By One of the surprise stories of the year thus far was the unexpected and abrupt exit of writer/producer Beau DeMayo from the show he created, the critically acclaimed “X-Men ’97”.
This revival of the iconic 1990s “X-Men” animated series has scored some of the best critical reviews of any film or TV show thus far, and the fan reaction has been similarly gushing.
DeMayo had completed writing on the second season and was gearing up to celebrate the show’s release when he was abruptly fired just days before the premiere. At the same time, he went dark on social media for a while.
Though the official reason for his exit remains unknown, DeMayo has resurfaced to discuss the new run’s fifth episode which has been dubbed as seriously game-changing as it involves some major shake-up of the status quo.
In a lengthy post on X, DeMayo says that fifth episode was “the centerpiece of my pitch to Marvel in November 2020. The idea being to have the X-Men mirror the journey that any of us who grew up on the original show have experienced since being kids in the 90s.”
He goes on to talk about how the world was a seemingly safer place and much simpler in terms of right/wrong in the 1990s along with clear answers to questions of identity and social justice. That’s changed over the past twenty five years, and he wanted that reflected here:
“Like many of us who grew up on the OG cartoon, the X-Men have now been hit hard by the realities of an adult and unsafe world. Life’s happened to them.
And they, like we did, will have to decide which parts of themselves they will cling to and which parts they’ll let go of in order to do what they’ve been telling humanity to do: face an uncertain future they never saw coming.
As Trask told Cyclops in the premiere: ‘you have no idea what it’s like to be left behind by the future.’ Now the X-Men do, and like each of us, they’ll have to weigh whether this is a time for social justice – or as Magneto preached at his trial – is it a time for social healing.”
The series still has five more episodes to air for this season which will wrap its run on May 15th. A second season is already in production and talk of a third is already underway.
The post “X-Men ’97” Creator On That Fifth Episode appeared first on Dark Horizons.
