In a conference call on Thursday, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that the Mouse House has reached a deal with Fox, buying select assets of the latter for $52.4 billion in stock.
- Dec 15, 2017
AceShowbiz - Fans rejoice as more superheroes are about to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe following Disney's acquisition of Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox. Disney CEO Bob Iger has announced that the Mouse House has reached a deal with Fox, buying select assets of the latter for $52.4 billion in stock.
Iger confirmed the acquisition during a conference call with investors on Thursday morning, December 14. "We're also looking forward to expanding the Marvel Cinematic Universe to include 'X-Men', 'Fantastic Four' and 'Deadpool'," the 66-year-old businessman said.
The announced Disney-Fox deal is a huge move as Marvel can finally reclaim many of the characters it lost in the 1990s after it licensed them out to prevent bankruptcy. The respective characters from the X-Men and Fantastic Four universes will now join the MCU which has already teamed The Avengers up with Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange and Spider-Man, the latter of which is now played by Tom Holland.
During the conference, Iger also addressed the future of "Deadpool", the raunchy R-rated Marvel franchise at Fox. "It [Deadpool] clearly has been and will be Marvel branded. But we think there might be an opportunity for a Marvel-R brand for something like Deadpool," he said. "As long as we let the audiences know what's coming, we think we can manage that fine."
In addition, Disney has announced an ambitious plan to launch two streaming services by 2019. With the just-announced deal and the wealth of movies, TV shows and sports programming it provides, the company will now have the power to challenge streaming giants like Netflix, Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook.
"The pace of disruption has only hastened," Robert A. Iger, Disney's chief executive and chairman, said in an interview. "This will allow us to greatly accelerate our direct-to-consumer strategy, which is our highest priority."
