Disney has been acquiring some major properties in the past few years. They’ve purchased the rights to Pixar, which has given them not only a box office smash animation studio but an Academy Award-winning one as well. They’ve also purchased the rights to Marvel, which has led to the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Lucasfilm, their latest major acquisition, has already given way to two successful hits.

But now they are looking to make their biggest acquisition yet. According to a new report, Disney is looking into purchasing 20th Century Fox – which includes their film division and television division. This could be a huge game-changer for the entertainment industry as it shrinks the competition and also makes a studio much bigger. More on the story below.

The report comes to us from CNBC, who says talks have been ongoing for the past several weeks. While it is still very early, the news seems to indicate that there is some major truth to this. However, while CNBC is a very reputable source, nothing is definite, and we’ll have to file this as a rumor until more on this comes out. We’ve seen Disney attempt to acquire Netflix, and Apple try to acquire Disney. But nothing has come of either of those attempts. So we’ll just have to wait until we know more about it.

But if this does happen, it could have huge implications. For one thing, Disney would acquire the full rights to the Star Wars films. First and foremost, 20th Century Fox would not sell all of its properties to Disney. Instead, the entertainment group would become more tightly focused, by putting its attention in sports and news. This means that the studio would give its film and TV properties to Disney. So Disney’s ESPN becoming the leader in sports would not be a thing. According to the report, this would make it an anti-competitive market.

However, with Fox potentially selling its film and TV properties away, it could change the way we see films and TV as we know it. Here’s the thing: while Disney does hold the rights to Lucasfilm, they cannot touch the original trilogy, which is one of the reasons why we aren’t seeing the original cut being released. Fox holding the rights to the X-Men and Fantastic Four also means that we won’t be seeing any of those heroes exist in the MCU. However, if this deal gets signed, there is a chance that we could see all of that change. And it’s not clear how Disney would merge X-Men into the MCU, but they could find a way to work in Fantastic Four since that has been a two-time failure under Fox.

As for television, Disney would own the rights to FX and National Geographic. The latter of which could expand their Disney Nature property.

I could see 20th Century Fox films and TV shows being geared towards a more mature audience under the Disney umbrella much like Miramax was when it was under Disney. Film franchises like Kingsman and Alien would hopefully retain their R ratings. But it’s not clear what would happen to Fox Searchlight, which gives us films like Good Bye, Christopher Robin and The Shape of Water. But that is if Disney wants to do that. Things could change under the new leadership, and whether or not that is good or bad remains to be seen.

For right now, everything is just speculation. For all we know, the deal could fall through, and 20th Century Fox and Disney could go their separate ways. But if they don’t, we should be preparing for some major changes.

[Source: CNBC]