The Mouse House just got that much bigger with today’s announcement that 21st Century Fox has now completed the distribution of all issued and outstanding shares in connection with the Disney acquisition. While the deal isn’t technically in effect quite yet, things certainly look to be unfolding according to the schedule reported last week, and we can expect the transaction to be officially complete at 12:02 am ET this Wednesday.
In case it hasn’t been said enough already, this merger is going to be a very big deal that’s set to bring some huge changes to the entertainment industry. From a Marvel perspective specifically, however, it means that Kevin Feige and his team will soon have the legal go-ahead to bring the X-Men, the Fantastic Four and a whole load more newly acquired characters into the MCU.
Of course, Marvel Studios is known for keeping their cards close to their chest, so don’t expect the next Wolverine to be announced by the end of the week or anything like that. What’s more, it seems far too late for the merger to have any major impact on next month’s Avengers: Endgame, though some fans are still holding out hope for a quick post-credits tease involving one or more of Disney’s new acquisitions.
In any case, it’s unlikely that Marvel will want to rush things after Disney put so much time and a staggering amount of money into acquiring Fox, but perhaps we can at least get a few announcements at the bi-annual D23 Expo in August. In the meantime, the MCU still has to complete its 2019 cinematic slate with the release of Avengers: Endgame on April 26th, followed by Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5th.
