Major Ramifications Of Disney Buying Fox

Disney almost bought Fox. That much we know. But what could one of the biggest deals in movie history really mean? Today, we're going to dive deep and find out.

Corporate mergers between unfathomably enormous international conglomerates aren't easy for most people to fully wrapped their heads around - they're not designed to be. Companies large enough for their comings and goings to make the news in 2017 are seldom one entity, but rather interconnected webs of progressively smaller entities that sometimes don't even appear meaningfully adjacent to one another until it becomes convenient for it to appear otherwise. For example: most people think of chocolate and candy when they think of the word "Nestle," but the Nestle Corporation is also behind everything from General Mills Cereal to L'Oreal Cosmetics and (extremely controversial) ownership of entire pieces of geography in order to control fresh water sources.

Related: Disney's Failed Acquisition of Fox Explained

So when the Walt Disney Corporation was discovered to have entered into talks to purchase the film and television assets (excluding news and sports operations) of 21st Century Fox, the most prominently buzzed-about potential results of such a maneuver centered on the possible return and re-integration of the The Hulk at Universal, movie rights to the Mutant and Fantastic Four characters were sold to Fox over two decades ago before Marvel formed its own production studio (and was subsequently purchased by Disney), but whereas deals were struck to share use of Hulk and Spidey for the MCU, contentious relations between execs at Fox and Disney have kept Logan and company firmly segregated.

But while the potential of seeing Wolverine and The Thing share screentime with Spider-Man and The Avengers in the near future may be the "sexiest" headline to come out of these discussions (which were reported to not be "currently active" but also by no means permanently scuttled, with mere news of "talks" sending both Disney and troubled Fox Studio's stock prices soaring), the two companies collectively control so many different entertainment enterprises and intellectual properties between them that even a partial sale has the potential to dramatically change the face of global popular culture.

Here are 15 of the biggest and most noteworthy films, TV shows, entertainment companies, celebrity content-creators and intellectual properties that could undergo major changes (for good or for ill) if and when The House That Mickey Built takes control.

Star Wars, Alien and Predator (This Page)

Disney Finally Owns The Original Star Wars

It's far from the most valuable jewel the Disney Empire could add to its crown by plucking Fox away from NewsCorp (the powerful Rupert Murdoch-founded media conglomerate that currently owns Fox and would retain Fox Sports and the controversial Fox News properties after the hypothetical sale), but the so-called "Fox Fanfare" possibly being once again attached to the opening of new Star Wars movies would likely warm the hearts of particularly nostalgic fans of the ongoing Skywalker Sagas. Whether Disney would actually drop in the "classic credits" moment for future Star Wars films (or even if they'd keep the Twentieth Century Fox brand active, period) is unknowable, but if it was to come to it would almost certainly become the most high-traffic trumpet-related entertainment news story of the decade.

THE FUTURE OF THE ALIEN FRANCHISE

There's a story (likely apocryphal - aka "made up, but well-traveled") that someone working on one of the more recent (post-First Class) X-Men movies at Fox sent a memo up the chain of command asking to double-check whether or not the studio's deal with Marvel included the rights to use "The Brood," a race of reptile/insect-esque aliens that bedeviled the X-Men in a handful of well-regarded comic stories from the franchise high-point. So goes the story, the request came back asking for clarification as the who/what The Brood were, and upon receiving their explanation an unnamed figure in power at Fox was said to have opined: "Isn't that just The Alien? Just use The Alien, we definitely own that."

Whether or not a Fox executive actually did casually pitch a crossover with the X-Men movies (stranger things have happened), the fact remains that Fox absolutely does control all rights to the Alien franchise and the iconic space-monster antagonists of the title. But while said creatures (technically called "Xenomorphs" within the series) remain one of pop culture's most famous modern monsters, the property is widely viewed as "troubled" in the current media landscape following mixed reviews and declining box-office for the last two installments and the uncertain future of director Neil Blomkamp's planned Alien 5. The Fox deal would put Disney in control of an extremely popular set of characters - but would the famously family-friendly studio be interested in continuing a series of expensive R-rated horror features?

THE FUTURE OF PREDATOR

Fox's other big space-monster property, Predator hasn't been seen in theaters since the retro/grindhouse-flavored spin-off Predators several years ago. That concoction didn't quite reawaken the franchise (which had stalled out after the disastrous reception of Alien Vs. Predator: Requiem) the way Fox wanted it to, but the studio is about to try again with hotly-anticipated revival called The Predator from mischief-making writer/director Shane Black, who was part of the cast in the original film before scoring fame as the screenwriter of Lethal Weapon and has seen his Hollywood star rise once again after having helmed Iron Man 3 to a series-best worldwide blockbuster status.

Related: Why Shane Black Was Immediately Killed Off In Predator

That means that The Predator's current caretaker is himself on friendly with the Disney Machine, but the same reticence about R-rated fare that makes Alien an unusual part of said machinery would likely hold true in this case as well. Neither case needs to automatically be bad news for fans, but it will definitely mark a change in approach for either the films themselves or Disney itself.

THE SIMPSONS AT DISNEY

At this point Simpsons fandom is mainly split between fans who believe the series should have ended 10 to 15 seasons ago and those who'll go as far as 20. While ratings remain solid and critical consensus has fluctuated over the years, that what will very soon be the longest-lived prime-time TV series in the history of the medium has seen better days is fairly widespread - just not as widely spread as the ubiquity and merchandising imprint of the property itself. "Still as good" or not, The Simpsons and its characters are one of the strongest brands on the planet, extending to far-flung corners of the world in a way that few American sitcoms ever have and even outpacing the popularity of certain Disney properties of similar vintage.

