Comcast May Ruin All Our X-MEN And FANTASTIC FOUR Dreams With A Cash Bid Upending Fox/Disney Merger
Well, this isn't the best news to start the day with! Comcast is reportedly once again looking to outbid Disney for 21st Century Fox and that could totally upend the arrival of the X-Men in the MCU...
Despite losing out on their initial bid to Disney, Comcast is now once again looking to acquire 21st Century Fox in a move which could put a swift end to those dreams of seeing the X-Men and Fantastic Four in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. According to a new report from CNBC, the company is considering making an all-cash offer for the company which could totally upend Disney's current deal.
It was in December that we learned Disney had agreed to acquire the majority of the studio for a whopping $52 billion and while that's currently in the review process, shareholders could decide that Comcast's offer is far more worthwhile to them and that would obviously change things in a big way.
There's nothing to say Fox would accept such an offer, of course, and they already refused Comcast's attempt to outbid Disney after the deal was made official last year. The difference here, however, is that the offer was rejected due to antitrust concerns but should AT&T's planned acquisition of Time Warner take place, those issues will no longer be a concern and they'll be free to outbid Disney.
Disney could then choose to match that and it's possible the small print in those deals which saw Fox acquire the likes of the X-Men and Fantastic Four don't allow the characters to be transferred to another studio in the event of a merger. Either way, this again casts some doubt on the arrive of those heroes in the MCU so it's no wonder Kevin Feige has repeatedly said he's not looking that far ahead.
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A lifelong comic book fan who grew up on Spider-Man: The Animated Series in the '90s, Josh Wilding has been contributing to ComicBookMovie.com since 2009.
While he's also written for websites like Batman-News, HeyUGuys, and WhatCulture, Josh is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic for CBM and the site's #1 contributor with nearly two decades of experience covering film and TV news (including interviews with Tom Holland, Chris Pratt, Gary Oldman, Halle Berry, Jon Bernthal, Tom Welling, and hundreds more).
Based in the UK with his wife, Josh is also an avid WWE and Formula 1 fan and writes about those passions on CBM's sister sites, TheRingReport.com and FullThrottleHQ.com. Favourite superhero? Spider-Man. Favourite pro wrestler? CM Punk. Favourite F1 driver? Max Verstappen.