Gay Head Writer Of Disney+’s Animated Series X-Men ’97 Fired Ahead Of Premiere
Image: Trailer Screengrab(L)Beau DeMayo Instagram(R)
The head writer and executive producer of Disney+’s animated series X-Men ’97, Beau DeMayo, has been fired ahead of the March 20 premiere.
X-Men ’97 is a continuation of the classic X-Men: The Animated Series, which ran from 1992-1997. It is credited with introducing a generation to X-Men as well as paving the way to the live-action movie in 2000.
‘Marvel And DeMayo Suddenly Parted Ways’
According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Early last week, Marvel and DeMayo suddenly parted ways. His company email was deactivated and cast and crew were informed he was no longer on the project. DeMayo’s Instagram account, once a source for X-Men updates, was deleted. No reason for the firing was given.”
DeMayo, 41, had completed all his work on X-Men ’97 Seasons One and Two.
There has been no comment from Marvel or DeMayo.
DeMayo: X-Men Comics Were My Lifeline To Understanding How To Navigate The World
DeMayo was hired in November 2021. In a 2022 interview with The Direct, DeMayo, who is gay, shared how the classic X-Men: The Animated Series helped him to make sense of the world.
“I grew up with the show, I watched it. I was adopted, I think that’s what kind of brought me to the show. My parents are white, my sister is from Korea, they were also adopted, and I was gay, I was growing up in the south… everyone has a sad story, but like, X-Men was my way of kinda of making sense of this weird family where no one resembled me, but yet we weren’t blood, but we were supposed to be family.”
“And then I think just watching that cartoon every weekend, it united my passion for storytelling, definitely, and really helped me understand myself.
“[It] drew me to the comics, and then as I realised that I was gay, and as I even just got an understanding of what racism was—I was growing up with white people who accepted black people, so like I never really understood racism as a thing until I got older. I was like a late bloomer. I will tell you, X-Men comics were probably my lifeline to understanding how to navigate [the world].”
He added, “It is surreal now to be spearheading this revival, in a tremendous way. It is quite simply a dream come true, as cliche as that sounds.”
Series To Feature Non-Binary Characters
In February, after the first trailer was released, it was revealed that the X-Men member Morph would be non-binary.
In an interview with Empire Magazine, DeMayo confirmed this. Describing the character of Morph, he said, “This is a lighter take on the character, who is non binary and has an interesting buddy relationship with Wolverine.”
DeMayo has also written on other series including Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Moon Knight, and The Witcher.
X-Men ’97 will premiere on Disney+ on March 20.
