X-Men ‘97 showrunner Beau DeMayo (The Witcher) comes out against the gossip surrounding his removal from the Disney project. In an exclusive with Deadline, he stated, “These allegations of egregious misconduct are false. He countered by bringing up the company’s toxic working conditions and environment.
When he was originally removed from the show, Disney said the reasoning was because of misconduct committed against DeMayo, with negative findings. The nature of Disney’s accusations surrounded LGBTQ+ fan art and colleagues siding with inappropriate conduct during work.
Recently, attorney Bryan Freedman is seeking a jury trial to have an “allegedly “illegal non-disparagement provision”’ removed from his exit papers, according to Deadline.
As this was happening, DeMayo posted a response on the OnlyFans platform, stating, “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 response to Kevin Feige and Bob Iger from Disney and Marvel respectively as stated in Deadline.
He later acknowledged how personalities may clash in creative fields and that he is “not everyone’s cup of tea,” according to Deadline, essentially claiming that his identity as a Black gay man was Disney and Marvel’s real issue with him, especially after an initial meeting with the company’s HR where he said that he felt unsafe in his identity and was fired shortly after.
This morning, DeMayo stated, “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”,as stated by Deadline. He went on to state that he has eyewitnesses to his claims.
The filing states, “DeMayo, who intends to detail his prior employment with Marvel via OnlyFans, bore witness to and endured rampant discriminatory and harassing conduct during his years-long tenure with the Company…Well aware that DeMayo possessed copious knowledge regarding Marvel’s illicit and unsafe employment practices, the Company sought to silence DeMayo as part of his forced ouster…Backed by an army of well-versed employment attorneys, Marvel knowingly incorporated an illegal non-disparagement provision designed to muzzle an openly gay Black man and restrict his statutory rights” according to Deadline. DeMayo makes harsh claims against the X-Men ‘97 parent companies.
Freedman’s goal is to remove non-disparagement provisions from DeMayo’s NDA. In allegiance with this, Freedman states: “There are only two possible explanations for why Marvel and Disney had Beau sign an NDA that so obviously violated basic California law…Either incredulously Marvel and Disney’s hundreds of lawyers who advise over 250,000 employees all just happened to make a mistake or Marvel knowingly and intentionally attempted to silence Beau so they could have total control as to why he was no longer at Marvel, why he had his credits removed on season 2 and why he was uninvited to attend the very award show that nominated his hard work for an Emmy”, according to Deadline.
As of now, no specific names have been called out in this legal process. When prompted by Deadline, Disney made no comments in response to DeMayo’s newest claims.