According to The Hollywood Reporter, week before the series premiere of X-Men ’97, creator Beau DeMayo (The Witcher, Moon Knight) was fired. The reason behind the firing has yet to be said.
DeMayo was working on the Disney+ series, which is a reboot of the ’90s show that aired on Fox Kids.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, DeMayo departed from Marvel early last week abruptly. His company email was deactivated and the cast and crew were notified that he wasn’t apart of the series anymore. His Instagram account, where DeMayo posted X-Men content, was deleted.
Before DeMayo was fired, he was writing for future seasons of the series. Going as far as discussing what season two and three would be with other writers on the project. He was also planning on going to the Hollywood premiere of the series on March 13.
The move brings outside questions due to the unusual nature for Marvel to move on from top creative members. In the past, writers who had their work rewritten or even fired still went to premiere and continued doing press.
The project was announced with DeMayo’s hiring in November 2021. According to The Hollywood Reporter, his hiring brought a perspective that felt personal due to DeMayo being a gay Black man and how his upbringing, being an adopted son to white parents and having a Korean sister, he understood the X-Men characters struggles for acceptance in society.
X-Men ’97, is a continuation of the 1992-97 series, X-Men: The Animated Series. Several voice actors from the original show are returning.
In June 2022, DeMayo talked about how X-Men: The Animated Series impacted him as a child. “Anyone who feels different, we all have a Magneto inside of us, and we all have a Charles Xavier,” DeMayo said. “We all have a part of us that wants to burn it all down, and there’s a part of us who wants to find the compromise and build it up. And those comics really helped me understand my identity.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, when reaching out for comment, Marvel did not provide a comment. DeMayo and his representatives did not respond to The Hollywood Reporter.