Beau DeMayo isn't done talking shit about Disney and Marvel. Despite being in a pretty ugly back-and-forth with the studio, DeMayo is willing to award some credit (Agatha All Along is good, he says) but also more than willing to give criticism and spill tea. His review of What If…?'s third season—which happened to be helmed by Matthew Chauncey, the guy who replaced DeMayo as showrunner on X-Men '97—is "yikes just yikes," as he posted on Twitter/X.
"I’d watch more to give notes on how it could’ve easily been done better but I have some water to watch boil," DeMayo wrote on the platform on Friday, adding elsewhere that he found it "mediocre." The new season, released last week "has no substance and feels like fanfic. The dialogue is flat and so obvious, and some of the premises are just weird," DeMayo declared. "This is also the season where [What If…? creator/executive producer] AC Bradley completely stepped back for Chauncey to take over."
So, maybe DeMayo isn't totally objective here. He's filed a legal complaint against Disney over the NDA he was made to sign following his X-Men exit. For its part, the corporation claimed DeMayo had been investigated over "egregious" behavior behind the scenes. DeMayo has denied this (including stating "there’s been no proof or evidence given" in his posts on Friday), and accused Disney right back of "egregious prejudicial misconduct." To wit: "Keep in mind that the creative team behind #whatif is entirely white and Marvel likes that vibe," he told followers in his Friday posts. "And the actual crew making X-Men is trying hard to make something great in a broken system with crappy and vindictive and bigoted leadership."
Who knows what's going on with that NDA, but DeMayo went on to detail some specific complaints regarding his time on X-Men '97. He wrote:
"They wanted to have large sections focused on the kids and their POV on the situation. They felt Rogue’s story was sexist. That Scott was sexist. Actually, any story involving or showcasing Scott was apparently me failing the progressive cause because 'Cyclops is a jerk'"
"Yeah, same with episode 7 and 9. They would largely try to rewrite and rework the scripts, resulting in massive production delays and thousand of dollars of animation 'pick ups' to correct what theyd gone rogue on. It was ridiculous."
"Oh this same person turned in an ep to me where they had 'accidentally' cut every single Nightcrawler religious quote. I had to spend an afternoon with Jake Castorena fixing the episode, where he then told me this director was a self-described satanist."
"Also the day to day co-executive producer in animation came from production and has next to zero creative experience. Terrible exec. Laughably bad, critiquing Gambit’s backstory as 'trailer trash'"
"She wanted me to cut the intercut in episode 2 where Magneto lifts the UN between Jean giving birth. I ignored her note, as well as her attempt with the director of Ep 5 to turn it into something completely different and cut Val’s speech I. 8. She also gave the 'too gay' note."
As part of this comprehensive tirade, DeMayo shared that the studio is "throwing out or reworking most of my season 2" and "dropped my season 3 plans" for X-Men '97. "I know Marvel and Chauncey tore up my intercut time hopping across the first episodes because it was 'too complicated,'" he added. But "Their work without me will eventually speak for itself," he wrote. "The work always does."
