Beau DeMayo continues to talk about Disney on social media. DeMayo, who was reportedly fired from X-Men ’97 due to sexual misconduct, has been doubling down on his tweets about his former employer. Now, he claims he was told to make his animated X-Men series “less gay.”
Rumors began to circulate that Disney told Pixar to make Riley’s character in Inside Out 2 “less gay.” Those online began criticizing the company and questioning why they were catering to people who would ask this of their films. DeMayo claims that X-Men ’97 got the same note. “Heard the same words ‘less gay’ onX-Men ’97 when it came to Magnus and Xavier, as well as marketing,” he wrote on X.
In another post, DeMayo also claimed that Disney forced Magneto to wear briefs in a scene where he is being tied up. According to the former creator, he stated that Magneto was naked until changes needed to be made. “Originally, he was nude and the beat played as dehumanizing torture. It was Marvel’s idea to put him in briefs. The crew and I were so beaten down by that point we just gave each other looks, knowing their note would do the opposite. Such is ignorance … “
Originally, he was nude and the beat played as dehumanizing torture. It was Marvel’s idea to put him in briefs. The crew and I were so beaten down by that point we just gave each other looks, knowing their note would do the opposite. Such is ignorance…
The scene in question, according to DeMayo, was about two men looking at each other with brotherly solidarity. “True, but when they start misinterpreting two males exchanging a look of brotherly solidarity before battle as ‘too gay’ and one execs favorite word ‘creepy,’ there’s an issue.”
True, but when they start misinterpreting two males exchanging a look of brotherly solidarity before battle as “too gay” and one execs favorite word “creepy,” there’s an issue.
DeMayo has been just tweeting things without a response
In August, Disney released a statement about DeMayo’s firing when it was announced that he’d no longer get credit on the second season of the show. “Mr. DeMayo was terminated in March 2023 following an internal investigation. Given the egregious nature of the findings, we severed ties with him immediately, and he has no further affiliation with Marvel.”
Since then, DeMayo has been posting about the company and its MCU plans. He claimed that the original script for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was very different from what we got with Michael Waldron’s take on the story, and now he is connecting X-Men ’97 to the reported Pixar claim.
Disney has yet to say another word about DeMayo’s firing but some rumors do not paint DeMayo in the best light. Whether or not he actually got that note from Disney or this is part of a larger takedown of the company, we can’t say for certain.
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This week’s season finale of X-Men ‘97 brought an emotional, explosive climax to mutantkind’s battle against Bastion and the Prime Sentinels—and the X-Men love nothing more for their soap operatic drama than a big emotional twist while everything’s going bonkers. The finale delivered on that front… although as with a lot of the X-Men’s problems, we’re going to have to wait and see how it pans out.
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As the battle on Asteroid M rages around the X-Men in “Tolerance Is Extinction, Part 3” and the team attempts to stop the station from plummeting into Earth in a cataclysmic event, a brief moment cuts to the X-Men’s blackbird jet as Morph watches over a sedated Wolverine, grievously wounded the episode prior when Magneto used his powers to tear the adamantium from Logan’s skeleton. Ouch. In his regenerative slumber, Logan keeps calling out for Jean Grey—but it’s Morph who’s at his side. Realizing they might not get another chance, with the base crashing down around them, Morph mutters to themselves “she can’t say it, but I can…” as they shapeshift into Jean, and use her form to add “I love you, Logan. Stay with me.”
To be fair, Morph has not been a subtle person about their feelings for Logan throughout this season—we’ve seen them spending a lot of time together, and Morph has constantly had a flirtatious vibe with Logan, from thinking he was eagerly following him into the showers in “Fire Made Flesh” (tricked by a supernatural vision of their desires, happens to the best of us) or bringing a six pack of beer and shifting into Logan’s archnemesis Sabretooth for some late night grappling. But just in case you’ve not been picking up what they’ve been putting down—it’s not exactly clear if Logan has been, either—former showrunner Beau DeMayo took to social media in the wake of the finale that yes, that wasn’t Morph trying to reassure Logan as Jean, that was Morph mustering their courage to reveal their own feelings to Logan.
