Disney Forces Fox To Hand Over Control Of Deadpool To Marvel

For Marvel fans, the consequences of the historic Fox-Disney merger seemed simple: Marvel Studios has finally got the rights back to properties like Deadpool, X-Men and the Fantastic Four and the Kevin Feige-headed company is free to make movies about them when they’re ready. In actual fact, though, there was more cajoling than we previously realized.

Deadline reports that 20th Century Fox Film vice chairman Emma Watts will remain where she is and continue to steer Fox’s film division, despite widespread rumors that she may be poached by Paramount or Warner Bros. However, Watts has been forced to relinquish control of Deadpool and other such superhero properties to Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige.

The trade writes that despite this, the exec was likely incentivized to stay by overseeing the upcoming Avatar sequels. Watts will apparently be key to Disney’s relationship with James Cameron. Obviously, the studio is keen to continue Fox’s partnership with the filmmaker, seeing as he was the director behind the world’s biggest movie until Avenger’s Endgame managed to beat it this past week. It’s not a surprise that Disney would want Feige to shepherd Fox’s old Marvel franchises from now on, seeing as he’s made such a phenomenal success of the MCU.

What’s more, Disney CEO Bob Iger has previously confirmed that it only made sense for there to be one cohesive Marvel universe on-screen instead of two.

We got our first official confirmation that the X-Men would be folded into the MCU at Comic-Con on Saturday, as Feige teased that both a Fantastic Four reboot and mutantkind were coming to the franchise in Phase 5. He didn’t mention Deadpool by name, but all the signs are pointing to Marvel being very excited to get their hands on the Merc with a Mouth, as he was easily Fox’s most profitable character by the end of their X-Men era.

Source: Deadline