X-Men ’97 premiered on Disney Plus on March 20, 2024, and immediately garnered a positive response from critics and fans alike. Multiple seasons of the show have been greenlit, with the second season already in production and the third in development. But in the days leading up to the series premiere, Marvel Studios fired series creator Beau DeMayo from his writing duties and later replaced him with Matthew Chauncey as the Season 3 writer. And now, months after the incident, DeMayo has finally spoken about the firing, prompting a response from Marvel.
Beau DeMayo says he was fired from X-Men ’97 over fan art
Beau DeMayo recently took to X (formerly Twitter) and claimed that he was sacked from X-Men ’97, a series he developed as a revival of X-Men: The Animated Series (1992–1997), for sharing an X-Men fan art on Instagram during the Pride Month.
DeMayo began by mentioning that he was grateful to have worked on X-Men ’97. He subsequently wrote that creating the revival series was “a dream come true” before adding that he felt it was pressing for him to “speak up in the wake of leaving the show…” He attached a screenshot of the Instagram post in question as well.
DeMayo continued in the next post, “Above is [X-Men] fan-art I posted on Instagram for Gay Pride in June. On June 13, Marvel sent a letter notifying me that they’d stripped my Season 2 credits due to the post. Sadly, this is the latest in a troubling pattern I suffered through while on working on [X-Men ’97] and Blade.”
In the third post, DeMayo mentioned that he was taking a break from social media. “I’ll have more to say soon but must take a step back from social media to find a safer space for me to be out, proud, and nerdy. Stay tuned,” he concluded.
Marvel responds to Beau DeMayo’s allegations
In response to DeMayo’s allegations, A Marvel spokesperson said that DeMayo was fired after an internal investigation.
“Mr. DeMayo was terminated in March 2024 following an internal investigation,” the statement read. “Given the egregious nature of the findings, we severed ties with him immediately and he has no further affiliation with Marvel,” it added.
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Although the studio did not elaborate on the matter, Deadline reported that as per Marvel sources, the investigation happened because DeMayo was accused of sexual misconduct, and the violation of his separation agreement with the company led to the removal of his credits from the sophomore season.
