In February, a note was sent to inform the press that X-Men ’97, the continuation of the historic animated series focused on the X-Men, had a trailer and poster. “Beau DeMayo is the main writer,” it was stated about the Marvel series. Less than a month later and with barely a week left to release the project, Disney has fired its main creative manager.
Beau DeMayo had made a name for himself on television since 2015, when he joined the writing team of The Originals, and since then he had worked on The Witcher, the spin-off The Witcher: The Wolf’s Nightmare and Star Trek: Stranger New Worlds. In fact, when hiring him for X-Men ’97, Disney knew who he had on the payroll: he had signed a script for Moon Knight, the miniseries with Oscar Isaac and Ethan Hawke.
Now, however, this name has been removed from the project just in time so that DeMayo cannot be present at the premiere taking place in Los Angeles this Tuesday, March 13. Furthermore, his work as showrunner has already been done. According to media outlets such as Deadline, he has already creatively led all the scripts for the first two seasons.
This forces us to question why their services were dispensed with when the promotion of X-Men ’97 and the corresponding rounds of interviews with the media both in the United States and the rest of the world were to begin.
DeMayo had attracted attention for being openly gay and directing a Marvel project. In interviews he had explained that the original X-Men animated series had helped him understand his identity and that he had started writing scripts with a fan-fic of these comic characters.
He also maintained an open attitude with fans. From her Instagram account she shared details about the conception of X-Men ’97 although, after abruptly ending her duties at Disney, she has deactivated his profile on the social network. He also had an active user account on the OnlyFans portal although, unlike other key figures in the industry, he did not post explicit material or nudity.
The series premieres March 20 on Disney.
