The great secret battle between Marvel and the creators of X-Men '97 is finally being fought out in public

Months after the show's release, the drama surrounding the firing of creator and showrunner Beau DeMayo from Disney+'s shockingly good revival series X-Men '97 is finally starting to leak out. Previously, DeMayo had spoken a bit about his inspirations for some of the show's heavier episodes, but neither he nor Marvel/Disney ever explained why they “split up” before the show's first season was released. Well, now they're talking: DeMayo lashed out at Disney on social media tonight, saying the studio stripped him of credits for the show's second season (which he had worked on before the split) because he posted Pride fan art of himself as Cyclops; Disney responded by saying that they actually did to fire him now that they're considering it after an internal investigation was conducted that apparently uncovered unstated but “egregious” problems with DeMayo's behavior. So, yes, we're definitely past the “playing nice” part of the story.

First, DeMayo posted on Twitter and Instagram tonight, writing:I am so grateful to have worked on this #XMen97in collaboration with some incredibly talented people. Creating this revival has been a dream come true and the support the fans have shown is so touching. However, after leaving the show, I felt compelled to say something… Above is #XMen Fan art I posted on Instagram for Gay Pride in June. On June 13th #Wonder sent me a letter informing me that they had revoked my Season 2 credits because of the post. Unfortunately, this is the latest example of a disturbing pattern I have noticed while working on #XMen97 And #Blade.” (DeMayo was one of several screenwriters who attempted to write the long-awaited but not yet filmed Mahershala Ali. blade Film.) The artwork in question, by an artist who appears on Instagram under @nartz.print, shows a DeMayo dressed in underwear as X-Men character Cyclops. (DeMayo's social media channels often include pictures of himself shirtless and in workout clothes, as well as other pieces of fan art depicting him as other X-Men.) DeMayo concludes his posts by saying, “I'll have more to say soon,” but he “needs to take a step back from social media to find a safer place where I can be open, proud, and nerdy. Stay tuned.”

Disney didn't appreciate that, to say the least. Anyone who has watched the company long enough — remember when Marvel and Scarlett Johansson had a heated argument and they went from “We love Scarlett!” to “Money-hungry actors are trying to take your movies away” in a single morning? — will know how the company's PR strategy can go from big smiles to thermonuclear when they sense they're under attack. The company very quickly issued a scorched-earth statement to THR within a few hours of DeMayo's post, and while the situation has not escalated to leaked allegations – yet – the company has made it pretty clear that it believes it could go the “showing receipts” route if it wanted to: “Given the egregious nature of the findings,” a spokesperson said, “we have severed relations with [DeMayo] immediately and he has no further connection to Marvel.” The situation here has always been like few unstable—and because of the long lead times in animation, DeMayo and Marvel still stayed in business together (and earned much praise from critics and fans) after… whatever happened… happened—but it's still shocking to see the masks on the whole affair fall away so quickly and violently.