Disney Reportedly Really, Really Wants to Buy the X-Men From Fox
About a month ago, we heard through the grapevine that Disney was in talks with 20th Century Fox to acquire a whole lot of properties, including the X-Men, who have been licensed to Fox for decades. Annnnd we soon after heard those discussions had ended. But that doesn’t mean it won’t still happen, and according to a rumor going around town, the deal might be heating up again.
In a new Deadline report, Mike Fleming Jr., in conversation with colleague Peter Bart, talked briefly about a “juicy rumor” that “Disney is progressing speedily toward that rumored acquisition of Fox.” He elaborates:
The version I heard has the Murdoch clan keeping possession of sports and news properties, and the rest of TV and the film studio going to Disney. Radio silence right now from both studios, and given how Disney made the Marvel and Lucasfilm deals under the cone of silence, if this happens we’ll probably only know it when it’s announced. It is certainly being talked about today. Not surprisingly, the reaction around town is not enthusiasm, because of the uncertainty that comes with potentially reducing a major studio to content generators under the Disney silo system.
He’s right about that last part — when we heard about the deal, there was a lot of talk about the scary prospect of one juggernaut studio owning almost every big entertainment property out there. It’d be cool for the X-Men to be able to chill with the Avengers or the Guardians of the Galaxy at some point in the future, but is it worth turning over all kinds of stuff to one studio, no matter how successful they might be? As Fleming said, we won’t know for sure that a deal has been reached, or the ramifications of it, until it’s officially announced.