It’s probably, finally, going to happen.
After months of will they/won’t they financial reporting, a bidding war with the deep-pocketed Comcast and some concern over the mind-boggling amounts of money involved, The Walt Disney Company is finally on the cusp of purchasing 21st Century Fox and all its yummy mutant flavored intellectual property. This latest step came during separate Disney and Fox shareholder meetings this morning, when 99% of those present voted to approve the deal.
According to Variety, these meetings took place at the New York Hilton and weren’t exactly heated debates over the future of each company. Disney’s meeting was chaired by general counsel Alan Braverman and CFO Christine McCarthy, with voters quick to almost unanimously approve the deal going ahead. There was only one dissenting voice, apparently, arguing that the $71 billion price tag means “we’re overpaying for Fox.”
As this was going on, 21st Century Fox’s CFO John Nallen was explaining to their shareholders that the merger is expected to be completed by the first half of 2019. This means that, as of now, the only thing really standing in their way is regulatory approval.
The most high profile consequence of this is, you guessed it, mutants in the MCU. Though I don’t think the franchise in its existing form is at all starved of stories and characters yet to have been explored, it’s difficult to deny that inserting the X-Men into the MCU would provide an incredible amount of fresh storylines as well as imaginative new takes on familiar characters. It also means that Disney will have access to the Fantastic Four IP, meaning that we stand a decent chance of finally seeing a genuinely good movie based on them. And can anyone say Galactus?
As to how the mutants might show up in-universe, well, I assume that there’s going to be some big reality-warping shift in Avengers 4 designed to bring back our favorite heroes from the dead. And if that’s the case, perhaps a couple of people’s X-genes might activate at the same time?
