After vowing to share his side of the story on OnlyFans (for a mere $9.99 subscription fee!), fired X-Men '97 showrunner Beau DeMayo has talked more about his clash with Marvel Studios and Disney in a new interview with Deadline.
This comes after a wave of allegations about him started doing the rounds online last month, suggesting he'd sent inappropriate photos to co-workers and perhaps even made unwanted physical advances. DeMayo initially said he was fired for posting LGBTQ fan art, prompting a stern response from Marvel Studios and then murmurs of sexual misconduct.
"The rumors being spread around me online are lies, and they are offensive, but more concerning is that they’re a smear campaign designed to discredit my credibility in order to cover up the egregious prejudicial misconduct stretching from select crew members on X-Men '97, all the way all the way to the top at Marvel Studios," DeMayo stated today.
Saying "these allegations of egregious misconduct are false," he added that Marvel Studios fosters a "toxic environment" and "near criminal working conditions" that "turns individuals against one another, stokes paranoia to ensure compliance."
DeMayo argues that "being gay, Black and open about it at Marvel Studios" was the real issue and after acknowledging that "personality conflicts happen" and he's "not everyone’s cup of tea," the former X-Men '97 showrunner claimed he "no longer felt safe at the studio as a gay Black man."
That's not all, though, as he'd later add:
"In the end, the offenses Marvel and others have leaked are designed to distract you from what really offended them. Someone like me dared to speak truth to people like them. They wanted me to be the Black stamp of approval on this project, I declined. They wanted to erase aspects of my personality that clashed or proved inconvenient with the misguided narratives they wanted to establish. I declined. They tried to intimidate me with both explicit and implied threats."
"I was not intimidated. Everything they have done since then has been designed not just to silence me and smear me, but to crush me and to remind me to know my role. I have the receipts and the eyewitnesses so long as you stop coercing them to lie, you can keep attacking me with lies and misinformation, but we can become the ugliest, most annoying version of that of that or you can start acting like a studio that is worthy of a show like X Men ‘97."
Now, DeMayo's lawyer has filed an expedited jury trial to have an allegedly "illegal non-disparagement provision" removed from the writer’s exit package documents. The complaint claims it was meant to "muzzle an openly gay Black man and restrict his statutory rights."
As you might expect, the fact DeMayo will no longer be credited for his work on X-Men '97 season 2 is a major sticking point, as is his exclusion from season 1's Emmy campaign. More details on his complicated NDA can be found by visiting the link above.
It's a messy, complicated situation and one which looks set to pit DeMayo against the House of Mouse with the potential outcomes currently unclear. Stay tuned for updates as we have them.