Marvel Claims 'X-Men 97' Creator Beau DeMayo Was Fired Over 'Egregious' Sexual Misconduct

By Dustin Rowles | TV | August 16, 2024 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | August 16, 2024 |

Earlier this year, Beau DeMayo was mysteriously fired as showrunner for the hit Disney+ animated series X-Men ‘97, shortly before the first season aired. No reason was given, and it left a lot of fans very confused. That confusion was exacerbated when DeMayo began tweeting about episodes of the series. More recently, DeMayo even hinted at good things to come, although all of that has unraveled in recent days as it has become clear that he was not fired over creative differences.

To wit: yesterday, he claimed on social media that he had been stripped of his credits for the show’s second season due to a Pride-themed fan art post he made on Instagram in June, implying that Disney had fired him for being outspokenly gay. DeMayo characterized Disney’s decision as “the latest in a troubling pattern” he experienced while working on both X-Men ‘97 and Marvel’s long-gestating Blade movie.

However, it was almost as if DeMayo and Marvel had signed an NDA when he was fired and DeMayo violated it, because Marvel Studios quickly responded with a statement to The Hollywood Reporter: “Mr. DeMayo was terminated in March 2023 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.”

“Egregious nature”! That doesn’t sound good. Sources also claimed that the investigation involved allegations of sexual misconduct, although those sources spared us the details. Those same sources also told THR that following DeMayo’s exit, they reached an agreement regarding his social media activity about the show. They removed his season 2 credits because, they said, DeMayo violated that agreement.

The openly gay DeMayo had gained a lot of positive attention in LGBTQ circles during his time at Marvel. He disputed Marvel’s characterization of events, tweeting: “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.”

Now that details are beginning to spill out, my guess is that we’ll probably find out more details about the sexual misconduct in question (in fact, anonymously sourced rumors about the nature of the sexual misconduct have been going around social media in light of yesterday’s activity).