Recently it was reported that Disney had been in talks with Fox to acquire most of the company. This news excited fans because it could potentially lead to characters like the X-Men and the Fantastic Four joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, even though it was later reported that “pencils aren’t down” on the deal, it doesn’t seem that this is something that Disney is actively pursuing at the moment.
Now it looks like a new player has entered the fray, as The Wall Street Journal is now reporting that Sony is in talks to possibly acquire Fox. According to the report Sony has “informally approached” Fox about the situation. Other players said to be interested in acquiring Fox include Verizon and Comcast.
Sony has made it clear that they intend to expand their Spider-Man universe on the big screen, with a Venom spinoff currently being filmed, a Black Cat and Silver Sable spinoff in development, and several other spinoffs based on Spider-Man characters rumored to be in the works.
If Sony does end up acquiring Fox it would open up the door for Spider-Man, and/or Spider-Man characters to interact with the X-Men and Fantastic Four.
As far as Spider-Man’s involvement in the MCU goes, Sony has only confirmed that he’s signed on to be part of the cinematic universe through the sequel to “Homecoming” which is set to be released after “Avengers 4” in 2019, so if Sony does end up acquiring Fox, there’s no guarantee that all of these characters would be integrated into the MCU.
Fox is pushing ahead with their X-Men film universe with three films scheduled for release next year, and a Multiple Man movie starring James Franco in development.
Even though Fox isn’t slowing down in regards to making comic book movies, it seems clear at this point that they want to sell the film studio. Fox’s shares rose 8.1% on Thursday after news that Verizon and Comcast are interested in the company broke.
We’ll just have to wait and see where it ends up.
