X-Men 97 Producer Booted By Marvel Ahead of Premiere

Summary:

• Based on the famous Marvel Comics stories about the adventures of mutated superhumans, X-Men 97 is the long-awaited follow-up to the fan-favorite animated series from the 1990s.
• The Disney+ series is due to start streaming on March 20th, more than 30 years after the original show finished its run.
• In the run-up to the premiere, showrunner and writer Beau DeMayo was unexpectedly fired by Marvel, barring him from work on the comics giant’s further projects.

Layoffs have been a trend lately in film and entertainment industry, and are getting more frequent by the day. However, the latest shake-up at Marvel Comics is shocking even by modern standards.

Producer and scriptwriter Beau DeMayo, who developed the animated series revival of the popular X-Men: The Animated Series, the popular 1990s Saturday morning cartoon based on the eponymous comic series, has been sacked by the comics giant roughly a week before the new show’s debut.

This perplexing announcement comes after DeMayo completed two seasons’ worth of scripts for the show and was poised to work on a possible Season 3.

The revival, titled X-Men 97, is a belated return of the titular superhero team to the television; their last foray into the medium was back in 2011, when two anime adaptations aired on G4.

The X-Men: The Animated Series sequel is due to air its first episode on Disney+ less than a week from now, making the news of DeMayo’s sudden departure even more jarring.

DeMayo, who was closely involved with X-Men 97, played an active role in promoting the series and took to Instagram to publish show-related updates and sneak peeks.

Marvel cut all ties with the showrunner and deactivated his corporate email, trade reports say. Allegedly, the creative team of the show was told that DeMayo would not be working on the series further down the line, and he will not take part in publicity for the project. Talk about DeMayo getting a cold shoulder.

As it stands, neither Marvel nor DeMayo himself have given any comments on the matter. However, it is known that the dischargee removed his account from Instagram shortly after the news broke out.

Further muddling the waters is the fact that X-Men 97 was far from the only project that DeMayo worked on for the company. He was also employed as writer on the live-action Disney+ show Moon Knight and scripted the in-development Blade movie, both also based on Marvel Comics properties.

Interestingly, fans have shown conflicted feelings regarding the matter. Some have not held back in their assessment and wished DeMayo to walk away from the X-Men franchise for good.

“I wonder how Beau DeMayo would feel knowing that the whole X-men fandom is happy he was fired,” wrote Twitter user @moonlight_sira.

Others have expressed a radically different opinion, praising DeMayo’s contributions to X-Men 97 and arguing it would be better for him to remain as showrunner.

“So they fire this guy weeks before the show releases, rather than delaying the show & making it better. Built in excuse for Marvel,” texted user @SWMarvelPURIST.

Meanwhile, Marvel has been trying to raise the profile of the X-Men series by unveiling titles for upcoming episodes through their official social media. The show must go on, after all.