CONTENT IS KING – that was the title of a 1996 editorial by Bill Gates, who wrote that the Internet would disrupt entertainment in a way unmatched since the home television a half-century earlier. He reflected that in television, “the long-term winners were those who used the medium to deliver information and entertainment.” To Gates’ thinking, the Internet offered the same opportunity… and even then, he suggested that the wise would invest in entertainment on the then-new World Wide Web.
Now, a quarter century later, we can see that Gates’ prediction wasn’t just right on the mark; it was practically prophetic. Spurred by the 2010 opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, we can see the battle of content play out as Disney and Universal each reach for high-earning film (and video game) franchises to translate into themed environments. But even as billion-dollar theme park projects clash in battle, the war is even larger. The “Content Wars” have redefined entertainment in the 21st century. Accelerated by the pandemic, streaming has usurped all other forms of traditional media, and he who has the most valuable IPs has the lead.
To see “Content Wars” in action, look at Disney+. During its first year, Disney’s over-the-top streaming service mostly served as a quasi-archival unit of the company; a fun but unfancy service for families, replacing the need to keep shelves stocked with DVDs of Disney’s back catalogue. Sure, the occasional “Disney+ Original” might include a family holiday movie or an unscripted family baking show… even the more prestigious drop like the long-awaited Imagineering Story docu-series or the revolutionary Mandalorian. But after Disney’s December 2020 investor call and its 100+ announcements, it’s clear that a year after its launch, Disney+ is about to become the central battleground in the Content Wars.
So maybe it’s time to pause for a moment and appreciate the catalogue of content Disney is assembling… With over a hundred billion dollars in content acquisitions over the last twenty years alone, Disney is truly building a content kingdom few can rival… And as a result, you may be surprised what’s technically part of the Disney family now, what’s soon to be streaming on Disney+, and – eh hem – what may or may not find its way into Disney Parks… Get the full story on Disney’s history of acquisitions below, to jump to page 2 to cut right to the list!
The Eisner Era
In 1987, then-CEO Michael Eisner set the stage when he officially renamed Walt Disney Productions to The Walt Disney Company. Inherent in Eisner’s era was the promise that “Disney” would not be merely a movie studio relying on a back catalogue from “the glory days” and some accessory theme parks; it would be a global entertainment company, eventually fulfilled via international resorts, prestigious hotels, convention centers, Disney Cruise Line, Disney Vacation Clubs, Disney Channel, Radio Disney, Hyperion Books, Hollywood Records, DisneyToon Studios, Touchstone Films, and more.
But even as Disney’s footprint and media expanded, Eisner knew that content is king. That’s why Eisner’s Disney forged once-unprecedented partnerships with creators like George Lucas (igniting the Lost Legends: Captain EO and STAR TOURS) and Jim Henson (with whom Imagineers drafted the never-built Possibilityland: Muppet Studios), bringing the characters people cared about into Disney Parks, even if they weren’t Disney characters; why he imbued Walt Disney Feature Animation with the filmmaking talent needed to jump-start the Disney Renaissance and built the company’s modern character portfolio; why he greenlit the Disney Princess franchise, utilizing the company’s catalogue new and old (today, worth about $3 billion per year)… and most importantly, why he began acquiring…
In 1995, an unimaginable $19 billion purchase saw Disney acquire ABC and ESPN – stepping stones on Eisner’s path to making Disney an international multimedia giant. The following year, the acquisition of MIRAMAX added prestige to Disney’s live-action studio. In 2004, Eisner’s long-running love affair came to fruition when Disney acquired THE MUPPETS for $75 million. When he exited the company soon after, it was on infamously frosty terms, with Eisner’s last decade having been marked by ‘brand withdrawals’ like underbuilt theme parks, cash-grab projects, defected executives creating competing animation studios, the apparent end of Disney’s box office reign, and broken allegiances with Steve Jobs’ Pixar whose box office and critical fortunes has risen as Disney’s fell…
But Eisner’s role had been invaluable. He’d begun the company’s pivot toward the international media giant we know today, and his stepping-stone acquisitions gave Disney the platforms it needed to begin sharing the content that was soon to come…
Iger’s Rise
When Bob Iger was appointed CEO after Eisner’s exit, he famously recognized the coming Content Wars when – at the 2005 opening of Hong Kong Disneyland – he noticed that Pixar’s characters of the ’90s and 2000s got twice the applause of Disney’s decades-old legacy characters. And just like that, Iger opened his tenure with one of the gutsiest moves in corporate history: in 2006, he purchased PIXAR for $7.4 billion and (brilliantly) retained its brand and organization independent of Disney Animation’s, elevating Pixar figureheads to oversee both.