It would make Morph the first explicitly romantically queer character on X-Men ‘97 so far, but as for how it’s going to pan out for them, things might not be so rosy. In the replies to DeMayo’s post confirming the intent behind Morph’s confession, the former showrunner acknowledged that Morph was potentially chasing after a straight man, and that never goes well for queer people. And that’s even before you get to the hot mess of confessing your feelings for someone while wearing the face of the person they have feelings for already. Hoo boy, Morph, you truly are a member of the X-Men with dramatic timing like that! It’s also something that Morph’s voice actor JP Karliak doesn’t necessarily want for the character, either.
“As somebody who’s consumed a ton of queer media over the years–what coded things we had in the ’90s—I think there have been so many stories told about the queer person that’s pining over the straight best friend. Meh!” the actor told Polygon this week about potentially setting Morph up for catching feelings that will go unrequited. “It’s kind of meh to me! I think it’s so much more interesting that they love each other like they’re Frodo and Samwise, and that’s great. It doesn’t need to be more than that. And they can support each other. It makes Morph razzing Wolverine by turning into Jean Grey so much less about like, ‘Oh, I’m jealous, so I’m gonna, like, razz you about your girlfriend who I hate,’ and more about, ‘Hey, buddy, I think this is harmful for you, and I just want to point this out, that maybe you need to move on.’”
Whatever DeMayo and X-Men ‘97‘s creative team has planned for Morph and Logan’s relationship remains to be seen—before DeMayo exited the series, his work had already been completed on season two. But suffice to say, poor Morph is going to be in for a hell of a time between being flung through time, watching the aftermath of the person they’ve caught feelings for get half their skeleton ripped out of their body, and y’know, the whole surviving yet another threat of eradicating their entire kind and the rest of the planet along with them. Business as usual for the X-Men.
Peek behind the curtains in a new X-Men ‘97 featurette. Get a look at what’s coming on Halo’s season finale. The Wynonna Earp revival movie has wrapped filming. Plus, meet Inside Out 2‘s new emotions, and Evil Dead Rise’s Lee Cronin is setting up his genre future. To me, my spoilers!
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According to a new report from The InSneider newsletter, Universal Pictures has offered Scarlett Johansson the leading role in Jurassic World 4.
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Additionally, Variety suggests Christopher Nolan may follow Oppenheimer with a film adaptation of the 1960’s TV series, The Prisoner—a project the outlet notes the director was formerly “attached to in 2009,” but “the sci-fi project vanished from Nolan’s dance card that same year when AMC released its own The Prisoners, a six-part miniseries led by Jim Caviezel as the ill-fated agent Number Six alongside Ian McKellen and Ruth Wilson.”
Untitled Lee Cronin Projects
THR reports Evil Dead Rise director Lee Cronin “has joined forces with frequent collaborators John Keville and Macdara Kelleher of Wild Atlantic Pictures” to launch Doppelgängers, “a new production outfit focused on genre fare” that’s already signed “a first-look deal with New Line Cinema for its feature film projects.”
Cuckoo
According to Bloody-Disgusting, Tilman Singer’s horror film Cuckoo has been rated “R” for “violence, bloody images, language and brief teen drug use.” Hunter Schafer, Dan Stevens, Jessica Henwick, Marton Csókás, Greta Fernández and Jan Bluthardt star.
Inside Out 2
Disney has released character posters of Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, Disgust, Anxiety, Ennui, Envy and Embarrassment as they appear in Inside Out 2.
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Filming has officially wrapped on the Wynonna Earp revival movie, according to series creator Emily Andras on Instagram.
The first time the internet saw DCU Superman star Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia in Netflix’s adaptation of The Witcher, it howled in collective laughter over the terrible wig. Four years later, fans are losing their minds that Hollywood’s leading himbo won’t be reprising the role after season three ends. One obvious explanation for why is that Cavill has signed on to shoot a new Superman movie, but fans think the real reason Cavill is leaving is that he’s tired of fighting with Netflix to keep The Witcher true to its literary source material.
The surprising news of Cavill’s impending departure was shared yesterday in a statement by Netflix that also announced Liam Hemsworth of Hunger Games fame would be taking over the role in season four. “As with the greatest of literary characters, I pass the torch with reverence for the time spent embodying Geralt and enthusiasm to see Liam’s take on this most fascinating and nuanced of men,” Cavill was quoted as saying. “Liam, good sir, this character has such a wonderful depth to him, enjoy diving in and seeing what you can find.”
