Disney CEO Bob Iger is setting the record straight when it comes to the House of Mouse’s plans for the future of Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Iger says that Disney will “thrive in a world that doesn’t look anything like the world that existed just a few years ago.” How does he plan to accomplish that? Like all great plans, Iger’s is threefold.
"There are three ways to do that. The first is make great content. And this is very relevant to the Fox acquisition. The second is to be incredibly innovative about how you bring that content to market. By the way, there isn’t a better example than Netflix. The third is to be truly global in nature."
"I’m impressed with what has been accomplished at Netflix and Amazon. But none of them is either Disney or Marvel. Or Pixar. Or Star Wars or National Geographic or FX or Searchlight or Avatar — I could go on. So we enter the business that they’re in, in many respects, with an advantage from a content perspective that will enable us to focus on quality rather than just volume."
Netflix famously churns out a ton of content of varying quality, to the point where HBO’s new corporate overlords have dubbed it the “Walmart of streaming services.” Iger doesn’t necessarily see that as a bad thing. “Well, I happen to like Walmart; we do a lot of business with them,. So maybe I’d say it a different way. They’re a volume play with a lot of quality within their volume. And we’re going to be a quality play with enough volume and enough scale to provide the consumer with a good price-to-value relationship.”
Iger also addressed the many prominent shakeups that have occurred at Disney this year, just as Roseanne Barr being kicked off her hit sitcom Roseanne and director James Gunn being fired from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. In both cases, inappropriate tweets precipitated the firings. Welcome to 2018, folks, where the internet never forgets.
"I would say there is a blend of my helping to make the decision to my supporting the decisions that have been made. Roseanne was completely unanimous. We discussed how it would be communicated and when because there were a number of entities that had to be properly filled in, but the decision was completely unanimous. The James Gunn decision was brought to me as a unanimous decision of a variety of executives at the studio and I supported it."
Moving on to the topic of world domination; in June of this year, Disney acquired Fox for $71.3 billion, meaning the X-Men — including those played by Game of Thrones stars Sophie Turner (Jean Grey) and Maisie Williams (Wolfsbane) might finally get to play in the same sandbox as the Avengers. The man to oversee this great amalgamation will be Kevin Feige, who has guided the Marvel Cinematic Universe to unparalleled success with hits like Iron Man, Avengers: Infinity War, and Black Panther.
“I think it only makes sense,” Iger said of Feige’s new responsibility. “I want to be careful here because of what’s been communicated to the Fox folks, but I think they know. It only makes sense for Marvel to be supervised by one entity. There shouldn’t be two Marvels.”
Okay. Then what of Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool? Will he be an Avenger? “Kevin’s got a lot of ideas,” Iger responded. “I’m not suggesting that’s one of them. But who knows?”
Fox was just Disney’s latest acquisition. Back in 2012, Disney purchased a little-known company called Lucasfilm, giving it control of the Star Wars license. And the rest is box office destroying history, even though Solo: A Star Wars Story underperformed (relatively speaking; it still made $392,952,373 worldwide). It may be that disappointment that’s inspired Iger to turn over a new leaf. “I made the timing decision, and as I look back, I think the mistake that I made — I take the blame — was a little too much, too fast,” he said. “You can expect some slowdown, but that doesn’t mean we’re not going to make films.”
"J.J. [Abrams] is busy making [Episode] IX. We have creative entities, including [Game of Thrones creators David] Benioff and [D.B.] Weiss, who are developing sagas of their own, which we haven’t been specific about. And we are just at the point where we’re going to start making decisions about what comes next after J.J.’s. But I think we’re going to be a little bit more careful about volume and timing. And the buck stops here on that."
We look forward to the Red Wedding in space.
Anyway, If the news that Disney is going to slow down its frantic pace of pushing out a Star Wars movie a year at a time has you down, don’t worry, you’ll soon be able to drown your sorrows with some tasty adult libations at the new Star Wars Land opening at Disneyland and Disney World resorts. “We have to be careful we don’t let people drink and then go on Autopia,” Iger joked.
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