X-Men '97 Showrunner Blasts Marvel, Alleges "Criminal Working Conditions"
Former X-Men '97 showrunner Beau DeMayo is going at Disney and Marvel, refuting their claims about his firing an describing hostile work conditions at the company.
Former X-Men '97 showrunner Beau DeMayo is continuing his one-man campaign against Marvel Studios and Disney, after being fired from the hit Disney+ animated series earlier this year. DeMayo appeared in a video on his Only Fans account, where he openly refuted the recent press from Disney about his firing and even went so far as to accuse Marvel Studios for supporting a "toxic environment" with "near criminal working conditions" that "turns individuals against one another" and "stokes paranoia to ensure compliance."
"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," DeMayo said in his video post.
"In the end, the offenses Marvel and others have leaked are designed to distract you from what really offended them," DeMayo added later. "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."
While exact details have been vague, DeMayo has previously alleged that Disney/Marvel fired him from X-Men '97 Season 2 after sharing fan art of himself as a shirtless Cyclops during Gay Pride Month in June. In this latest video he acknowledges that he is "not everyone's cup of tea," when it came to the working environment on X-Men '97, and creative conflicts did occur. At the same time, DeMayo and his attorneys have slammed Disney/Marvel's framing of the firing, claiming it cast the showrunner in a purposefully sinister light:
"Mr. DeMayo was terminated in March 2024 following an internal investigation," a Marvel spokesperson said in a statement (via THR). "Given the egregious nature of the findings, we severed ties with him immediately and he has no further affiliation with Marvel."
"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," DeMayo said in response, during his video.
DeMayo's attorneys are also putting out a new statement, throwing suspicion on Disney/Marvel's part for the use of allegedly questionable Non-Disclosure Agreements. As attorney Bryan Freedman stated:
"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," Freedman said. "Violating Beau's statutory California rights will cost Marvel this case but more importantly, Marvel can no longer stop the truth from coming out."
So far, the allegations from both sides are being kept vague. We'll see if that continues.
X-Men '97 is streaming on Disney+
