The comic fan corner of the internet went crazy earlier this week when CNBC reported that Fox and Disney had discussions surrounding the purchase of Fox’s entertainment entities, including its film division. That would obviously bring the rights for the X-Men and Fantastic Four back to Marvel Studios. In the time since reports have suggested that the deal talks have cooled and are not currently active. Now today, the Wall Street Journal has reported more details on the deal. We are going to summarize the salient parts concerning the MCU but the rest of the article, which is behind a paywall, is at wsj.com. It also touches on the relationship between Netflix and Disney.
-This deal could still happen, but it is only a possibility, not a probability. More specifically talks have “have stalled, and it is unclear whether they will restart, let alone result in a deal, according to people close to the discussions.” This isn’t hopeful, but it also isn’t definitely “dead.” Unclear about restarting is better than “won’t restart.”
–Disney is shifting their approach to Netflix because they see that company as competition, not a partner. Despite getting what most analysts estimate to be hundreds of millions of dollars in content fees, Disney is walking away from selling content to Netflix. Somewhere along the way, Netflix went from content distributor to content creator in Mickey’s eyes. This is confirmation that we should not expect any more series to go to Netflix. It also raises the specter of Disney someday not renewing the current Netflix series deal, but that is still just speculation. The environment has changed massively since Marvel happily signed a deal way back in 2013.
–If Disney bought out Fox’s entertainment branches, they’d be a majority shareholder in Hulu and would keep it going. When the news first hit a question that immediately arose was how Hulu and Disney’s new SVOD service would co-exist. Apparently, Disney would treat Hulu as the “adult” avenue and their new service as a “family” product. How various MCU properties would be seen in such a set up would be interesting. Would New Warriors or Cloak and Dagger or a similar show fit that family feel, or would they be deemed too grown up. Without Hulu ownership, one assumes the Disney SVOD service will be a bit broader.
–The deal would DEFINITELY include X-Men and the Fantastic Four. A few individuals on social media have suggested this deal wouldn’t include the rights to the Fox Marvel properties. The WSJ article confirms that these rights are most certainly part of the deal, should it happen.
The larger conversation about how media is changing and how desperate Disney is to be in the streaming game is fascinating, so go ahead over to WSJ for the whole story.
Source: WSJ
