‘X-Men ’97’ Creator Abruptly Parts Ways With Marvel

X-Men ’97 hits Disney+ next week, but series producer, writer, and creator Beau DeMayo is no longer involved with the series.

The news of DeMayo’s sudden departure from Marvel Studios broke earlier today. According to The Hollywood Reporter, DeMayo was fired from Marvel last week, with no reason given for his departure and no comment from Marvel, DeMayo’s reps, or DeMayo himself.

Any creative’s sudden departure from a studio is surprising, but the circumstances of DeMayo leaving are particularly startling, given the show’s impending release. It seems DeMayo won’t be participating in X-Men ’97 press or attending the premiere.

DeMayo had previous expressed a great deal of excitement about the project, telling media outlets how much X-Men meant to him. “I grew up with the show, I watched it,” DeMayo told The Direct in June 2023. “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.”

DeMayo also took to his Instagram account to answer fans’ questions about the series, including whether the series takes place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and what pronouns nonbinary character Morph uses. Now, DeMayo’s Instagram account has been deactivated.

In addition to season 1 of X-Men ’97, DeMayo worked on Marvel Studio’s Moon Knight, Blade, and X-Men ’97 season 2.

The first two episodes of X-Men ’97 will release on Disney+ on March 20, with one new episodes dropping each week after that. The series continues the story of the mutant team from the ’90s animated series on Fox Kids, which ended with the loss of Professor Xavier.

(via The Hollywood Reporter, featured image: Amy Sussman/Getty Images)