While many were disappointed that The Man From U.N.C.L.E. would no longer be caught growling “Roach” at horses in future seasons, Witcher fans took the news especially badly. Subreddits for the books, games, and Netflix series blew up with disbelief, frustration, and memes, while conspiracy theories got passed around on Twitter that Cavill had been more or less forced out over creative differences with a production that has at times taken generous liberties with Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski’s original novels. Certain parts of the Witcher fandom have always had a toxic relationship with the show, fuming over certain casting choices and plot deviations, and Cavill’s departure is now being taken as validation of every criticism they’ve ever had.
To support their theories, fans point to a breadcrumb trailof previous interview quotes by Cavill about his desire to keep Netflix’s Geralt true to the one originally put to paper in the pages of fantasy magazine Fantastyka back in 1986. Less than a year ago the actor said he told the Hollywood Reporter he was “absolutely” committed to the show’s seven-season plan “as long as we can keep telling great stories which honor [author Andrzej] Sapkowski’s work.”
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During the media tour around season two’s release last year, Cavill spoke repeatedly about campaigning to bring more three-dimensionality to Geralt, noting that in addition to a brutish monster slayer he’s also wise, thoughtful, and an “amateur philosopher.” “This season, I really wanted to make sure that we represented the book’s Geralt more accurately, and that we saw him speak more,” he told Total Film at the time. “I pushed really, really hard for that.”
Then there was showrunner Lauren Hissrich’s own comments about Cavill’s preparation for season two. “A lot of the notes he was sending to me were about Geralt’s dialogue—could he, first of all, say more,” she told Hollywood Reporter. “Everybody came out of season one laughing and loving Geralt’s fuming. But Henry was saying that when you read the books you spend a lot of time in Geralt’s head. So how can we put that on the page?”What about Cavill’s aspirations for the future of the series? “I’m a huge fan of the books and staying loyal to them, and it’s about making sure that story happens without too much in the way of diversions or side things going on to muddy the waters,” he said during a Netflix Geeked conversation last year. Adding fuel to the fire was a recent interview with Beau DeMayo, a former producer on The Witcher who is now running X-Men ‘97 on Disney+, where he said some writers “actively disliked” and even “mocked” the source material.
Screenshot: Netflix
Some fans’ takeaways from these soundbytes has been that while Hissrich was focused on making the show what she wanted it to be, Cavill was the only one interested in trying to keep it grounded in the original version of the characters. This comes in the context of long Reddit threads like this one where fans have detailed all of the ways season two was different from the books, with fears that season three, not set to air until the summer of 2023, might include even larger departures.
While the theory is a compelling one when collapsed into a couple of viral tweets, the show’s place within the larger fandom has always been more complicated than that. Hissrich was temporarily chased off Twitter prior to season one’s release when racist fans petitioned Netflix to only let a white woman play the lead role of Ciri, Geralt’s adopted daughter. Then there were those on the edge of the fandom with no knowledge of or interest in the grimdark fantasy series until Netflix spent tens of millions bringing it to life. “Book purists are hurting the experience for new fans,” wrote one user on the show’s subreddit last year. Then there are fans of CD Projekt Red’s Witcher video game trilogy which takes huge liberties with the storytelling, and has effectively created its own parallel lore.
Whether Cavill was a purist on set is almost beside the point. His role in season two clearly did little to prevent some of the narrative departures fans took the biggest issue with. But he was clearly the glue holding the show’s disparate fandoms together. The fact that he loves PC gaming and painting Warhammer miniatures in his free time, and obviously was a big fan of Sapkowski’s books, gave him huge street cred with even the worst diehard Witcher fans. Normies and newcomers loved him too, not because he’s a pedant when it comes to the lore but because he’s a charismatic presence that did, in the end, manage to combine tenderness, ruthlessness, and a morbid wit into something deeper than his Halloween Spirit costume initially suggested. “I think the glue that held it together really was Henry Cavill as Geralt,” former Kotaku senior critic Harper Jay said during a 2018 VG chat about the first season.
With that glue gone, The Witcher season four has its work cut out for it with the circumstances around Cavill’s leaving dogging it at every turn. Whether Hemsworth is up to the task or not, the news at least comes with season three already wrapped. Fans will get one last chance to return to that world with Cavill as an anchor. I’m sure it will all go fine, and not stoke even more conspiratorial speculation over creative differences.
