Yahoo News What the Disney/Fox deal means for X-Men and the MCU
Disney has reached a deal to buy certain parts of 21st Century Fox (everything but the Fox news channels, basically), for a stonking $52.4 billion. The deal means Disney now owns Fox's movie and TV studio, which includes shows like The Simpsons and Modern Family as well as movie franchises like Alien and Avatar, and of course Fantastic Four and the X-Men.
The mutants were very much the missing link in Disney's Marvel Cinematic Universe, especially once it had reach an agreement with Sony so Spider-Man could be included in the mega franchise. Now all the pieces are in place and the scope to include them all in one massive shared universe becomes possible.
So what's this going to mean and how's it going to work going forward? To our minds, Disney has these options:
1. Retcon a shared universe
Our first reaction to the news (well second, after WOAH, Disney now controls EVERYTHING) was to jump up and down and get excited because the X-Men would be able to hang out with the Avengers. Our next was to think – hang on, wait how's that going to work?
If Disney decides it does want to merge the franchises, which we're sure it probably will in some way or another, one option is to work out some kind of retcon to establish a shared Universe between them.
Fox currently has three X-movies already in production – X-Men: Dark Phoenix, New Mutants and Deadpool 2 – all of which have finished filming and are due to come out in 2018. Meanwhile, the MCU is spoken for until 2019 when Avengers 4 arrives – it's filming right now. It would be safe to say then we'd be unlikely to see a crossover of their existing universes until after then.
If Disney does decide to stick with all the current players in both camps, finding a way to imply that they always existed together will be key and it'll have to involve some cunning retro-fitting. Otherwise, where were the X-Men during the big disasters in New York and Sokovia? And why haven't mutants been mentioned in any of the many MCU properties if they've been knocking around for decades?
Instead we reckon we could be looking at some alternate reality/parallel world/time-wimey business if this is the route they're going to take.
2. Keep them separate
In addition to the ones noted above, Fox and Marvel Studios both have a lot of other movies already in development. Kevin Feige recently said he had 20 more movies planned after Avengers 4, while Fox also has plans for a range of titles including an X-23 spin off, starring Logan's Dafne Keen, an X-Men movie in the First Class timeline set in the '90s, X-Force and of course that long awaited Gambit movie.
So the easiest thing to do might be to leave them as they are, certainly for the foreseeable. Of course, we find it very hard to believe Disney could possibly resist the branding potential of an (almost) complete merger of the different Marvel properties on the big screen.
Not to mention the endless questions and fan complaints they would have to field as the years went on without plans for a shared universe to emerge. It gets enough nagging about that Black Widow movie that still doesn't exist.
3. Crossover!
If they aren't completely comfortable with jamming their universes together but don't want to miss out on the juicy, juicy promise of the 1,000-member cast promised by an 'Avengers vs X-Men' type film, there is an age-old option open to Disney.
Comics have a grand tradition of universal crossovers, where one parallel dimension crosses over with another (the Arrowverse and Supergirl have been taking full advantage of this concept already).
If they decide that the movie-going public is ready for it.
4. Start again
Trying to merge the two shared universes would be an extremely challenging path to take, and would rely on their global audience being willing to suspend a truckload of disbelief. But the boldest move would be to junk all their work – two enormous, convoluted continuities that have been the work of years (and for the X-Men, decades) – and start over from scratch.
Will Disney be willing to let go beloved characters like Chris Pratt's Star-Lord, Tom Holland's Spider-Man and Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie in order to build a new, post-MCU franchise from the ground up? In terms of cohesive storytelling, it might be their only option. But with so much on the table already, will they have the guts to scrap it?
Marvel has made some pretty bold moves all along the way, most recently completely rebooting Spider-Man just three years after the previous iteration. The MCU is so incredibly well liked and successful that we imagine it could have its pick of acting and directing talent to follow in the footsteps of highly credible MCU actors like Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson and Mark Ruffalo.
What ever Disney decides, we can guarentee it's going to dominate movie schedules for years.
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