Disney cancels Fox movies, readies new Marvel TV shows

There are a whole lotta changes happening at Disney these days. Not long ago, the biggest company in entertainment became even bigger when it bought 20th Century Fox, another of the biggest companies in entertainment. Notably, that will mean an expansion of the Marvel Cinematic Universe — look for the X-Men and the Fantastic Four family to show up sooner or later — and that Disney now has control over franchises like Avatar. But it also means that several projects that were in the planning stages at 20th Century Fox are now very likely cancelled as the House of Mouse reorients itself.

For example, Legion creator Noah Hawley had a movie about Doctor Doom in the works at Fox, but now? The situation is unclear. “I mean, where it stands is now that the movie is done and Legion is done and I’ve taken a little time off because someone told me there was this word ‘vacation,’ which means you don’t work, which sounded really interesting to me,” Hawley told SyFy Wire. “But you know, I need to circle back to them and announce that I would love to make it and figure out if that’s something that is possible. Whether or not they already have a plan in place for what to do with those characters or whether they’re open to my kind of vision for what to do with those characters. But it’s sort of on me right now to go push them, which I will do as soon as I come up for air.”

It’s almost certain that we’ll see Doctor Doom in a Marvel movie at some point, but it’s hard to know if it’ll be Hawley’s. Meanwhile, hard-working Redditors have compiled some of the other movies in production at Fox when Disney bought them out. Some of the films — James Cameron’s Avatar sequels, Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story — are far enough long that they’re safe, but a lot of movies in the planning stages are likely axed. They include stuff like:

• Taika Waititi’s Flash Gordon reboot
• The Magic: The Gathering movie
• A new adaptation of Alan Moore’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie
• The Return of the Killer Klowns from Outer Space in 3D
• A whole bunch of video game adaptations, including Hitman 2, Assassin’s Creed 2, Mega Man and The Sims

The Sims? Really?

Things are changing on the television front, too. Legion just aired its series finale the other night. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is wrapping up with its next season, and of course, all of Marvel’s Netflix shows were cancelled one after the other.

How does Marvel’s TV arm plan to respond to this? Speaking to Deadline, chief Jeff Loeb said he and his team were “blindsided” by the Netflix cancellation and that they had some things in the pipeline that “weren’t finished yet.” But I wouldn’t take that as an indication that we’ll see more of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage or Iron Fist; Netflix still controls those characters. And Daredevil showrunner Steven DeKnight bought one of the costumes from the show at auction, so it looks like this chapter of Marvel TV history is over.

But Loeb hints that there are other “street-level heroes” Marvel could spotlight in the future. And it’s bringing a bunch of animated shows to Hulu, including MODOK, Hit-Monkey, Tigra & Dazzler and Howard The Duck — all of whom will eventually team up for a series called The Offenders, which seems a little like a petty dig at Netflix and I’m here for it.

On top of that, Marvel TV is readying Hulu shows based on Ghost Rider and Helstrom, plus a couple others they haven’t announced yet, and all of THOSE will combine in a crossover event Loeb calls Adventure Into Fear. Clearly, the Netflix experience didn’t sour Loeb on taking big swings. And since Disney now owns Hulu (of course), the risk is less.

But what, you may be asking, about Disney+, the company’s upcoming streaming service? Loeb says they’re getting a few things ready for that, too, although they haven’t announced anything. Also, he was careful to note that the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe shows — Falcon and the Winter Soldier, WandaVision, etc — are produced by Marvel’s movie arm, not the TV arm.

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So like I said, big changes. Will Disney come out of this upheaval with a wealth of new content to offer us fans or as an all-encompassing behemoth too big to slow down even if they start turning in the wrong direction? The world watches and waits.

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h/t The A.V. Club, SuperHeroHype