An Avengers, X-Men and Fantastic Four reunion is all we want from a Disney/Fox deal
Much ink will be spilled about the potential financial and cultural impact of Disney buying out 21st Century Fox – an impossibly complex proposal that's reportedly still in whisper stages – but if you're anything like us, your mind immediately went there.
Not to surging stock prices. Nor federal regulatory hurdles. Not even the inevitable implosion of Western popular culture into a black hole of corporate monolithism.
Nope, it went right here:
Yes, true believers, we just want our Avengers and X-Men (and Fantastic Four) together on the big screen. Is that too much to ask?
For years, it was.
What got us here was Marvel's famed financial troubles of the '90s, when a hapless and vision-bankrupt Marvel Entertainment was breaking off licensing agreements to anyone who would buy them. The result was the badly fractured (but healing) Marvel movie landscape we enjoy today.
And as everyone knows, Disney's $4 billion acquisition of Marvel Studios in 2009 did not give them rights to the Fantastic Four/X-Men characters (Fox) or Spider-Man (Sony). Though the three entities continued to co-exist in Disney-owned Marvel Comics, their onscreen adaptations remained largely separate (before Disney and Sony figured out a way to play nice and get Peter Parker into Captain America: Civil War and Spider-Man: Homecoming).
If Disney does deal to get most of 21st Century Fox's assets -- a Galactus-sized if at this point, we'll grant you, since the "on-again, off-again" talks are reportedly in the "off" position for now -- it will essentially be the endgame for Marvel's fractured period.
And the implications of that are ... well, infinite.
OH HEY speaking of infinity, there was a rumor going 'round this year's D23 Expo in Anaheim that Wolverine, the Hugh Jackman version, would be showing up in Disney/Marvel's Infinity War. That turned out to be nonsense – Jackman was indeed in Anaheim that weekend, but for an unrelated reason – a reality that isn't likely to change now that Fox has ostensibly retired Jackman's character.
Still, there's a lot to play with here.
Herewith are some of the biggest, most enticing "what ifs" of a reconstituted Marvel Studios:
A movie version of Avengers vs X-Men
The 2012 crossover event that lasted 12 issues had everything – stakes, scale, drama, doublecrosses, deaths – and was truly the catalyst that rippled into several other major Marvel storylines, including Age of Ultron and Infinity. Once Marvel wraps up Phase 3 of its cinematic universe, wouldn't it be something to bring the old gangs back together for a battle royale? Or fine, reboot and recast everyone if you must – just get us that AvX showdown, stat. And while we're at it, can we get movie adaptations of Secret Wars and House of M? Cool, we'll take those whenever.
A Fantastic Four that doesn't suck
Hey, first time for everything, right? Though FF has had a rocky ride in the cinema down the years, Reed Richards & Co. are an absolutely essential part of Marvel Comics. Richards himself is an alpha scientist/technologist -- right up there with Bruce Banner, Tony Stark and Peter Parker -- and the MCU needs him to feel truly complete. (Too bad this deal wasn't done before Infinity War; Richards is a major player in that event, if not the major player.)
Deadpool interacting with everyone
Oh, hello. How irritated do you suppose Thor would be by the Merc with the Mouth? Certainly enough so that he'd never call this guy "a friend from work." And who wouldn't love to see Robert Downey Jr. and Ryan Reynolds sparking off on the press tour? This has gotta happen.
MCU characters being able to say the word "mutant"
If we have to hear Steve Rogers or a S.H.I.E.L.D. call some OBVIOUS MUTANT an "enhanced" one more time ...
OK, this isn't such a big deal, but honestly, we're sick of all the silly workarounds we're having to endure – like Age of Ultron being unable to discuss Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver's true lineage, or that insufferably terrible Inhumans show, for example. We just want this stuff fixed in a way that has everything to do with creating a unified world and nothing to do with corporate intellectual property contracts.
Patton Oswalt's filibuster fever dream coming true
Alright, Disney buying Fox probably has nothing to do with enabling Oswalt's totally improv'ed Star Wars/Marvel filibuster speech from Parks and Rec. But this is a pretty good excuse to watch or re-watch and witness the power of a potentially fully operational studio.
Go get 'em, Iger.
Josh Dickey is Mashable's Entertainment Editor, leading Mashable's TV, music, gaming and sports reporters as well as writing movie features and reviews.Josh has been the Film Editor at Variety, Entertainment Editor at The Associated Press and Managing Editor at TheWrap.com.A finalist for the Los Angeles Press Club's Best Entertainment Feature in 2015 for "Everyone is Altered: The Secret Hollywood Procedure that Fooled Us for Years," Josh received his BA in Journalism from The University of Minnesota.In between screenings, he can be found skating longboards, shredding guitar and wandering the streets of his beloved downtown Los Angeles.
