If Disney buys Fox, Time Warner and AT&T will likely work harder to get approval for their merger. Comcast will also likely look to acquire Viacom, DHX Media, Netflix, and/or Fox's share of Hulu which Disney is likely to sell either because of Federal regulators or as a bargaining chip to get full rights to all Marvel properties.
News FOX selling out to Disney?
- Thread starter Turtletrekker
- Start date
There's no requirement for a show to air only on the network owned by the same corporation; indeed, such a requirement would be anti-competitive and illegal. Studios are supposed to offer their shows for any network to bid on. Studios and networks these days generally prefer going with their sister entities, keeping it within the larger megacorporation, because it's more economical for one or both, but it's not required. For example, FOX currently airs the Warner Bros.-produced Gotham and Lucifer, and the WB-produced Riverdale was developed for FOX before eventually getting picked up by The CW. Conversely, there are shows produced by 20th Century Fox Television airing on networks other than FOX, such as ABC's Speechless and Fresh Off the Boat and NBC's This Is Us. So there's no reason why shows produced by Fox Studios couldn't still air on a Disney-owned FOX Network (or whatever it might be rebranded).
Although if Disney ended up owning FOX, wouldn't they have to sell off ABC? Or have we already covered that?
Yeah. Rumor is that Disney wants to get out of the broadcasting business and stick with cable channels and their upcoming new video streaming services. That same rumor also said that Disney is preparing to sell ABC. If that's true, I imagine they would sell FOX (the broadcast network), as well.
The article on IGN says they'll keep their broadcast network. That was why I was a little confused, because it also said earlier in the article that they would be selling their TV "assets" to Disney. So I thought that might have meant they would no longer handle the production side of things, but that they would still run the network..
Comic Book Resources just put up an article about what Disney might get out of the deal:
https://www.cbr.com/disney-fox-sale-deal-explained/
Kind of reassuring, because it reminds me that The Gifted and Legion are already co-productions of Marvel Studios and Fox. So that makes it more likely that they'd continue on after the sale.
https://www.cbr.com/disney-fox-sale-deal-explained/
Kind of reassuring, because it reminds me that The Gifted and Legion are already co-productions of Marvel Studios and Fox. So that makes it more likely that they'd continue on after the sale.
Where did you hear that? Are it's ratings that bad?
Even more than The X-Men, I'm curious what Disney/Marvel might do with the Fantastic Four. At this point the X-Men movies have been successful enough that I could easily see Disney/Marvel just leaving the alone, the FF on the other hand....
The FF seems to be as much about the fact that they are a family as it is big superhero action, so that makes me wonder if it might work better as a TV series. A TV series might not have the budget for tons of big crazy action sequences, but it would give them a chance to really focus on building and developing their relationships. A focus on family would be a nice way to help keep the series unique in the current superhero crowd. I think most of the characters, their powers, and other significant elements would probably be doable on a TV budget.
Even more than The X-Men, I'm curious what Disney/Marvel might do with the Fantastic Four. At this point the X-Men movies have been successful enough that I could easily see Disney/Marvel just leaving the alone, the FF on the other hand....
The FF seems to be as much about the fact that they are a family as it is big superhero action, so that makes me wonder if it might work better as a TV series. A TV series might not have the budget for tons of big crazy action sequences, but it would give them a chance to really focus on building and developing their relationships. A focus on family would be a nice way to help keep the series unique in the current superhero crowd. I think most of the characters, their powers, and other significant elements would probably be doable on a TV budget.
It would be cool if Peyton Reed of Ant-Man Fame were able to make the 60s period piece Fantastic Four movie he pitched to Fox back in 2003.
What Marvel really needs for their next phase of movies is the FF's villains, especially the cosmic ones. I'd love to see a Fantastic Four series, and with the movie brand so tainted that might be the best bet. The only real issue is the segregation between Marvel TV and the Movies. For that reason alone I think we won't get a series. I could see them introducing the Fantastic Four in another movie, skipping the origin (just a quick flashback) to test the waters for a solo movie.
I made the same suggestion in one of these discussions not too long ago. The only issue is having yet another movie with a Captain America Hibernation Style time jump (especially if Captain Marvel also has a jump from the 90's to today).
That's what I'm hoping for. Don't mess with what works (even if it does work fitfully).
Considering what the Arrowverse is able to pull off with Elongated Man, Firestorm, and Grodd, I'd say that Reed, Johnny, and Ben are doable on TV now (though I think a prosthetic makeup for Ben would work better as an ongoing, weekly thing). And Lauren's powers on The Gifted are pretty similar to Sue's force fields. Invisibility effects are old hat by now.
Of course, the FF often explore wild alien realms that might be tricky to depict on a TV budget, so we might see a more Earthbound version of the FF if they went the TV route. But that could still work.
But the FF are so central to the universe that Marvel Studios would probably want to make them part of the core movie franchise, rather than the TV arm which the movies basically ignore. With something like the MCU, the storytelling difference between movies and TV isn't as great, because the movies are an ongoing series in their own right and they do get to develop and deepen character arcs over the years in a manner similar to series TV. So the FF could work cinematically in the MCU, and they'd be a good replacement for the Avengers once the original actors move on from their contracts. If they don't have Tony Stark as the resident celebrity supergenius inventor and womanizing bad boy anymore, then Reed and Johnny (respectively) could take up the slack.
I like the 60's period piece idea and I'm fine with utilizing another forward in time movement. Having the Fantastic Four originate earlier links the develop of superheros from Captain America to Hank Pym and Captain Marvel of the 80s and 90s. I can see the Fantastic Four being a group of scientists who keep a low profile after their cosmic rays exposure. Although I'm not entirely sure how that would work, other than eventually sending them out to space exclusively.
Alternatively, I could see Christopher's suggestion also working by having them originate in the present as thematic successors to the Avengers.
I'd rather they use young Xavier and Magneto as the guys who actually originated the Avengers Initiative (they could have been SHIELD's first super powered operatives) before they left (Xavier staying on better terms with Peggy, so SHIELD were the ones who kept his school hidden).
But that would require a whole new continuity for the X-Men, and I like the one they've got in the movies. Besides, the MCU has invested so many years in building a universe that doesn't have mutants -- with Inhumans as the only known beings with genetic superpowers -- that the X-Men continuity just wouldn't fit, or would feel like an afterthought. Even if mutants had been around in secret and were suddenly revealed, they'd just be tacked onto the existing narrative thread of anti-Inhuman prejudice, and that would be pretty incongruous. Either that or the mutants would stay secret, in which case they wouldn't be subject to bigotry at all, and you'd lose the single most important defining element of the X-Men narrative.
If they'd started out building a universe that had mutants along with everyone else, then it would work. But the movie continuities have evolved separately for so long that they just can't go together well at this point.