The massive bidding war over the rights to 21st Century Fox entertainment subsidiaries, excluding all news outlets and television mediums, came to a close when the House of Mouse dropped a check for $71.3 billion dollars to secure those wildly precious IPs. This is one of the biggest media mergers in history. While the financial aspects of this merger can make your head spin, there’s a million ways Disney will (or could) benefit from this massive undertaking going forward. The big winner out of this is, per usual, Marvel Studios. Yes, 21st Century Fox has numerous IPs that Disney will now have the rights to, however, why not start the party off with a bang?
Here are the top 3 ways this merger will have the most positive impact on the entertainment landscape.
Marvel Recreates The Fantastic Four
YouTube/21st Century Fox
While past adaptations of Fantastic 4 have been severely lackluster, it’s no wonder that Marvel has had their eye on getting back the rights to ‘the first family’ for quite some time. It’s true that some ideas can get played out and audience fatigue begs studios to just stop trying to make certain IPs work. However, let’s take a step back and think about how Spider-Man: Homecoming was reinvented for the MCU.
Sometimes all it takes is a fresh set of eyes and the success of a larger studio to allow these properties to thrive. There is no doubt Marvel Studios will be looking to fit Fantastic 4 in the larger landscape – especially since most of the action has been taking place in space – there already is a solid place to start!
The X-Men, Mutants, And Inhumans
YouTube/21st Century Fox
Inhumans have been a Marvel thing for anyone who watches Agents of SHIELD. They’re basically mutants whose powers develop once they’re exposed to a certain element. To be honest, they’re pretty badass and like mutants have existed for hundreds of years. Now that Disney has the rights to X-Men, it’s highly doubtful that they will pick up on the current reboot storyline as opposed to tying mutants in with their own version of inhumans.
Everyones favorite Sokovian, Wanda Maximoff aka Scarlet Witch, is a mutant in the original source material. This didn’t stop Marvel from working around the issue at the time to include her character in their phase of development. The rise of characters with enhanced abilities is profound and will only grow once Captain Marvel hits theaters with her human/alien hybrid DNA. I highly doubt we will get a Marvel version of Wolverine, it almost feels like sacred ground to think about, but the X-Men Universe has characters just as damaged and interesting that could provide a new wave of films for years to come.
Keep Deadpool Out Of The Mix
Deadpool 2 (2018)
Deadpool is so successful because it’s unique. The whole NSFW vibe it has going for it works very well. Marvel shouldn’t compromise a well-oiled machine when there’s nothing to fix. By allowing Deadpool to operate in his own world, perhaps do some slapstick cameos, this protects the IP from being conflated with everything Marvel Studios has bundled like a Progressive Insurance Plan.
In another sense, by allowing Deadpool to do its own thing, the entire X-Force concept could be revitalized and just how he jokes about only interacting with limited X-Men… maybe keep it that way! Deadpool isn’t fun because he’s part of the team, he’s fun because the character works and makes sense to a larger audience. He doesn’t need to be roaming around Xavier’s mansion to have a purpose so let’s let this one stand on its own feet for a while.
Let us know what you think!
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