Two years later, just as the first films post-Iron Man made their way to theaters, Iger made another risky buy: for $4 billion, Disney added MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT to its ranks, supercharging Disney’s character portfolio with (literally) thousands of characters (with the asterisk that many had already been licensed by Marvel pre-Disney to Universal, Paramount, and Sony). Still, the elevation of Kevin Fiege to oversee the burgeoning “Marvel Cinematic Universe” was like pouring gasoline on the slow-burning hero-tinged pilot light lit by 2000’s X-Men. Slowly, Disney’s heroes would become the hottest global property on Earth and with a limitless universe in which to explore it… and not for nothing, they’d also found their counterpart and complement to the Disney Princess franchise.
What could possibly compete with the acquisition and expansion of Marvel? In 2012, Disney’s three-decade flirtation with George Lucas paid off. With Lucas himself eager to retire – but reticent to sell or hand-off the studio and its priceless character portfolio to just anyone – Iger swept in. For $4 billion, Disney gained STAR WARS and INDIANA JONES outright (though 20th Century Fox and Paramount retained the distribution rights to each, respectively). As we know, at least the former has become a multi-billion-dollar cornerstone of Disney’s projects in the ten years since with a (literal) galaxy of stories, spin-offs, feature films, animated series, ten (yes, ten) Disney+ Original Series, books, comics, costumes, toys, and – oh yeah – two billion-dollar theme park lands.
Studio for Sale
Then there was the big kahuna. Unimaginable. Unprecedented. Unbelievable. In a shocking show of the Content Wars, in 2017, Disney made the announcement that it intended to purchase competing studio 20TH CENTURY FOX in its (near) entirety for (gulp) $52 billion. That’s more than Pixar, Lucasfilm, Marvel, and the Muppets combined. To be clear, there’s a good reason for the price… and in retrospect, $52 billion would’ve been a steal.
20th Century Fox isn’t “just” a niche IP like Marvel or Star Wars. It’s one of the “Big Six” studios in Hollywood; literally, the equivalent of Paramount buying Universal. If it were successful, Disney’s purchase of 20th Century Fox would imbue Disney’s catalogue with an authentically-prestigious Hollywood studios’ worth of legendary pictures from the 1930s on (think Miracle on 34th Street, The King and I, Planet of the Apes, and Cleopatra) as well as hundreds of modern classics (including Castaway, Mrs. Doubtfire, Moulin Rouge, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Princess Bride, Home Alone, and TITANIC), not to mention Blue Sky Studios, FX, and a dozen other modern media businesses. Interestingly, it would also give Disney complete distribution control of the original six Star Wars films…
Disney’s industry-shaking plan, however, was nearly derailed. In a move that’ll strike close to home for theme park fans, Comcast (owners of NBC Universal) bid on 20th Century Fox, as well, upping the ante to $65 billion. Would Disney blink and fold? Of course not. In 2019, Disney finalized the deal with a monstrous final sum of $71.3 billion, adding the (renamed) 20th Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures, Blue Sky Studios, 20th Television, FX, National Geographic, Star India and Fox’s 30% stake in Hulu (which, when added to Disney’s, essentially make the streaming service theirs).
And literally overnight, the definition of “Disney” changed. You know Mickey and Snow White; Peter Pan and Pinocchio; Aladdin and Ariel are “Disney.” By now, you may even be used to Iron Man and Captain America; Buzz and Woody; Kermit and Piggy; Luke and Leia; Rey and Grogu being “Disney” too. But that’s just the start. With a century of IP added to Disney’s portfolio, countless, priceless stories are now Disney’s to explore… On the next page, we’ll break down 10 of the most exciting, interesting, and surprising modern IPs that just might make its way to Disney’s brand… and Parks…
1. National Geographic
The long-lived official magazine of the National Geographic Society was first published in 1888 – thirty years before the first automobile. The National Geographic Society still exists (and in fact, is one of the largest educational non-profits in the world), but holds a minority 27% stake in the joint venture National Geographic Partners (a for-profit LLC that handles the magazine’s publication, “NatGeo’s'” television networks and brands, and the travel and tour division). 20th Century Fox controlled the other 73%, which was absorbed by Disney.
To be clear, National Geographic really ought to count as an acquisition in its own right – and largely, Disney seems to agree. (Think: Disney + Pixar + Marvel + Star Wars + National Geographic… Yep, a single 20th Century aquisition rising over The Muppets or ABC.) Really, it’s a coup. NatGeo is an established, recognized, and esteemed brand. But more to the point, its bedrock of programming provides Disney with thousands and thousands of hours of documentary films and series. And that which competing brand Discovery Inc. spreads across a half-dozen networks (Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, History Channel, Food Network, Science Channel, and TLC) is comfortably collected in one via the National Geographic brand.
