Disney fires gay creator of its new X-Men cartoon series a week before premiere

Writers being dropped from TV shows is nothing new, but eyebrows have been raised over Disney’s alleged firing of the creator of its new X-Men ‘97 animated series.

Beau DeMayo, 41, is a writer and lead producer of the show. It’s a follow-up to the Fox TV show of the 1990s, which popularized the superhero mutants before the big screen, live-action movies of the early 00s.

X-Men ‘97 is due to premiere on Disney+ on March 20. DeMayo has been engaged in plenty of press activity to promote the new series and was scheduled to attend its premiere event today.

According to an exclusive story in The Hollywood Reporter, Disney let DeMayo go last week. Neither Disney nor DeMayo have commented on the situation.

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DeMayo has also deleted his Instagram account, which reportedly often featured news about the show.

DeMayo, who is gay, previously had his own, non-sexual OnlyFans account. Online, some have speculated that the OnlyFans may have prompted the firing. However, this is unlikely as it was common knowledge. A couple of years ago, Out ran a profile on DeMayo. It called him “the Sexy, Gay Marvel Writer & Showrunner to Know” and provided a link to his OnlyFans (now deactivated).

X-Men offer comfort to all outsiders

DeMayo is a Marvel regular. He previously worked on Moon Knight, The Witcher and the upcoming Blade reboot.

DeMayo has previously spoken about how he relates to the X-Men characters. He suggested that his own background, as a Black, gay man, often left him feeling like an outsider. He’s also adopted, raised by White parents along with a Korean sister.

In 2021, he told The Direct about the impact of watching the 1990s X-Men.

“I grew up with the show, I watched it. 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.”

In March 2023, DeMayo spoke at Marvel’s X-Men: 60 Uncanny Years Live Virtual Event. He recalled pitching his idea for an X-Man animated reboot to Marvel president Kevin Feige and Marvel’s head of streaming, TV and animation Brad Winderbaum.

“(Kevin and Brad) could not have been more supportive and also just encouraging to make sure we got it right,” he said.

“I think one of my favorite parts was like they were truly interested in like what my experience as a black gay man was and how it was going to inform the story we were telling. And that to them was like that is how we’re going to make this authentic,” he added.

X-Men ‘97 hits Disney+ on March, 20. DeMayo confirmed in February that one of the characters is nonbinary. Watch the trailer below.

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We don’t require anyone to validate our existence, but any example that shows LGBTQ+ characters in a holistic and positive way makes queer and trans folks feel seen.