Here is the detailed plan for 9.7.0 release (sorry for the delay).
06/22/2026: Release split, no new features will be going into VTK 9.7.0 after this date
06/22/2026 to 07/17/2026: Release candidates are published and tested. Critical bug fixes are integrated into the VTK release branch.
07/17/2026: VTK 9.7.0 is released.