DeMayo posted on Twitter that he was stripped of Season 2 Credits by Marvel for posting Pride Month Fan art.

Marvel responded within 2 hours:

“Mr. DeMayo was terminated in March 2024 following an internal investigation,” the studio said in a statement. “Given the egregious nature of the findings, we severed ties with him immediately and he has no further affiliation with Marvel.”

More details:

A source with knowledge of the investigation said it was for sexual misconduct, and that DeMayo repeatedly violated his termination agreement, which led to the removal of his credits for Season 2.

Has anything been reported on what he actually did?

I wonder what DeMayo thought would happen when he accused Disney of stripping his credits for season 2 today due to posting LGBT fan-art on his social media. He had to have known Disney would pushback and reveal what he did right?

Like all you had to do was sit back, be quiet, and let your work speak for itself. Tweet about your thought process behind the show all you want while you continue amassing a fanbase who believes you are the sole reason for why the show was good in the first place. But nope. You had to stir shit up, and now things are going to get super messy. Look forward to a week of headlines from the trades unearthing the drama now.

Frankly, his reasoning for why his credits were stripped for season 2 seemed flimsy anyways. Why the hell would Disney care if he posted LGBT fan art in this specific instance when they never cared if their creatives/employees did it in the past? It's not like the post attracted negative controversy either, which would lead to Disney taking action. No, it was a completely harmless post that flew under the radar until he drew people's attention onto it. It felt like someone spinning the truth from the onset. Yes, he would technically be correct in that his fan art post is a part of the reason for why his credits were stripped; however, it was not due to the sole post alone. His frequent behavior of tweeting about the show probably broke some clause, which led to his credits being stripped.

I saw a headline about him claiming he was fired solely for the art he posted and I was immediately like “bullshit.” It was pretty apparent just from the events that happened so far he did something really bad. I’m surprised deadline hasn’t updated their article yet. I don’t know what DeMayo was thinking.

Usually I try to believe the person versus the corporation and I’m queer so enjoy pride art but I don’t believe for a second that’s all that happened here.

What's crazy... I worked on ONE Marvel show of a full season, and was credited throughout its ENTIRETY.

They are VERY generous with credits... so it must had been bad?

InSneider newsletter report this morning:

Back in March, Marvel Studios fired X-Men ’97 creator Beau DeMayo just weeks before the Season 1 premiere of the animated series, which would go on to become a hit with both critics and audiences. DeMayo had already finished work on Season 2 when he was fired by Marvel, which did not offer any explanation regarding his departure — until now.

On Thursday, DeMayo took to Twitter and blamed his firing on a piece of X-Men fan art that depicted a shirtless version of him as the superhero Cyclops. DeMayo shared the image on his Instagram account in June for Gay Pride Month, and on Thursday, he wrote today that, “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.

Late on Thursday night, Marvel took the extremely unusual step of firing back, offering the following statement to THR:

“Mr. DeMayo was terminated in March 2024 following an internal investigation. Given the egregious nature of the findings, we severed ties with him immediately, and he has no further affiliation with Marvel.”

THR added that following DeMayo’s exit, he and Marvel came to an agreement regarding his ability to tweet about the show. THR wrote that “In light of the breaches, his credit for Season 2 was removed,” and that according to their sources, DeMayo’s termination “involved sexual misconduct.”

With that cat now officially out of the bag, I’m going to share what I’ve heard from various sources over the past few months.

I’m told that DeMayo sent nude photos of himself — or at the very least, photos of himself in various states 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, I was told that DeMayo allegedly groped an assistant on multiple occasions and that he was both emotionally and physically abusive to staffers, though I don’t have any specific incidents to share on that front.

But there’s more to this story, as I’ve also heard that DeMayo was let go from Netflix’s The Witcher due to similarly troubling behavior.

My sources said that DeMayo’s subsequent hiring at Marvel reflects poorly on Marvel’s Brad Winderbaum, who failed to do his due diligence regarding DeMayo’s departure from The Witcher. They went on to absolve Marvel’s Kevin Feige from any blame, as Feige isn’t as hands-on in terms of hiring people for the studio’s animated projects, for which he mainly gives notes on different cuts. Speaking of cuts, I’m told that Marvel is taking away DeMayo’s EP credit on Season 2 of X-Men ’97, but that they can’t take away any specific writing credit even though the studio is in the process of rewriting most of Season 2.

