Ousted X-Men ’97 creator Beau DeMayo has taken to the controversial social media platform OnlyFans to lash out at Marvel Studios, claiming that the Disney company only wanted him to give the acclaimed show the “Black stamp of approval.”
Shortly before the premiere of X-Men ’97 on Disney+, Beau DeMayo was abruptly fired by Marvel Animation, one of the company’s rapidly multiplying subdivisions. At the time, there was no explanation for why the writer-animator was cut loose. Marvel Studios head of streaming, television, and animation and executive producer of X-Men ’97, Brad Winderbaum, released a statement implying that DeMayo was more of a “writer” than series creator, saying, “He did excellent work writing Seasons 1 and 2, and I can’t wait for fans to see the series. The entire team came together to create a revival worthy of the X-Men’s 60-year legacy. From Stan and Jack, to Claremont, to the Lewalds, we all truly were standing on the shoulders of giants.”
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Since then, Beau DeMayo has regularly commented on the X-Men ’97 show via social media and praised it. However, he also eventually claimed that he had been fired for publishing X-Men fan art during Pride Month, saying ” “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.”
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. However, I felt it pressing for me to speak up in the wake of leaving the show… pic.twitter.com/kbOTL3IQJj
— Beau DeMayo (@BeauDemayo) August 16, 2024
Marvel responded with a statement: “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.”
Things are beginning to get more fiery between DeMayo and Marvel, and the former Moon Knight and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds took to OnlyFans to release a nearly 30-minute video attacking Disney. In part, he said:
“The rumors being spread around me online are lies, and they are offensive, but more concerning is that they’re a smear campaign designed to discredit my credibility in order to cover up the egregious prejudicial misconduct stretching from select crew members on X-Men ’97, all the way all the way to the top at Marvel Studios.”
“In the end, the offenses Marvel and others have leaked are designed to distract you from what really offended them. Someone like me dared to speak truth to people like them. They wanted me to be the Black stamp of approval on this project, I declined. They wanted to erase aspects of my personality that clashed or proved inconvenient with the misguided narratives they wanted to establish. I declined. They tried to intimidate me with both explicit and implied threats. I was not intimidated. Everything they have done since then has been designed not just to silence me and smear me, but to crush me and to remind me to know my role.”
Related: Iconic ‘X-Men’ Hero Cut From Movie by Disney: Report
Among other things, Beau DeMayo claimed that “being gay, Black and open about it at Marvel Studios” has been the actual issue behind his firing and that he “no longer felt safe at the studio as a gay Black man.” He said, “I have the receipts and the eyewitnesses so long as you stop coercing them to lie, you can keep attacking me with lies and misinformation, but we can become the ugliest, most annoying version of that of that … or you can start acting like a studio that is worthy of a show like X Men ‘97.”
Marvel has not yet responded to DeMayo’s claims that being openly gay affected his employment or that the company had wanted him to grant some kind of “Black stamp of approval” to the animated series.
What do you think about DeMayo’s claims about Marvel?
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