We’ve already seen Disney leverage the National Geographic brand on Disney+ with “The World According to Jeff Goldblum,” “The Right Stuff,” and “The Magic of Disney’s Animal Kingdom.” But obviously, this is a brand that Disney not only thinks complements its own, but that Disney branding can intermix with. Reportedly, Disney’s own Disneynature banner is already shuffled under the NatGeo brand. To that end, it’s a little surprising we haven’t seen more of National Geographic across Disney’s portfolios and parks. Obviously Animal Kingdom stands to be a major home for National Geographic branding (which would quickly elevate, for example, Rafiki’s Planet Watch or even just the zoological signage along the Gorilla Falls and Jungle Trek animal trails). But if Disney knew then what they know now, it would make great sense for the Lost Legend: Soarin’ and its successors to leverage National Geographic as a brand and as a filming partner…
2. AVATAR
If we’re being honest, AVATAR occupies a unique place in 20th Century Fox history… and now, in Disney’s. Technically the highest-grossing film of all time for a decade after its 2009 release (and only narrowly beat by Avengers: Endgame, which wasn’t boosted by the same 3D ticket surcharge), AVATAR is – on paper – a landmark. But as just about anyone (except James Cameron) will also readily admit, that comes with an asterisk. Despite the film’s absolutely astounding box office performance, AVATAR is largely remembered for how little anyone remembers it.
To be sure, that’s in part because the film’s gotta-see-it appeal was due to its computer generated graphics and being one of the first wide-release movies in modern 3D. But in the years after its exit from the box office, dozens of op-eds wondered aloud how the highest grossing film in history had curiously left so few footprints in pop culture… No beloved quotes; no memorable plot; no iconic scene. Try it: ask a friend if they can remember even a single character’s name! But in the waning months around the opening of the Wizarding World, Disney reportedly got nervous. Sensing that Universal’s licensing of Harry Potter might actually make a dent, Disney allegedly grabbed for something – anything! – Potter-sized, which was, of course… AVATAR.
Yes, Disney Imagineers skillfully brought PANDORA: The World of Avatar to life at Disney’s Animal Kingdom (though arguably, their success is in spite of the movie, not because of it). Even still fans balked at the idea that now, Disney would have a permanent land themed to a movie they didn’t even own – and more to the point, themed to a franchise whose course they’d have no say in directing! What would Disney say if Cameron’s next entries in the series were R-rated war movies… or worse, if they bombed critically and commercially? As it turned out, Disney wouldn’t be as helpless as we thought.
Disney’s $71 billion purchase of Fox positioned Disney as the production company of Cameron’s promised sequels (which have expanded in scope and timeline despite the public’s pretty adament cry that we’ve really just moved on). Disney’s acquisition of the brand at least allowed them to boost it. Currently, Avatar films are scheduled to occupy the highly-sought-after Christmas week release window on even numbered years from 2022 to 2028, alternating every year with a Star Wars movie. Will Disney be able to make people care about Avataragain? Like it or not, we’ll soon see… And if so, maybe – just maybe! – Disney will be glad they secured the “international, exclusive” theme park rights to the franchise, expanding beyond its place in Orlando.
3. Percy Jackson
Author Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson & The Olympians book series made its debut with Disney’s Hyperion Publishing in 2005. The five-book young adult fantasy series (and the dozens and dozens of novels, comics, short stories, Greek myth compendiums, and spin-off series that occupy its universe) follows the young Percy Jackson who discovers he’s a demi-god – born of his mother’s short-lived marriage to Poseidon. Joining other demi-gods and mythical creatures at Camp Half Blood, Percy and his friends Annabeth and Grover set off on adventures and settle their parents’ ancient scores.
Yep, Percy Jackson is practically tailor-made to tackle Harry Potter… So how’d Disney let 20th Century Fox get ahold of the big screen rights? Probably because when the first book in the series, “The Lightning Thief,” was published in 2005, Disney was already knee-deep in its own big screen fantasy series meant to match Potter: The Chronicles of Narnia.
So it was 20th Century Fox that optioned Riordan’s book series into a film series, first with 2010’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and then 2013’s Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters. Despite a likeable and talented trio of actors vying to become the next Harry, Ron, and Hermione, Fox’s two entries recieved mixed reviews and didn’t meet expectations at the box office. (Similarly, Disney abandoned Narnia after two entries, ironically Fox picking up Narnia for a third.) Riordan himself was more explicit, stating that he’d never see the two films and that by script alone, they were the equivalent of “my life’s work going through a meat grinder.”
