The 20th Century Fox logo is pretty iconic, as far as movie studio logos go. The drums, the horns, the searchlights, the panning…if you love movies, you’ve seen this a lot, and in front of some really big movies, from Titanic, to Die Hard to Avatar to Star Wars: A New Hope.
But it will shortly be no more, starting with Call of the Wild, which comes out in February. That movie will be released simply as a “20th Century” production. Fox Searchlight Pictures is also getting a makeover; when the comedy Downhill releases next month, it’ll be under “Searchlight Pictures Presents.”
Email addresses for Searchlight staffers have been changed, too, according to Variety. Why the shift? Well, last March, Disney acquired 21st Century Fox assets for $71.3 billion, greatly expanding its film portfolio. Avatar is a Disney property now, for example, and this means the company can integrate the X-Men into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
But Disney didn’t get everything associated with the Fox brand in the deal, namely the Fox broadcast network and Fox News, which remain part of Fox Corp. under CEO Lachlan Murdoch. To avoid confusion, the names of the movie studios had to change. Also, it may not be best for Disney, which is dedicated to maintaining its family-friendly image, to keep the Fox name when it’s so closely associated with the famously partisan Fox News, which has weathered a number of sexual misconduct scandals over the past few years. “I think the Fox name means Murdoch, and that is toxic,” said one insider.
All that said, it doesn’t sound like Disney has come to a decision about whether to change the names of 20th Century Fox Television and Fox 21 Television Studios, which it also acquired, hence why the entirety of The Simpsons is now available on Disney+.
You know, as long as Disney is changing names, you think it should at least update the one studio to “21st Century” from “20th Century”?
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h/t The A.V. Club