As reports about Marvel pushing the release of X-Men ’97 Season 2 to 2026 have begun gaining traction, it appears that the controversy around the firing of the show’s creator Beau DeMayo is far from over. DeMayo now claims Marvel left out his sophomore season plans involving Onslaught and Age of Apocalypse.
Beau DeMayo claims X-Men ’97 Season 2 scrapped Onslaught debut
The the X-Men ’97 creator claimed on X (formerly Twitter) that his initial plans for the Season 2 finale included the debut of Onslaught, a sentient psionic entity created by melding the consciousnesses of Professor Charles Xavier and Magneto, as well as the Age of Apocalypse storyline. However, according to DeMayo, Marvel decided to cut the entire finale, shortening Season 2 to only nine episodes.
“Yep, pretty sad. Season 2 is also only 9 episodes because of this and them canning my Onslaught/AoA finale,” he posted. “But Marvel loves shooting themselves in the foot, especially with certain directors and execs pushing their backwards ‘we know better than the comics’ agenda.”
In a different comment section, DeMayo elaborated on what his version of the Season 2 finale would have included. “I said Onslaught was resolved in ep 10 (which was scrapped) of Season 2, and the ep cliffhangered with Gambit springing Bishop out of prison in AoA timeline while outrunning evil Cyclops a la the tunnel scene with Vader in Rogue One,” he wrote.
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DeMayo further claimed that Marvel was “rewriting the season because they blew up episode 10, which paid off a season-long mystery of clues and foreshadowing that lead to Onslaught. Once that was scrapped, Marvel kept pivoting on the story they wanted to tell and running the crew into the ground.”
Notably, Marvel Studios sacked DeMayo ahead of the series premiere of X-Men ’97. By then, he had reportedly finished writing the second season. Matthew Chauncey, a What If…? writer, was hired as a replacement for DeMayo to develop the third season. It’s unknown whether Chauncey will contribute to the Season 2 rewritings if the reports of a delay are true.
