Just hours after Marvel Studios officially announced Thunderbolts director Jake Schreier to helm the highly anticipated X-Men MCU reboot film, fired X-Men ’97 showrunner Beau DeMayo took to social media with an explosive series of accusations against the studio—and by extension, Disney itself.
DeMayo, who was abruptly let go from X-Men ’97 shortly before the show’s release, pulled no punches in a tirade posted to X claiming Marvel promotes “mediocre” creators and punishes those who speak up against internal misconduct.
Oh, look, only at @MarvelStudios with its plantation country club vibes can you direct a decent film that doesn’t break even at the box office and land this gig.
Oh to fit a certain demographic in Hollywood and just fail upwards 🙄
ZERO interest in seeing what him and… https://t.co/oUnefrEsHb
— Beau DeMayo (@BeauDemayo) June 19, 2025
“Oh, look, only at @MarvelStudios with its plantation country club vibes can you direct a decent film that doesn’t break even at the box office and land this gig,” DeMayo wrote, referencing Schreier’s Thunderbolts—a film that has become a massive flop at the box office. “Oh to fit a certain demographic in Hollywood and just fail upwards.”
The Thunderbolts uniting in Marvel’s Thunderbolts – YouTube, Marvel Entertainment
He went on to deride the hiring decision as “f***ing pathetic” and claimed the new X-Men film will be “Iger’s version” of the franchise, devoid of any “authentic exploration of the core themes.”
Well, they got straight white men steering it so they can avoid what happened on #Blade when a lead on the project threw a script by a black female writer across the room and shouted “this is why I don’t like working with women!”
What did @MarvelStudios do? Fired her to appease…
— Beau DeMayo (@BeauDemayo) June 19, 2025
But the real fire came when DeMayo accused Marvel Studios of firing a Black female writer from Blade after an incident in which a male lead allegedly threw her script and yelled, “this is why I don’t like working with women.” According to DeMayo, the studio not only fired the writer, but retaliated against him for reporting the incident—eventually booting him from Blade and making his time on X-Men ’97 miserable.
“What did @MarvelStudios leadership do when I reported it to @Marvel?” he asked. “Booted me off #Blade and then made my life hell on #XMen97 because I had dared to speak up to their vaunted Parliament.”
Beau DeMayo via Cool YouTube Guy YouTube
DeMayo claims to have “receipts and witnesses” and says Marvel has gone to great lengths to keep the incident quiet, even accusing mainstream outlets like Variety, Vanity Fair, and Empire of helping cover it up.
“This is their true face and they’re not even hiding it anymore,” he concluded.
At the heart of DeMayo’s rant is an accusation that cuts to the core of Disney and Marvel’s public image—one of a company that champions diversity, inclusion, and the moral high ground. The implication here is that behind the curtain, the very institutions that promote virtue-driven storytelling and identity politics may not be practicing what they preach.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 23: (L-R) Taika Waititi and Kevin Feige, President of Marvel Studios attend the Thor: Love and Thunder World Premiere at the El Capitan Theatre in [Hollywood], California on June 23, 2022. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)
As of now, Jake Schreier is officially attached to direct the X-Men reboot, with production expected to begin in 2026. Whether DeMayo’s claims gain traction in the industry or are quietly ignored remains to be seen. But one thing is certain—Marvel’s carefully curated public image is once again under scrutiny, this time from within its own creative ranks.
How do you feel about Beau DeMayo and his comments on the X-Men director? Sound off in the comments and let us know!
He’s screeching about the usual SJW reasons – “why isn’t a black woman directing the movie?”. Plus I’m pretty sure Jake Schreier is not white, but I doubt DeMayo has the balls to notice that.
Thunderbolts was a mega-expensive, girl-boss flopbuster. Remember when failure was punished? Now it is rewarded. And Dei, woke Hollywood wonders why it’s dying.