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Disney/FOX Acquisition Thread

What will happen to Deadpool now? Hopefully Disney doesn't mess it up

I think Deadpool is the only thing that will remain from the current lineup. It was kind of hinted at that it takes place in the MCU.

X-Men is a weird one to reboot into the MCU. The Jim Hill podcast made an interesting point about there being a conflict with the characters. Everybody in the Avengers is celebrated for having powers but the X-Men are hated for their powers.
 
I think Deadpool is the only thing that will remain from the current lineup. It was kind of hinted at that it takes place in the MCU.

X-Men is a weird one to reboot into the MCU. The Jim Hill podcast made an interesting point about there being a conflict with the characters. Everybody in the Avengers is celebrated for having powers but the X-Men are hated for their powers.
Eh. I can see it working, especially once the new Avengers are in place. Most of the Avengers’ powers (aside from Thor) aren’t “natural.” They’re the results of science, mysticism, or training. They can set up an mutant villain (rebooted Magneto) to fight Avengers based on “natural power vs mistake” conflict and introduce new X-Men in that context.

It’s a shame they already bastardized Civil War.
 
Eh. I can see it working, especially once the new Avengers are in place. Most of the Avengers’ powers (aside from Thor) aren’t “natural.” They’re the results of science, mysticism, or training. They can set up an mutant villain (rebooted Magneto) to fight Avengers based on “natural power vs mistake” conflict and introduce new X-Men in that context.

It’s a shame they already bastardized Civil War.

Don’t get me wrong, they’ll make it work. I don’t think they’ve set a foot wrong yet and I don’t see them slowing down any time soon.

I’m hyped for a decent Fantastic Four movie and I’ve not really enjoyed X-Men recently.
 
X-Men is a weird one to reboot into the MCU. The Jim Hill podcast made an interesting point about there being a conflict with the characters. Everybody in the Avengers is celebrated for having powers but the X-Men are hated for their powers.

It was always kind of a problem in the comics, as well. People are scared of Professor X but She-Hulk is so accepted she can get a job as a lawyer? X-Men work better in a stand-alone universe.

For that matter, in addition to be hokey as hell, F4's arc was basically taken by Tony Stark in the MCU. No real place for them story-wise.
 
I wonder if Disney will keep renting the Production space in Stage 19 at USF for FSN post-merger. That would be a pretty big loss of a long-time tenant for Universal's backlot.
 
It seems a lot of Fox Employees are not happy about this at all.

Peter Rice, president of 21st Century Fox and Chairman/CEO of Fox Network group has a much larger group and different circumstances going on at his town hall as some are staying and some are going to Disney. Fox’s film side has a little more than than 3,000 employees. Deadline sister publication Variety reports that Rice told employees in his town hall meeting that Disney will leave the Century City lot for the next seven years as part of the pending merger.
However, a fear pervades on the lot. Since the news hit, we hear that the company morale on the Fox Pico Blvd. isn’t just scared, but sad and defeated, especially on the film side.

“It’s clear to me now that the split off from New Corp and then the subsequent buyouts of executives two years ago was all in preparation for this. It’s a really sad day for those of us who love Fox so much and have given this company our all. We know that they are going to maintain the real estate but we all feel like we’re going to get buyouts or told that our services are no longer needed as there are overlaps everywhere,” worried one longtime executive on the Fox lot.

“There is so much overlap,” said the source in regards to the duplication of distribution, marketing, and international departments between Disney and Fox. Disney’s international ops is the best in the biz, last year clearing $4.6 billion which took them to an industry global record of $7.6 billion. Already at the end of November, Disney has crossed $5 billion worldwide. “Things will be the same until they’re not but we aren’t being told anything.”

“We had a feeling something like this was coming,” said another exec.”There had been whispers. No one knows anything right now and it’s not a good place to be in, that feeling, you know?”

“They don’t have an indie division so everyone is hoping that they will just absorb us in,” said one Fox Searchlight insider. In fact, one specialty exhibition film buyer told Deadline that they hope Disney keeps Searchlight separate, much in the same way that Sony keeps Sony Classics separate: Disney is good when it comes to executing four-quad event films, however, it takes a patience and knowledge when it comes to maximizing a platform indie release.

20th Century Fox Town Hall Post Disney Merger: Film Side In Uncertainty & Fear | Deadline
 
We might see ESPN make a large push into the Chicago Sports Market. NBC has pretty much a had a monopoly there with TV rights of the Cubs, Sox, Bulls & Blackhawks. But the Cubs deal is coming up
 
We might see ESPN make a large push into the Chicago Sports Market. NBC has pretty much a had a monopoly there with TV rights of the Cubs, Sox, Bulls & Blackhawks. But the Cubs deal is coming up

NBC sports channels are co-owned with the teams also owning part of the channel. ESPN would have to share ownership to gain more rights.
 
Sorry for double post, but of note, reports are coming out that Comcast made a higher and better offer but Murdoch's preferred Disney stock over Comcast.
Interesting to hear that, and not a surprise at all. Brian Roberts has been so aggressive that he's made 5 offers of $35-75 billion for various companies over his tenure at Comcast (AT&T Broadband, Disney, Time Warner Cable, NBCUniversal, and now Fox), but of course, only 2 of those ended up happening, AT&T Broadband and NBCUniversal.

It's why I'm not really concerned at all about NBCUniversal's future after this Disney-Fox merger, they'll bid aggressively at every chance to grow the business because that's the only way they've operated.
 
Interesting to hear that, and not a surprise at all. Brian Roberts has been so aggressive that he's made 5 offers of $35-75 billion for various companies over his tenure at Comcast (AT&T Broadband, Disney, Time Warner Cable, NBCUniversal, and now Fox), but of course, only 2 of those ended up happening, AT&T Broadband and NBCUniversal.

It's why I'm not really concerned at all about NBCUniversal's future after this Disney-Fox merger, they'll bid aggressively at every chance to grow the business because that's the only way they've operated.
There will be reports of Comcast going after Warner Bros by April.
 
There will be reports of Comcast going after Warner Bros by April.
Yeah, I've thought about that possibility if the AT&T-TW merger is blocked (note that the odds are low, last DoJ attempt to stop a vertical merger was 40 years ago and the DoJ lost the case).

The anti-trust implications seem too strong for a full Comcast-TW merger, and Bewkes hasn't wanted to split up Turner/HBO/Warner Bros.

Comcast would want HBO and Warner Bros. if it's somehow possible to send Turner to somebody else, probably Sony which would love to get US cable nets for distribution. (A problem is that AT&T would do the same.)

Only way a full merger goes through is if NBCUniversal is spun off and merged with TimeWarner or something to that effect, but that's not going to happen.

Either way, in the low chance that somehow Time Warner is available, yeah I'd expect a frenzy:

A Comcast/Sony division of TimeWarner makes the most sense though with HBO and WB to Comcast.
 
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