It’s Officially The End Of An Important Era For X-Men ’97

Marvel Animation's X-Men '97 will take a new path moving forward, following the end of a major era for the animated revival. While the show's second season did not land as highly as Season 1, X-Men '97 is still one of the MCU's most popular stories, centered on the original team of mutants who debuted in X-Men: The Animated Series in 1992. Now, as Season 3 and beyond are developed, the studio will move there under some new leadership.

Season 3 of Marvel Animation's X-Men '97 will be the show's first season developed after original showrunner Beau DeMayo's exit. Notably, DeMayo was fired from Marvel Studios for "egregious" misconduct, which was revealed after an internal investigation into his work on the show. DeMayo has since denied those reports being true, sharing his own thoughts on why he was let go from the team.

Speaking with Collider's Maggie Lovitt in a panel at FAN EXPO Canada, X-Men '97 executive producer Larry Houston discussed the show's transition following DeMayo's exit. Calling it "pretty seamless," he spoke on his work with regular MCU writer Matthew Chauncey during Season 2, explaining that they were "on the same page" and "open to every idea" that came up during meetings for the show:

"It's been pretty seamless — I was introduced to Matthew while we were doing Season 2. The only thing I've had to do — because with the new generation, everybody wants to do Zooms and put it up on the monitor where you’ve got all these little boxes and stuff — so a lot of times I have to insist: I like to come in and have lunch so we can actually talk face to face. But yeah, it's been pretty good. We're all on the same page, and they're open to every idea they come up with, so it’s been a good working relationship."

In May 2024, DeMayao shared on X that he wrote "a lot of Season 2" but would not be "heavily involved or leading" the efforts in production, design, or other aspects of the new season.

As of writing, X-Men '97 is already confirmed for its third and fourth seasons on Disney+, and the team hopes to deliver even more seasons later on. These seasons will not include any input whatsoever from DeMayo after his firing, ushering in a new era of storytelling for the mutants in animation.

How X-Men '97 Moves Forward Without Beau DeMayo

While DeMayo's work on X-Men '97 Season 1 earned rave reviews, Season 2 had some bumpy points due to the writing and storytelling being more uneven than its predecessor. DeMayo was certainly far from the only factor in this, but with the team now moving fully in a new direction, future seasons should be able to come together more smoothly from here.

Considering Season 3 and Season 4 are both set for development, it appears the Marvel team has laid out preliminary plans for the show to potentially run for years to come. Houston even expressed hope to see the series last for at least five or six seasons, which would hypothetically have it running at the same time as the start of Marvel Studios' live-action X-Men reboot.

Having taken out multiple characters over the first two seasons (with Gambit returning and Nightcrawler dying in Season 2), X-Men '97 has plenty of other tricks up its sleeve to keep the story interesting. Combine that with anti-mutant politician Graden Creed becoming the United States President, and the mutants will have no shortage of enemies and problems in the foreseeable future.

Matthew Chauncey (who took over the showrunner role from DeMayo) also has a long history with Marvel, with credits on half a dozen animated and live-action MCU projects to his name. The hope is that he will be able to take the best of what X-Men '97 has delivered and build on it, taking new inspiration from the comics and bringing exciting new chapters of this saga to the small screen.