Disney News

Tag: X-Men

  • Disney CEO on Fox’s X-Men: ‘There Shouldn’t Be Two Marvels’

    Disney CEO on Fox’s X-Men: ‘There Shouldn’t Be Two Marvels’

    Disney recently acquired Fox and its assets, including X-Men and various other Marvel titles, raising questions about how Disney plans to integrate the franchises into the MCU. In a recent interview, Disney CEO Bob Iger expressed his own ideas on the future Fox’s “X-Men” franchise, and it doesn’t exactly involve Fox

    Iger has said, he’d like Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige to oversee the franchise after Disney’s acquisition of Fox, but didn’t want to make any definitive statements because of what has already been communicated to Fox.

    “I think it only makes sense,” Iger said. “I want to be careful here because of what’s been communicated to the Fox folks, but I think they know. It only makes sense for Marvel to be supervised by one entity. There shouldn’t be two Marvels.”

    At this point it’s clear the “X-Men” franchise in its current iteration are at an end and a reboot into the MCU seems like a strong possibility.

    Disney is developing a TV series spinning off of the MCU that would star Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlet Witch, and characters that haven’t been introduced yet, according to a report from Variery. Feige would have a “hands-on role” in the making of them.

    A Scarlet Witch TV series being in the works could mean Disney is already thinking of ways it can include X-Men characters into the MCU. In the comics, Scarlet Witch is the daughter of X-Men villain Magneto.

    Iger’s comments have added a little fuel to the fire for fans who would love to see Wolverine, Storm, Cyclops, and others fighting side-by-side with the likes of the MCU’s Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, Black Panther, and more.

  • Disney and Fox Deal Back On and Moving Fast

    Disney and Fox Deal Back On and Moving Fast

    It turns out the talks aren’t really finished and there is still a strong likelihood of a deal between Disney and Fox. Disney is “progressing speedily” towards an acquisition of Fox, according to a new report from Deadline.

    It would appear that the two studios are nearing a deal that might have some in Hollywood a little nervous but it would be super exciting for fans that have long waited to see both the Fantastic Four and X-Men within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

    It’s the film rights have kept the X-Men from joining the MCU as of yet, but one X-Men producer would love to see the crossover happen. A recent Vanity Fair article explained how X-Men producer Lauren Shuler Donner threw in her support to have the mutant icons team up with the Avengers in theaters. “Well, I wish. I would love it, I would love it. But it’s not for me to say,” she said. Too bad it’s not up to her.

    If the deal goes through, the Murdoch family will continue to maintain ownership over the sports and news divisions while Disney would get the studio rights to everything on the film side according to the report.

    There is so much more at stake here for Disney than the obvious rights to the X-Men and Fantastic Four brands. They also want distribution rights for the original Star Wars trilogy and prequel trilogy. Most of those rights revert back to Disney in 2020, but the original 1977 film’s rights will remain at Fox.

    Another bonus is the Avatar franchise. Earlier this week director James Cameron commented on how any sale of Fox’s TV and film operations would impact the Avatar sequels. He noted it probably wouldn’t affect the Avatar series and explained that “at this point in time Disney has a bigger investment” in the franchise than Fox, referring in part to Disney World’s Pandora: The World of Avatar attraction.

    Disney would love to get its hands on the FX channel. And of course they want the vast, impressive, lucrative library of Fox movies and TV series from past and present, to add to their upcoming streaming service and, probably, to deny those movies and series to Netflix, along with the Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Lucasfilm properties.

    While in the midst of negotiations Disney is really hoping that Sony doesn’t out fox them on the deal. It was recently noted that Sony Entertainment had shown interest in purchasing 21st Century Fox along with a few other companies, including Comcast and Verizon. However, if rumors are true those talks have since reverted to Disney.

    Much of this is speculative, but the talk of Disney purchasing Fox is much more than a big rumor. Deadline’s new report makes a good point that, if this deal does happen, we’ll probably find out about it in a pretty out of the blue way. We may not know when that announcement could come, but don’t be too surprised to hear that Disney has officially purchased Fox in the near future.