DeMayo recently opened up a (now closed) Q&A session to fans, and, thanks to Collider, there is a transcription of the exchange. When a fan asked, point blank, if “X-Men ’97” would be folded into the extant live-action MCU, DeMayo was blunt, saying: “We are our own thing.”
Note that interconnectivity has long been the raison d’être of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Single chapters/films didn’t matter as much as their connection to later chapters/films. Every character introduction was a promise that more of that character would be seen in future movies, and every incomplete plot point was accepted as a setup for a future payoff. Indeed, one might posit that many of the single films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe wouldn’t have been worth seeing had they not been directly connected to other films; it’s possible that few would have seen Kenneth Branagh’s “Thor” back in 2011 if it hadn’t already been announced that he was to appear in “The Avengers,” due the following year.
Thanks to the TV series “Loki,” to “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” and to Sam Raimi’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” (the film that featured Patrick Stewart as a live-action version of the animated Professor X from 1992), it’s been established that the MCU has near-infinite parallel timelines. Now every version of every hero — regardless of studio ownership — will be able to interact with all of the others.
Some assumed the “infinite timeline” setup of those films would retroactively incorporate the old “X-Men” series into the fold. As it so happens, that is not so. The MCU will continue to contract, and DeMayo will make his own series, unconcerned with its future.
Frankly, this is a good thing.