Disney has officially purchased 21st Century Fox, and fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe everywhere are rejoicing. Some had thought that Comcast might come in and disrupt the deal, but Disney is the one who has come out on top in the end – purchasing FOX for a reported $71.3 billion.
FOX owner Rupert Murdoch released the following statement:
“Combining the 21CF businesses with Disney and establishing new ‘Fox’ will unlock significant value for our shareholders. We are grateful to our shareholders for approving this transaction. I want to thank all of our executives and colleagues for their enormous contributions in building 21st Century Fox over the past decades. With their help, we expect the enlarged Disney and new ‘Fox’ companies will be pre-eminent in the entertainment and media industries.”
Disney’s Bob Iger echoed Murdoch’s comments, saying:
“We’re incredibly pleased that shareholders of both companies have granted approval for us to move forward, and are confident in our ability to create significant long-term value through this acquisition of Fox’s premier assets. We remain grateful to Rupert Murdoch and to the rest of the 21st Century Fox board for entrusting us with the future of these extraordinary businesses, and look forward to welcoming 21st Century Fox’s stellar talent to Disney and ultimately integrating our businesses to provide consumers around the world with more appealing content and entertainment options.”
Fans of the X-Men and Fantastic Four franchises are definitely going to be happy, as Fantastic Four is yet to have a good movie, and the X-Men franchise has been very “meh” as of late – with the last two FOX X-Men films, X-Men: Dark Phoenix and The New Mutants, reportedly on the verge of being shelved entirely.
Fans have reacted to the news:
Still don’t get why people were supporting Comcast to take Fox rather than Disney, I know the Disney Fox deal will cause many issues but the Comcast deal would’ve clearly not have any positive impacts on consumers
— CinematicBanter (@CinematicBanter) July 27, 2018
Dear Internet:
Disney does not control Fox after the shareholder vote tomorrow.
That’s just the start. They still have international regulatory hurdles to overcome. The deal is a LONG way from being finished.
Anyone telling you DISNEY is cancelling Fox movies is lying to you.
— Jeremy Conrad (@ManaByte) July 26, 2018
After the Fox deal, a Disney streaming service in 2019 could include:
– All of Marvel
– Star Wars
– Disney animation
– Disney live action
– Pixar
– Avatar
– The Simpsons
– FX
– ABC
– Indiana Jones
– AlienIf content truly is king then good luck everybody else.
— Frank Pallotta (@frankpallotta) July 19, 2018
So, the Fox and Disney deal is finally complete. X-Men will fight the Avengers in the movies sometime in the future.#FoxDisney #XMenHomeComing #XMen #Avengers #Disney
— Jean Grey (@4everbuffy) July 27, 2018
Now the FF Will be trending for sure in one year!!!!
The Disney/Fox deal is effective!— Dave DSG (@Dave_DSG) July 27, 2018
@DisneyStudios The Disney Fox deal is approved !!! Yayyyyy!!!! pic.twitter.com/Ntz2Whork6
— Jad Jradi (@JadJradi3) July 27, 2018
21st Century Fox & Disney deal is okay, but sucks at the same time.We wouldn’t have gotten: Logan, Deadpool, Deadpool2, X-Men, X2, X-Men:First Class, & X-Men:Days Of Future Past. No Hugh Jackman, Ryan Reynolds Patrick Stewart etc!
Disney wouldn’t allow the edgy versions we got!— P.J. (House of DCU) (@petrinajc) July 27, 2018
It will still be a while before we see the characters officially in the MCU, but fans will be excited for the news regardless. It does ask an interesting question about Disney over-controlling the market – but the deal is essentially done at this point.