Who Is William Stryker? 'X-Men '97' Season 2's Darkest Storyline Tease, Explained

X-Men '97 (2024) Season 2 has found its stride in terms of making a lived-in world where characters who may not be important now could be important down the line. Season 2, Episode 6, "Danger.Exe" does this perfectly by reintroducing William Stryker in a small scene.

The character first appeared in Season 1 of X-Men '97 but hasn't played a major role yet. But with anti-mutant sentiment growing, his time could finally come and deliver one of the franchise's darkest stories. Should that time come, people will finally see how terrible a person he is in a way the movies never did.

William Stryker Is A Twisted X-Men Villain

William Stryker was born to a patriotic family of devout Christians, which led him to join the Army. It's not confirmed, but it's possible that Stryker was also part of the Weapon X program, but it's hard to say in what capacity.

Eventually, a car accident caused his pregnant wife to go into labor, and when the baby came out as a mutant, he killed him. He then killed his wife and tried to make it look like they all died in the car after it exploded. Stryker survived and eventually believed this was God telling him that he was destined to kill all mutants, as they were products of Satan.

From then on, he became a twisted televangelist who spewed hate and worked with anti-mutant militias like the Purifiers. This caused him to work against the X-Men, specifically Professor X, and he was one of the mutants' biggest enemies without actually lifting a finger. His story continued long after the God Loves, Man Kills story by Chris Claremont and Brent Anderson.

'X-Men '97' Is Slowly Setting Up 'God Loves, Man Kills'

X-Men '97 has seen two seasons of society wrestling with the mass chaos caused by mutants and those who hate them. The massacre on Genosha was a great example of this because even though the mutants were the victims, people were still looking at them with fear. 

There are also the Purifiers, who have been getting advanced weapons to use against mutants, as well as the Friends of Humanity, who depowered Storm. There are even more forces out there ready to kill mutants, and the masses feel that and are scared as well.

With this in mind, Stryker is the perfect villain for the team to tackle in a future season because he's been working in the background, spewing his hate and arming the enemies. It's only a matter of time before innocent mutants are harmed and the X-Men have to face Stryker to save Professor X.

What makes God Loves, Man Kills so impressive is that it's not a battle of fists but one of words and ideals. Stryker tries to use Xavier to kill all the mutants, and all he succeeds in doing is fracturing Xavier's hope, for a time. It's a definitive moment that is perfect to explore in a season where Xavier is already at his lowest.

'X-Men '97' Can Finally Show Fans An Accurate William Stryker

William Stryker was the main villain of X2: X-Men United (2003) as a mutant-hating military man hell-bent on eradicating them from the planet. He wasn't a preacher, but he was merciless. He later appeared again, much younger, in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) and X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), as well as in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009). However, these all watered down who he was and took away the hate that made him so threatening.

X-Men '97 has sprinkled in enough of the character to show how dangerous he could be. It's also our one chance to see him for who he was in the comics and why that has made him such a major threat. William Stryker may not have power, but he has the power to move the people, and when his time comes in X-Men '97, it'll be chilling to see his accuracy in action.

X-Men '97 Season 2 has done a great job of balancing foes and giving us Apocalypse right after facing the Sentinel threat. But powerhouse villains can only go on for so long. Seeing William Stryker as a viable threat in a later season would be great to balance out the power we've already seen. Even still, a larger role would also mean the show would get darker in ways audiences won't expect.