There has been a lot of talk about a potential merger between Disney and many of Fox's major assets in recent weeks. At first the talks were seemingly in the past tense, but now it looks as if a deal could really maybe happen, and there's one person over at Marvel who is potentially itching for a contract to happen. Reports indicate that Kevin Feige in particular is excited about the prospect of a Disney and Fox Merger, for one big reason: X-Men.
We've already written about all of the promising characters that would return to Marvel if this deal would happen. This would include characters in big upcoming Fox movies like Deadpool 2, X-Men: New Mutants, Gambit (which is finally getting off of the ground) and X-Men: Dark Phoenix, among others. It also means that the Fantastic Four franchise would be handed back to Marvel. According to a new report over at Deadline, Kevin Feige is reportedly one person gunning for the deal to happen so that he can get his hands on more stories and characters in the Marvel Universe.
It's not just that Marvel would have properties back in the fold if the deal goes through. It would also mean that Marvel could dive into some formerly out of bounds narratives--especially in the realm of cosmic storytelling--if the Fox and Marvel universes came together. This could have a direct effect on the still mostly unannounced Phase Four, even if X-Men properties were still separate in some ways from the MCU movies. It would give Marvel a lot of additional options as the company wraps up Phase Three and moves into an entirely new realm of storytelling in Phase Four.
If the report holds true, it's easy to see why Kevin Feige would be excited about the potential for more options to play with. Feige has already said that "anything is possible" with Phase Four, and while it would be a stretch to guess he meant a Disney and Fox merger at that point, the quote fits. Feige has also expressed an interest in "more interesting, unexpected combinations of characters," and I can't think of an easier way to do that than to have access to the Fox properties. All these comments tie together pretty nicely, but again, there's no indication that the Fox and Disney deal will definitely be going through at this point.
The deal with Fox would extend further than Marvel. It would tie into properties like the Avatar movies, and it could even have ramifications for Disney's new streaming service and other TV platforms currently owned by the studio. There are a lot of big questions still up in the air before any deal gets off of the ground, but we'll let you know if anything more concrete comes out of this possibility. For now, here's what all we know about Marvel's Phase Three.
