‘X-Men ’97’ Creator Beau DeMayo Fired Weeks Before Premiere
‘X-Men ’97’ Creator Beau DeMayo Fired Weeks Before Premiere
In an unusual situation on the eve of a project's debut, the writer-producer, who worked on 'Moon Knight' and 'Blade', will no longer be promoting the show or moving forward with future seasons.
No trace of any reason for the firing to be found in the article, both sides at the time of publishing have been silent about it.
Strange. Hoping it's something shitty Marvel/Disney did, would be disappointing to hear DeMayo did something worthy of being dropped suddenly like this...
Yeah the silence is odd. It's compounded by the fact that he just finished writing the second season and was beginning preliminary planning on a third. It seems abrupt. I imagine Disney/Marvel will release a statement soon but it's unusual for them not to get ahead of news like this.
Silence like this? Nah. He must have done something bad enough that him or Disney would not want it out.
But at times social media had proven a challenge while making the series. In May 2023, DeMayo announced he would be deleting his Twitter account, after he was attacked by users accusing X-Men ’97 of whitewashing the character Sunspot with the casting of Brazilian actor Gui Agustini in the role.
He was accused of whitewashing by casting a Brazilian actor to play a Brazilian character?
I gotta go down that rabbit hole.
Edit: Looks like the controversy was race based as opposed to nationality, which is why my first search on the character Sunspot only mentioning the Brazilian nationality seemed weird at a glance. Fans going hardcore on accusations and it sounds like maybe some threats based on Beau's responses. Sucks that every article is basically the same three paragraphs written slightly differently.
Sunspot is complicated as a character due to the printing technology at the time he was introduced.
It's plain that he was intended to be a darker skinned Brazilian.
First appearance in Marvel Graphic Novel #4: New Mutants:
But the graphic novel had better printing technology than the comics and racial toning didn't always come across well. Different artists also had different interpretations.
So the movie casting set people off:
Yeah I'm reading through the Claremont run for the first time and I can't think of an issue where he hasn't been depicted with a darker skin tone. That coupled with the fact his African-Brazillian heritage is referenced on numerous occasions leads me to seriously question the motivation for subsequent creatives (including Beau) to erase that aspect of Sunspot's character.
Ahhh I see. That second-from-last comic image where he's dodging lasers was the first one I found, and I was like "Wait it says this is from 2016 and he kinda looks like this Agustini guy already?"
So the controversy actually predates the casting, it just brought it back to the forefront.
That people are pissed about this and about disney doing a lot of the opposite in their movies is just proof that the world is full of the same bullshit, no matter what skin color or country you're from.
Wait. I was legitimately operating on the fact that it's ok for directors and artists to portray characters however they like now. I appreciated that.
Is it not universal?
Edit: I can imagine how this will be taken as bait or something but I'm not. I sometimes assume full absolute equality when that's not realistic. Canonically white characters are regularly played by others and I'm legitimately ok with that. I can understand other groups being bothered when their canonical characters get changed, but again I believe in 2024 that's the decision of the director/staff.
Ultimately folks attach to characters and enjoy them, and those who are strongly connected will never be satisfied by seeing that character differently than they are on the page/original medium.
I just don't see how that's enough to get someone fired but maybe there's more to the story.
Edit edit this apparently Brazilian character was even recast by another Brazilian which really feels like splitting hairs in 2024
Notice how they used the term "fired" instead of "parted ways" or "left the show". So he must have done something really bad.
If you get to make the statement, you quit.
If the company makes the statement, you were fired.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
DeMayo, a Marvel regular who previously wrote on live-action series Moon Knight as well as early drafts of the company’s delayed-but-still-upcoming vampire thriller Blade, had completed writing duties on season two of X-Men ’97, was lining up press, and making plans to attend the show’s Hollywood premiere on March 13.
However, it is unusual for a top creative on a Marvel project to miss a premiere or cancel press plans last minute, even if they’ve been shuffled to the side.
The move was met with some level of excitement, as the scribe brought his identity as a gay Black man to the project, and made it a point in talking to the press about how growing up as the adopted son to white parents with a Korean sister in the South made the X-Men characters — and their struggles for acceptance by society — feel personal to him.
His silence on social media has been acute as he was a prolific poster, sharing X-Men tidbits as well as shirtless pictures of himself at the gym.
For a time he also ran a non-explicit Only Fans account, all of which inspired the LGBTQ publication Out to declare him “the Sexy, Gay Marvel Writer & Showrunner to Know.”
In May 2023, DeMayo announced he would be deleting his Twitter account, after he was attacked by users accusing X-Men ’97 of whitewashing the character Sunspot with the casting of Brazilian actor Gui Agustini in the role.
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