that teases a multiversal crossover to come

X-Men ’97 episode 5, “Remember It,” is so high-stakes that it could easily fool you into thinking it’s a season finale. In actual fact, though, the dramatic and devastating events of the show’s own answer to Game of Thrones‘ Red Wedding only mark a halfway point for the season, presumably teeing up some huge twists ahead. And that may include a proper crossover with the MCU.

Why do we think that? Because of a brief but mind-blowing moment that falls around the 20:15 timestamp. After Rogue and Gambit have had an emotional conversation about the state of their relationship, we cut to the starry night sky over the mutant nation of Genosha. As this is just an establishing shot, you might not be paying it much attention, but if you do and give the scene a closer look, you’ll notice a curious silhouette showing against the sky.

We’d know that bald cranium and high collar anywhere. Yes, this has surely got to be our beloved bulbous-headed boy, the Watcher.

We’ve seen similar, if less discreet, shots like this throughout the two seasons of Marvel’s What If…?, denoting that the cosmic entity is watching over a particular Earth in the multiverse. The stage is surely set, then, for Jeffrey Wright to return as the Watcher in perhaps this season’s actual finale, which would undeniably establish the world of X-Men: The Animated Series/X-Men ’97 as taking place within the MCU multiverse.

So, with this single shot, Marvel has just opened a door that could one day lead to the animated X-Men meeting the heroes of the MCU — either live-action favorites could reprise their roles for cameos in the cartoon or else the animated characters could get pulled into live-action themselves, maybe in Avengers: Secret Wars. Could Cal Dodd’s Wolverine and Hugh Jackman’s Logan one day share the screen in some form? It is now genuinely possible. Although if you’d told us that 24 years ago we would not have believed you.