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Disney to buy Fox?! - Situation review

 Yesterday, it was revealed that the Murdoch brothers, Heads of Fox, have been having talks with Bob Iger, Head of Disney, to sell a vast majority of their company to the Mouse House. Whilst the Murdochs will still have their Sport and News Networks it give up its entertainment division to Disney. Meaning they would have control of the Avatar franchise, they will own all aspects of the Star Wars brand and, what fans are most excited about, Fox's Marvel films. Now, there are a fair few positives and negatives to this story, should it actually happen. Which we'll be discussing right now.

Marvel

In the early 2000's Marvel went bankrupt and so had to sell the movie rights of most of their iconic characters to various film studios. In this deal, Fox got the rights to the X-Men, Fantastic Four and The Defenders. Now, whilst Marvel/Disney has since then regained the rights to The Defenders, which are now on Netflix, they still have yet to gain the rights to X-Men and Fantastic Four. To many a fan's dismay. But with this deal, that can all change and both titles will become part of the MCU. 

Positives/Fantastic Four

Fox's Marvel division has been somewhat divisive among fans. With some films being quite good and others being unwatchable. A good example of this is their takes on the Fantastic Four. The 2005 film, did not connect audiences at all, neither did it's 2007 sequel (Rise Of The Silver Surfer). And then there's the Infamous reboot branded Fant4stic (2015) which felt more like an insult to the characters rather than a film. But if the rights were to be owned by Disney then perhaps Marvel's first family could be done justice. Disney has proven that they can make a family of Superheroes work with The Incredibles (2004) so a Fantastic Four film under Disney's guidance could work. And they would fit in extremely well with the MCU. (I imagine a few Captain America/Human Torch jokes would be used.)

Negatives/X-Men

Whilst many are over-joyed with the idea of the X-Men coming into the MCU there a fair amount of fans who are strongly against it, and with legitimate reasoning. Whilst the Marvel/Disney formula is clearly loved by fans, Marvel/Fox has created its own formula of story-telling that is also heavily loved by its fans. Particularly with its more recent films: Deadpool (2016) and Logan (2017). Both were heavily praised by fans. Even X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), whilst not receiving the critical love that the other two films got, was liked by fans of the series. So if the rights were to be owned by Disney then that would mean that they would have to fit within the Disney brand. That means no R-Rated film, Disney has a family-friendly image to obtain. This would also put all of Fox's X-Men TV shows at risk. Such as Legion, The Gifted and New Mutants. Which the creators have put a lot of time and effort into making. 
   Also, whilst the Fantastic Four could fit in the MCU, I'm not sure how the X-Men could. I don't see how the MCU could say that mutants have been living among humans for years and no-one noticed. I just don't think it would work, story-wise.

Avatar

Fox owns the rights to the highest-grossing film of all time, Avatar. And now James Cameron (The Terminator, Titanic) has been spending years now trying to develop a continued story for that world. With three sequels being planned. But, if this deal goes ahead, it could affect any kind of plans Cameron has trying to put into place. Disney is well-known to be quite controlling over the brands that they have, and this could throw Cameron off. It is reported that he made a deal with Fox for the first Avatar film where he if he did the film his way only and it was a failure then he would sacrifice his pay-cheque for the job. So I highly doubt he would be very co-operative with Disney. Although, if Disney did have Avatar then we might actually get a sequel. With release dates being pushed back all the time it looks like we might never get Avatar 2.
   This is also interesting because Disney has released a new expansion of their theme park, Animal Kingdom, called Pandora, modelled after the world of Avatar. And so Disney would own the films that go along with that. Giving the franchise the proper Disney brand.

Personal Opinion/Cultural Monopoly

Personally, I don't want this deal to go forward. Mainly because of the Marvel films. Whilst I would like to see the Fantastic Four done right, and I believe Disney could do that, Fox has lately been doing a seriously good job with their X-Men films and Disney would ultimately change that. As for Avatar, at this point, I don't think anyone really cares what happens with that franchise. The sequel has been promised many times and hasn't even been hinted at being delivered. So if Disney can bring a sequel then... Cool. But I really don't like the cultural monopoly that Disney is building. If you look at the points I made about X-Men and Avatar you'll see that most of the problems are centred around creative control. Fox has allowed filmmakers who love the characters to have creative control of their X-Men titles and its worked out very well for them. But Disney will final say on a lot of decisions if they were in control. The same with Avatar, Disney would definitely take over from James Cameron if they have to. So that's another reason why I'm not a fan of this deal.

So these are my opinions on the talks between Disney and Fox. What are your opinions? Please comment below. And, if you like what you've read, then please subscribe for more content. Thank you for reading. :)
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Comments

  1. Grace Carley8 November 2017 at 09:36

    Interesting stuff, Conor. I certainly can't see James Cameron as part of the Disney family!

    ReplyDelete

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