Marvel fires X-Men ’97 creator Beau DeMayo weeks before premiere

Beau DeMayo, creator of ‘X-Men ’97’

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Earlier this month, Beau DeMayo was in the middle of a particularly busy time at Marvel Studios. The writer and producer was preparing for the release of X-Men ’97the Disney+ series he created as a follow-up to the beloved ’90s Fox Kids show.

DeMayo, a Marvel regular who previously wrote live-action series Moon Knight as well as early drafts of the company’s delayed but still upcoming vampire thriller. Bladehad completed his writing duties on the series’ second season, was lining up the press and making plans to attend X-Men ’97Premieres in Hollywood on March 13. I was even discussing loose ideas for a third season with members of his team.

But early last week, Marvel and DeMayo suddenly parted ways. His company email was deactivated and the cast and crew were informed that he was no longer on the project. DeMayo’s Instagram account, once a source of X-Men updates, has been deleted. No reason was given for the dismissal.

Marvel had no comment. Representatives for DeMayo did not return calls for comment and emails to the showrunner yielded no response.

It was a surprising turn of events on the eve of the show’s March 20 debut. Parting ways with writers is a normal part of business for Marvel or any studio. However, it is unusual for a major creative on a Marvel project to miss a premiere or cancel press plans at the last minute, even if they have been shelved. Most Marvel premieres feature multiple writers walking the red carpet, some of whom have been rewritten by other writers who also walk the carpet.

Marvel announced DeMayo’s hiring in November 2021. The move was met with a certain level of excitement, as the scribe brought his identity as a gay black man to the project and made a point of speaking to the press about growing up as an adoptee. The son of white parents and a Korean sister in the South, he made the X-Men characters, and his struggles to be accepted by society, feel personal to him.

His silence on social media has been acute, as he was a prolific poster, sharing X-Men tidbits as well as photos of himself shirtless at the gym. For a time he also ran a non-explicit Only Fans account, all of which inspired LGBTQ publishing. Outside to declare it “the sexy, gay Marvel writer and showrunner you should know.”

But social media had proven to be a challenge at times during the making of the series. In May 2023, DeMayo announced that he would delete his Twitter account after he was attacked by users accusing him. X-Men ’97 to whitewash the character of Sunspot with the casting of Brazilian actor Gui Agustini for the role.

X-Men ’97 continues the story of X-Men: The Animated Serieswhich ran from 1992 to 1997 and is credited with introducing a generation of children to mutant characters and setting the bomb for the X Men movies from the early 2000s. Several of the voice actors from the original show are returning, and the nostalgia factor helped propel the first trailer to become the most-watched promo for a Disney+ animated show.

DeMayo was among the kids who grew up watching the show. The showrunner said in June 2022.: “Anyone who feels different, we all have a Magneto within us and we all have a Charles Xavier. We all have a part of us that wants to burn it all down, and there is a part of us that wants to find compromise and build it. And those comics really helped me understand my identity.”