X-Men ’97’s Beau DeMayo was fired for ‘egregious’ misconduct

Marvel has said that Beau DeMayo, the gay creator of X-Men ’97, was fired from the project for “egregious” misconduct.

The critically acclaimed animated series – a continuation of the 90s show featuring Marvel’s mutants – debuted earlier this year. But the premiere was overshadowed by DeMayo’s departure just days earlier.

Up until now, the circumstances of his sudden exit have been shrouded in mystery, but a statement from Marvel Studios has been issued after DeMayo claimed his season two credits had been “stripped” from him due to a gay Pride post featuring fan art.

Marvel stated (as reported by Variety): “Mr DeMayo was terminated in March 2024 following an internal investigation. Given the egregious nature of the findings, we severed ties with him immediately and he has no further affiliation with Marvel.”

The studio’s statement was released after DeMayo claimed that his season two credits had been removed in June, after he reposted what appeared to be a fan art of himself styled as X-Men Cyclops (16 Aug).

DeMayo wrote that working on the show was a “dream come true”, but that he felt it “pressing” to speak out.

“Above is X-Men fan-art I posted on Instagram for Gay Pride. On June 13, Marvel sent a letter notifying me that they’d stripped my season two credits due to the post.

“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.”

After Marvel’s statement about his termination, DeMayo wrote in a separate post: “The truth will be revealed. After their Disney Plus disaster, Marvel wants to mislead with alleged contract breaches over tweets. It’s tragic it’s come to this but unsurprising.”

This latest development follows DeMayo’s claim that Marvel and Disney “has not reached out to arrange [his] attendance at the Emmy [Awards] for the show [he] created”.

X-Men ’97 has nominated for best animated programme.

Talking just after DeMayo left, Marvel’s head of streaming, Brad Winderbaum, told Entertainment Weekly: “I can’t talk about the details but I can say that Beau had real respect and passion for these characters and wrote what I think are excellent scripts that the rest of the team were able to draw inspiration from, [to] build this amazing show.”

X-Men ’97 is streaming on Disney+.