X-Men '97 Showrunner Beau DeMayo Explains His Level of Involvement With Season 2

Beau DeMayo was fired from X-Men '97 before the Season One premiere.

By Jamie Jirak

The season finale of X-Men '97 was released on Disney+ this week, and it's gotten major praise from Marvel fans. The show is currently up on Rotten Tomatoes with an impressive 98% critics score and 94% audience score. ComicBook gave the show a 5 out of 5, and called it "an ideal reboot." While many people deserve credit for making X-Men '97 a success, one important person behind the scenes was the show's creator and showrunner, Beau DeMayo. As fans were gearing up for the release of X-Men '97, the surprising news broke that DeMayo had been fired from the series. Details of his firing have remained under wraps, but DeMayo has still be openly talking about the show on social media. In fact, he recently took to Twitter to clarify his Season Two involvement. 

"I did write a lot of Season 2," DeMayo shared. "However, unlike Season 1, I will not be heavily involved or leading production, cast records, design, editorial, post, music, etc., nor doing any production rewrites as it relates to the creative vision of the show."  

"This is why I've said I can't really speak to Season 2," he added. "But, looking forward to seeing the final product with you all whenever it airs. I have high hopes."

Marvel's head of streaming, Brad Winderbaum, recently addressed DeMayo's firing in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.

"I can't talk about the details," Winderbaum explained. "But I can say that Beau had real respect and passion for these characters and wrote what I think are excellent scripts that really the rest of the team were able to draw inspiration from [to] build this amazing show that's on screen." When asked if he would consider what happened with DeMayo as a "firing" as had been the wording used in the press, Winderbaum added, "I don't. 'We parted ways' is the best way I could say."

Which Voice Actors Return in X-Men '97?

Original X-Men: The Animated Series cast members Cal Dodd (Wolverine), Lenore Zann (Rogue), George Buza (Beast), Alison Sealy-Smith (Storm), Adrian Hough (Nightcrawler), and Christopher Britton (Mister Sinister) reprise their roles from the '90s series while returning cast members Catherine Disher (original Jean Grey), Chris Potter (original Gambit), Alyson Court (original Jubilee), and Lawrence Bayne (original Cable) voice new characters. 

The new cast includes Ray Chase (Cyclops), Jennifer Hale (Jean Grey), JP Karliak (Morph), AJ LoCascio (Gambit), Holly Chou (Jubilee), Isaac Robinson-Smith (Bishop), and Matthew Waterson (Magneto).

X-Men '97 director/producer Jake Castorena recently spoke with RadioTimes and explained why some of the voice cast has changed. 

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"If we're doing this show, we got to do it with the legacy cast – that was the decision from day one," Castorena explained. "[But] time hits us all – it's been 30 years and so, unfortunately, some of the legacy voice cast is no longer with us, and some of the legacy voice cast, voices and things just change."

X-Men '97 is now streaming on Disney+. 

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