Back in March, beloved showrunner Beau DeMayo’s firing from Marvel’s “X-Men 97” caused some major waves, leaving fans and industry insiders alike baffled, but the troubling allegations surrounding his exit were never revealed.
On Thursday night, Marvel released a statement to THR accusing DeMayo of “egregious” behavior that the trade categorized as “sexual misconduct.” That’s when the floodgates started opening overnight.
DeMayo was fired just a few weeks before the Season 1 premiere of the animated “X-Men 97,” which ended up getting great reviews and a major audience. DeMayo had already finished work on Season 2 when he was axed by Marvel. It was clear then that whatever he did must have been so bad that Marvel had no choice but to get rid of him.
On Thursday, right after Marvel’s statement to THR, DeMayo took to Twitter and claimed he was fired because of “X-Men” fan art that depicted a shirtless version of him as Cyclops. He wrote, “On June 13, Marvel sent a letter notifying me that they’d stripped my Season 2 credits due to the post.”
“I’ll have more to say soon but must take a step back from social media to find a safer space for me to be out, proud, and nerdy. Stay tuned,” wrote DeMayo.
It now turns out that DeMayo’s termination “involved sexual misconduct.” Jeff Sneider is being told, via his excellent newsletter, that DeMayo sent nude photos of himself, in various stages of undress, to several young male staffers.
Some of these photos allegedly featured DeMayo wearing superhero costumes and striking sexually suggestive “hero” poses that could be used as “inspiration” for the show. DeMayo was asked to stop sending such photos but I’m told that he persisted nonetheless.
“If you were a guy who looked like they could be under 30 on that show [X-Men ’97], you have his nudes whether you wanted them or not.”
Additionally, Sneider is told that DeMayo “groped” an assistant “on multiple occasions” and that he was both “emotionally and physically abusive to staffers.” Apparently, DeMayo was let go from Netflix’s “The Witcher” for similar behavior. Disney clearly didn’t vet this guy properly.
The result is that DeMayo’s career is now in turmoil, his EP credit on Season 2 of “X-Men ’97” has been nixed, but he will still keep his writing credit, despite Marvel, apparently, rewriting most of the second season.
Following all of the chaos I’ve just laid out, DeMayo returned to X/Twitter to tell his fans that “This is Disney-Marvel’s usual playbook. Legal letters as well as other items to prove their long-standing pattern to follow […] The truth will be revealed. After their Disney Plus disaster, Marvel wants to mislead with alleged contract breaches over tweets. It’s tragic it’s come to this but unsurprising. Stay tuned.”
This is clearly not over. A lot of bad blood is about get spilt.