Marvel Reveals 'X-Men ‘97' Creator Beau DeMayo Fired Over 'Egregious Investigation Findings' Of Sexual Misconduct

Five months after the firing, DeMayo got a little too loud, forcing Marvel’s hand

Two weeks before the premiere of Marvel Animation’s X-Men: The Animated Series continuation X-Men ‘97, series creator and head writer Beau DeMayo was fired after having completed his work on the first two seasons. He was no longer allowed to promote the series, yet as of the premiere of episode 5, “Remember It”, he circumvented it as he started to discuss behind-the-scenes information in depth on Twitter as to his mindset when making the episodes. And this continued throughout the season and after, even as recently as D23 last Saturday commenting on the show’s segment in the Marvel Animation panel. However, Thursday night, DeMayo went on the offensive for an escalation, directly addressing a new development with some rather off-sounding and misattributed reasoning.

“Firstly, I’m so grateful to have worked on #XMen97, collaborating with some amazingly talented folks. Creating this revival was a dream come true and the support fans have shown is so touching,” DeMayo tweeted “However, I felt it pressing for me to speak up in the wake of leaving the show…” which had a heavily redacted Instagram screenshot of X-Men fanart, specifically himself shirtless as Cyclops for Pride in June. The text continued into a second tweet where the heat turned up Above is #XMen 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 #XMen97 and #Blade.” He strongly implies this is a homophobia-rooted move when the post was still promoting the show. Keep this in mind, it’s very likely he was violating terms of his firing by continually talking about the show, permitting the stripping of the credits. He finished with “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.”

Fired 'X-Men ‘97' Creator Beau DeMayo Breaks Silence, Calls “Remember It” 'Centerpiece' Of Series Pitch

However, comments like these were basically a firestarter, and while not the most compatible metaphor as far as the things being used, you can’t put the genie back in the bottle. He wasn’t actually able to step away from social media at first because Marvel pretty immediately responded “Mr. DeMayo was terminated in March 2024 following an internal investigation,” through a spokesperson, which was more addressing the framing that certain engagement farms made that the post was what got him fired, ya know, three months after the fact. “Given the egregious nature of the findings, we severed ties with him immediately, and he has no further affiliation with Marvel.” Following his exit, according to sources an agreement was reached that made DeMayo’s subsequent tweets violations and breaches that got his credit for season two removed. Instead of responding with any civility, he posted to his Instagram stories the vaguely threatening “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. Stay tuned.” It is not clear what he means by “[Disney+] disaster”. The last thing he wrote before actually going silent was “This is their Disney-Marvel’s usual playbook. Legal letters as well as other items to prove their long-standing pattern to follow . It’s about finding a safe outlet. Thanks for your faith and patience.”

His subsequent silence is very likely due to taking on a lawyer, attorney Bryan Freedman of Freedman Taitelman + Cooley. Freedman, whose previous clients included Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson (boy does that not paint a picture) claims “Having much experience with Disney, the playbook is always the same. Family friendly on the outside, but secretly attempting to plant illegal unconscionable items in contracts that silence the truth and stop the employee/customer from asserting basic constitutional rights.” His full statement reads:

Having much experience with Disney, the playbook is always the same. Family friendly on the outside, but secretly attempting to plant illegal unconscionable items in contracts that silence the truth and stop the employee/customer from asserting basic constitutional rights. As we will explain through detailed examples which we will roll out in detail one by one, Disney’s model is very clear and a repetitive illegal pattern. Once it gets challenged or exposed, the gaslighting and redirection of the blame toward anyone willing to tell the truth starts through an international well oiled publicity machine. The problem for Disney is that when they go up against someone who has concrete evidence of this happening over 100 times, many of which have led to them settling hundreds of cases if not thousands to try and continue to control critics, employees and even lawyers who sue them. The problem for them is that I have the evidence and clients willing to be truthful and they know it. These are actually facts not argument or conjecture. Over the next few months, with the brave help of those who have been illegally silenced, retaliated for simply telling the truth and then destroyed for it, one by one this bullying and illegal conduct will be exposed to the government. Beau DeMayo wants nothing from Marvel/Disney except the truth. He will bravely tell the truth. So will I. Stand by.

Well, DeMayo said the truth would come out, but I’m sure he wasn’t expecting that truth to be of his own actions, but he made his mess: While no details of the cause of the termination or the internal reviews have surfaced, it has since come out that it was sexual misconduct. This includes allegedly sending nude photos of himself in sexually suggestive “hero” poses to several young male staffers, saying they could be used as “inspiration”. He also allegedly groped an assistant multiple times and emotionally and physically abusive to other staffers. More should come out as things progress. Matthew Chauncey has since taken over as head writer for season 3, coming over from What If…?

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Sources: Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, The InSneider