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Nerd Talk: Expanding the Disney Empire, one deal at a time

Megan Roth’s bi-weekly column discussing pop culture and all things nerdy.
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By Megan Roth Black Press

All hail the Mouse King.

It is official, Disney has purchased Fox Broadcasting for an outstanding $71-billion. What does this mean for the rest of the world?

It means that Disney is one step further in it’s masterful plan to take over the world, one entertainment empire at a time.

Really Disney is the modern day Napoleon, or Julius Cesar - unwilling to settle for what they have and always wanting more.

Already The Mouse King has an impressive corner on the entertainment industry, with brands like Pixar, Marvel Comics, Star Wars and even the Muppets already under their control.

And it isn’t just franchises ol’ Mickey has in his clutches. Disney is the parent company for ABC - which has the rights to other channels like ABC Spark, Freeform and A&E - while also owning ESPN, the Disney Channel and Canada’s Family Channel.

That is quite a chunk of entertainment gold right there, but it doesn’t end.

Mickey - who was once known as Mortimer, true story - and those he surrounds himself with have their own radio stations, music label, publishing company, theme parks, cruise ships and hotels.

And, of course, one can’t forget Disney is planning their own streaming service. With the sheer amount of content flying under it’s flag, the Disney streaming service will give Netflix a run for its money.

Mickey Mouse is one of, if not the, most well known figures in the world.

Behold, the power of branding.

By winning the bid for Fox, after Comcast pulled out of the bidding war, Disney gains so much more than they already had.

Disney will now acquire Fox’s television and movie studio, cable television channels FX and National Geographic, a stake in streaming service Hulu, television operations in India and Fox’s 39 percent stake in London-based pay-TV company Sky.

Soon, no matter how we consume media, Disney will make another dollar.

That isn’t to say we should necessarily worry about the product we will, inevitably, consume. Disney has a standard of excellence it pushes forward - this can even be seen in the people who work for Disney at any level.

For instance, the training one has to go through to work at the Disney Store is rather astounding. All I’m going to say on it is that homework is given.

With a certain standard - the 90s straight to video phase aside - it is almost assured whatever is produced under the new Fox banner will still be excellent.

Disney will play their hand and force a certain level of understanding on the company, so it conforms to its rather rigorous rules and mores. But otherwise, it will largely be left alone to continue making shows and movies, while the upper ups at Disney sit back and rake it all in.

However, with the Disney standard in place - for a recent example look no further than the firing of James Gunn from Guardians of the Galaxy and Roseanne Barr from her own show, it does leave the question of what will happen to many of the T.V. shows often seen on Fox.

Some of the shows produced for the network don’t exactly fit in with Disney’s family-friendly appearance. Will shows like “Family Guy” continue on with the new company?

It stands to reason Marvel Studios, once again owned by Disney, will stand to gain a lot with this new merger. After many years, Marvel will once again the own the movie rights to box office main stays like the X-Men.

Maybe with Disney in charge, we will finally see a good rendition of the Fantastic Four on the silver screen.

Other than possibly bringing the X-Men and the Fantastic Four characters into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I can’t really see Disney doing too much with the other titles.

My best guess is, Disney will impose Disney Law and let those at Fox do what they do, and eventually we will see a new version of Logan from the X-Men fight alongside heroes from the Avengers.

As a side note: Did you know in the comics, at least in one continuity, Wolverine actually fought alongside Captain America during World War II? If Chris Evans stays on after the next Avengers movie, wouldn’t that be an interesting way of introducing a new character?

While the deal is in the books, it will take several more months before the two companies have combined to create whatever they plan to call the new version of Fox.

After that is done all we can do is wait to see what the aftermath will look like and who will be left on the sidelines.

And the Mouse King will go on, looking for his next acquisition for his ever expanding empire.

At least with Emperor Mickey, the expanding Disney Empire isn’t as bloody as his historical counterparts.