Season 9 of Marvel Rivals is two days out, and NetEase Games just dropped the character reveal that a lot of X-Men fans have been waiting for. Jubilee, the fireworks-slinging mutant from the classic X-Men roster, is officially joining the game when Season 9 launches on July 10, 2026.
The role assignment nobody saw coming
Here's the thing: Jubilee is classified as a Strategist, which is the game's support role. That's going to raise eyebrows from anyone who knows her power set. The woman literally generates explosive plasma fireworks and launches them like grenades. That sounds like a Duelist kit if there ever was one.
But NetEase has pulled this move before. Gambit throws charged cards and he's also a Strategist. The developers have a history of fitting characters into unexpected roles and making it work, so there's reason to trust the process here. The official description frames her as generating "bursts of pyrotechnic plasma" that double as battlefield support, with vampiric powers layered on top to make every firework "an invigorating celebration."
That last part is not a typo.
Jubilee is a vampire now, and it actually makes sense
NetEase is leaning hard into a specific chapter of Jubilee's comic history: her time as a vampire. During the "Curse of the Mutants" arc in 2010, Jubilee was bitten by Xarus, son of Dracula, and spent years as one of the undead before being cured in 2019 when Quintin Quire gave her a fragment of the Phoenix Force. The comics have never fully let that storyline go, and neither has NetEase.
In-game, Jubilee's eyes carry the same yellowish tint as Blade and Dracula, the clearest visual signal of her undead status. Her Team-Up abilities reflect this directly: Hellfire Sparks pairs her with The Hood, and Vampiric Kin links her with Blade. Both connections feel earned rather than arbitrary.
Her in-game story lore adds another layer. Due to the Timestream Entanglement, Jubilee's son Shogo became trapped in dragon form. Desperate to free him, she struck a deal with Apocalypse in Thebes and became his Horseman of Famine. That ties her directly into the Season 9 Age of Apocalypse theme and gives her arrival genuine narrative weight.
What Season 9 looks like beyond Jubilee
The Hood joins as the second new hero this season, alongside a new Egyptian-themed map built around the Age of Apocalypse storyline. Jubilee also arrives with an alternate skin called "Midnight Mutant", a vampire-inspired look that leans into the undead angle NetEase is clearly committed to.
Her classic design stays faithful to the source material: long yellow jacket, yellow gloves, pink sunglasses, and a predominantly pink top. The belt buckle swaps the usual X for an A, a deliberate nod to her Horseman of Famine status this season.
Season 8.5 brought Cyclops as the 51st hero along with a massive 18v18 mode. You can catch up on everything that dropped in that mid-season update with the Marvel Rivals Season 8.5 breakdown. For the full picture on what Season 9 brings, including global launch times and confirmed hero details, the Marvel Rivals Season 9 release date and new heroes guide has everything you need ahead of Thursday's launch.
