As any film fan will attest to, 2017 was a crazy roller coaster to experience. One person – well, guy – after the other in the film industry got accused of sexual harassment, outside of Marvel every attempt at creating an expanded film universe bombed, the Fast and Furious family started falling apart, and beloved character actors such as Lance Henriksen and Michael Madsen started showing up in gambling ads.

As we were nearing the end of the year, we all hoped the most noteworthy thing to happen in December would be controversy around the quality of the newest Star Wars Movie. Alas, on the 14th of December the bombshell hit that Disney had bought 21st Century Fox, thereby continuing its plan to eventually own everything in the world. Not only is Marvel films a subsidiary of Disney, in 2012 the company bought Lucasfilm – owner of Star Wars – for $4 billion. That is nothing compared to what Disney paid to merge with the Fox studio: $52.4 billion.

To some people this might be good news. By merging with Fox, several Marvel characters will now fall under the Marvel studios banner. Beyond this, Disney has proven to be successful at revitalizing tarnished franchises such as Star Wars. For this reason, let’s have a look at what notable franchises Disney now owns and could push continuations for:

• Avatar: it’s the highest grossing movie of all time, even if no one seems to care for it anymore. Still, four (!!) sequels are currently in the works, with director James Cameron at the helm. Since Cameron is a notorious control freak, it’ll be interesting to see if Disney dares to meddle with the plan he has in mind.
• Deadpool, X-Men, Fantastic Four: good news for Marvel fans, it seems. The X-Men can finally cross over with Thor and his super friends. We’re unsure what’ll happen with the Fantastic Four, as that whole property seems to be tied up in legal hell.
• The Simpsons:  there’s only been one Simpsons movie so far, but Disney would be stupid not to make another one.
• Planet of the Apes: the new trilogy of Apes movies have been surprisingly dark, which might have hindered its box office performance somewhat. Now that the series has wrapped up its Caesar arc, Disney could start applying its softer touch to this franchise.
• Alien: this series has gotten so bad even the Xenomorph turned on director Ridley Scott. We know quality isn’t always a benchmark for success, but the last movie in the franchise – Alien: Covenant – did not do well. It is very likely Disney will boot Ridley Scott from this franchise and take over.
• Die Hard: By all accounts A Good Day to Die Hard killed this series. Yet, we can’t help but wonder: if Disney is trying to revive Indiana Jones, wouldn’t it try to do the same for this one?

These are just some of the franchises Disney now owns. It will take some time before we see the effect of the studio on them. Are you excited about this development? Worried we’ll now get porgs in Avatar and Alien movies? Hopeful Disney will finally let Peter Weir make a sequel to Master and Commander? Let us know in the comments!

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