While The Simpsons' characters and their world are already licensed for theme park use to Universal Studios for a long-term arrangement (the same reason you don't see Marvel-branded rides launching at Orlando's Walt Disney World), it's not hard to imagine the property gradually making its way into the Disney collective fairly quickly. Perhaps more immediately, the prospect of the long-awaited sequel to The Simpsons Movie almost certainly becomes more likely given Disney's much larger (compared to Fox) feature animation division.

THE FATE OF FAMILY GUY

Unlike The Simpsons (which was considered "edgy" in the early-90s but is today probably the most family-friendly animated offering in prime time) Fox's other animated juggernaut would prove a more awkward fit with Mickey and company. That wouldn't likely mean the "end" the Griffin Family on the Fox Network - the series has remained profitable enough to stay on the air even after its own creator/star openly opined that it probably should have ended years ago.

But it might impact wherever the franchise might head next: A Family Guy movie has been suggested as a plausible "endgame" for the series for years now, but (inevitably) R-rated comedy has seldom been in Disney's wheelhouse. That doesn't need to be a dealbreaker, but the fact is the likely box-office take for a Family Guy feature may have made for attractive leverage for a studio in Fox's situation. Slightly less so for the powerhouse with Disney and Marvel to its name.

SETH MACFARLANE GETS A NEW HOME

On the other hand, Family Guy and a handful of other Fox TV and film licenses come with ties to the series' creator and main voice actor, Seth MacFarlane. And while the prolific writer/producer/singer has long remained a controversial figure for his button-pushing comedic sensibilities and perceived overreliance on so-called "reference comedy", MacFarlane has also quietly built himself into a reliable industry fixture whose strong relationships with an offbeat cross-section of emerging Hollywood talent has made him a shrewd industry power-broker whose latest project for Fox, renewed for a second season.

Whether or not MacFarlane's production deals with Fox's TV and film divisions would be affected by a Disney takeover is a matter for contract lawyers, but otherwise it's not hard to imagine him exploring projects within the broader Disney empire: An avowed fan of Star Wars, he famously undertook full-length parodies of the Original Trilogy using the Family Guy cast; and Disney has had positive experiences putting other once-edgy Gen-X comedy voices like James Gunn at the helm of Marvel properties in recent years.

Related: Why Now Is The Right Time For Seth MacFarlane's The Orville

ICE CUBE BECOMES MORE VALUABLE

On the subject of unexpectedly powerful media moguls, onetime hip-hop icon turned movie star Ice Cube has made a strong later-career turn into Hollywood player. His Cube Vision production company has been behind moneymaking hits like the Friday and Barbershop movies and scored a big hit in 2015 as one of the powers behind Straight Outta Compton, which dramatized the founding of Cube's iconic hip-hop outfit NWA.

More recently, Cube Vision parlayed its successes into an eye-catching "first look" deal with Fox Television Studios - which stipulates that any TV projects Cube Vision produces over the next several years will be offered to them first. While Cube has not necessarily found the same level of success on the small screen as in theaters or music (most of Cube Vision's TV projects, including series adaptations of Friday, Barbershop and Are We There Yet?, only lasted a single season), but his professional connections to a whose-who of prominent Black talent in Hollywood and the hip-hop community could make Cube's operation as a significant bridge to sought-after demographic that Disney has often struggled to connect with.

DISNEY VERSUS NETFLIX

Disney made headlines in recent months when they announced that they were going to remove some (but not all - most notably not the popular Marvel series) of their content from the Netflix streaming platform as part of an ambitious plan to launch their own dedicated service. And while few companies would be better equipped to compete with Netflix (or Amazon, for that matter) in of content quality and sheer scope than Disney; the conventional wisdom in the streaming scene has long been that there's no such thing as too many options.

Read More: Disney Streaming Service Needs 32 Million Subscribers To Break Even

Fox film and TV comes with the rights to an imposing back catalog of content (The Simpsons alone has been carrying its own dedicated stream for several years now), even a fraction of which would go a long way to making a prospective "Disneyflix" venture more attractive to potential customers who might otherwise have balked at paying for another streaming service "only" to watch Marvel, Star Wars and Disney Animation content.

THE FATE OF HULU

On the subject of streaming, the deal would dramatically increase Disney's control (via the Disney-ABC Television Group company) over the popular Hulu TV streaming service, which it currently shares t ownership of with Fox, Comcast and Time Warner. What that would mean for a potential Netflix competitor is unknown (likely minimal, given that Hulu is overwhelmingly more focused on episodic TV content), but the other investors may take exception to that level of power-consolidation by Disney.

Such exception could raise the specter of antitrust laws being potentially violated - something that could place the deal itself or certain other key facets in the crosshairs of federal regulators and other government-adjacent watchdog organizations both in the U.S. and abroad, and that all involved are likely to try and avoid wherever possible. This could conceivably lead to Disney and Fox properties having to separate from Hulu in order to preserve the rest of the venture, which would be a significant blow to the service itself.

FOX NETWORK, FX AND FXX

The Fox Television division in the U.S., comprises the powerful Fox Network and cable ventures FX and FXX (plus several other less prominent outlets), all three of which would together nearly double Disney's broadcast TV imprint (currently including ABC, Freeform, The Disney Channel, Disney XD and Toon Disney). That could be good news for a studio that can always use more options on which to run its increasingly diverse lineup of content.

Related: Marvel's New Warriors: Who Is Squirrel Girl?

Disney is already seeking an alternative home for the The New Warriors (which is set to feature fan-favorite characters Squirrel Girl, Speedball and others), and the difficult launch of Inhumans is already being partly blamed on a prime-time ABC slot possibly being a poor fit for the unusual franchise. It's also likely that the networks would be targeted as prospective homes for the much-discussed Star Wars TV projects - whenever they get around to announcing those.