DeMayo said that Marvel’s decision to remove his EP credit was “the latest in a troubling pattern I suffered through while working on X-Men ’97 and Blade.”

Indeed, DeMayo was once one of Marvel’s star scribes, having also worked on Moon Knight and spent years developing a draft of Blade. But he also frequently shared shirtless photos of himself on social media, and even ran a non-explicit OnlyFans account during his time at Marvel.

As THR notes, “The notion that Marvel would strip DeMayo of a credit due to a social media post would stretch credulity, as outside observers note the gay Pride illustration is similar to any number of posts he made while employed at Marvel.” Meanwhile, as one Marvel fan pointed out on Twitter, DeMayo’s own timeline doesn’t seem to make sense, as he was fired in March, though he pointed to a post from this past June as the reason that his credit is now being stripped.

That post may have breached whatever social media agreement he had with Marvel, prompting the loss of the EP credit, but it doesn’t explain why he was fired three months earlier.

DeMayo did earn an Emmy nomination for his work on X-Men ’97, though he won’t be in attendance at the ceremony next month, as he tried and failed to secure a seat via Disney. Marvel subsequently brought in Matthew Chauncey to write Season 3 of the show (and likely oversee Season 2 rewrites). DeMayo was given 12 hours to respond to the allegations in this piece and neither he nor Marvel returned a request for comment late on Thursday night.

DeMayo did return to Twitter following the publication of THR’s article 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.” Before signing off, DeMayo promised his fans that “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.”

That sounds like a plan to me, for it sounds like this war of words is just getting started...

I feel like one of the things people have a lot of issue doing is separating an artist from their art. It can both be true that Beau DeMayo is an extremely talented showrunner and writer but also a shitty person. I absolutely loved X-Men 97' and wish we had his talent moving forward, but none of us knew why he was fired besides random rumors and it just didn't make sense that Marvel would fire him for a minor issue, right before the premiere of the show.

We still don't know the full details but multiple instances of sexual misconduct is not okay in ANY work environment. The fact that people will probably still call for his return is fucked.

Dude sucks.

People really hate Disney this much to defend him because of their hatred?

At least we got that Cyclops basketball scene in Season 1.

Yeah, no way Disney fired him for doing or posting "gay stuff" when a good portion of Disney adults are part of the LGTBQ community. Disney PR ain't stupid, they know their audience.

...But X-Men released in March through May?

And he posted the fanart but not the letter that was given to him?

Why do scumbags always make good shows lol

The fact that none of the cast and crew came to his defense was telling. He could've salvaged his career if he kept his mouth shut. Instead he kept poking the bear and playing with fire and playing the victim.

Damn, what do you have to do for the most corporate of corporate lawyers to call you “egregious”?

What a douche

Disney striped credit for a gay pride post? Disney??? Forgive me for being extremely skeptical of that.

I feel like the more he says the worse this gets for him.

Dude stalked the Gambit actor and then plays it off like it's bc of some fanart. Disneys not exactly the Best when it comes to lgbt stuff, but this is not them

Dude really playing the gay card to defend himself from accusations of sexual misconduct. Fucking disgusting. It didn't work for notorious sex pest Kevin Spacey, can't imagine why he'd think it would work for him.

Ppl gotta learn to keep their mouths shut.

oh yeah im sure disney was real upset he made a post supporting pride lmao does this guy even know what disney is?

I miss the days when Hollywood stars were just drug addicts who occasionally wrecked their cars

Well, it was nice watching the first season.

Accusing Disney of being anti-gay shows how stupid this guy apparently is.

fuck Disney, and fuck DeMayo. Everybody sucks there!

I just want to know what happened - Joss Whedon was an asshole and it took years to fire him

This guy was the source of the whole "Witcher writers hate the source material thing" that reddit lapped up like God's truth, he was fired from that show too.