Obviously, he feels at least a little more warmly about Disney. After all, after Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox brought the film right to Percy Jackson back to the company, Riordan gleefully signed on to produce a Disney+ Original Series based on the books. Honestly, that sounds kind of great! Fox’s film series petered out for much the same reason Disney’s Narnia did: it was too obviously positioned as a Harry Potter duplicate created with the express intent of building a franchise. Even though Disney doesn’t like to hear it, we trust that viewers can see through that charade in a second.
Hopefully, the Disney+ version is content being a little slower, cooler, and more mature. (Is it wild to want it to be Disney’s equivalent to Netflix’s “The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina”?) While it seems unlikely that a Disney+ Original series could gain the cultural capital to find its way into Disney Parks, it’s easy to see how the thrilling, mythological adventures of Jackson and his friends would be the perfect excuse to revive the never-built Possibilityland: Beastly Kingdom… But seeing the heroes of these stories become “official” Disney characters will be cool either way.
4. Anastasia
Okay, okay… Now this one is definitely born straight from The Twilight Zone. In short, in 1979, a talented (but divisive) animator named Don Bluth quit his job at Disney, fed with up with studio’s “stifling bureaucracy” and the rejection of one too many pitches. Bluth and a cadre of nearly a dozen animators defected to created Don Bluth Productions. The studio’s first film was a concept Disney executives had rejected: 1982’s The Secret of NIHM. Bluth’s studio would gain major prominence when Steven Spielberg signed on, lending his name to An American Tail and The Land Before Time, each intentionally and spitefully released opposite Disney’s The Great Mouse Detective and Oliver & Company.
But despite Bluth’s best efforts, nothing could top the Disney Renaissance. Beginning with 1989’s The Little Mermaid, Disney could do no wrong. The studios’ unbroken series of hit animated fairy tale adaptations was an unstoppable force, shattering pop office records, reviving the art of animation, and bringing Disney the kind of pop culture clout it hadn’t had in decades. Bluth might not have been able to stop the wave, but he sure could ride it. In 1994, Bluth joined 20th Century Fox to guide the launch of its own in-house animation studio, beginning with an adaptation of a classic film from its century of favorites.
Loosely based on 1956’s live action Anastasia, Bluth’s 1997 fairytale retelling certainly took a lead from the Broadway-style structure and leading royal heroine archetype established by the Disney Renaissance. Released right between Hercules and Mulan, you can see why the casual moviegoer might believe that the musical film about an orphaned Russian princess battling an evil mystic as she rediscovers her lost lineage pretty well fits the formula…
Of course, Disney famously re-released The Little Mermaid the week before Anastasia’s debut – what Fox CEO Bill Mechanic called “a deliberate attempt to be a bully, to kick sand in our face,” noting “the amount they’re spending on advertising is ridiculous… It’s a concentrated effort to keep our film from fulfilling its potential.” Though Disney denied the claim, the result was the same: Anastasia earned just $140 million – the highest grossing of Bluth’s films, but lower than any film in the Disney Renaissance.
Disney fans have spent decades carefully and kindly reminding friends and family that Anastasia isn’t a Disney movie. That’s part of what makes the alternate-reality of a post-20th-Century-acquisition seem so, so, so weird. Seriously:
Yep, Anastasia is pretty infamous for being confused for a Disney film. And now, in some ways, it is. Or at least, it’s part of Disney’s IP and content portfolio. So will Anastasia join the Disney Princess franchise? Meet-and-greet in Fantasyland’s Fairytale Hall? Earn her own Disney+ Original Series? Well… no. But this is one film whose roundabout journey into the Disney catalogue is pretty noteworthy.
5. Night at the Museum
If there’s one thing Disney is associated with, it’s family. But technically, Disney hasn’t had many home runs in the “family” movie category in the last few decades… In fact, Disney’s catalogue is somewhat overburdened with a unique genre you might call “overly-produced, CGI-heavy family adventure films that underperform:” Wrinkle in Time, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Oz The Great and Powerful, Prince of Persia, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, Tomorrowland, The Lone Ranger… Disney’s obvious quest to find “the next Pirates” keeps getting shipwrecked. (Speaking of which, is Jungle Cruise next?)
Meanwhile, Fox found a happy place with 2005’s Night at the Museum. Directed by Shawn Levy and produced by Chris Columbus (director of the first few Harry Potters), the film follows a night watchman (Ben Stiller) at New York’s American Museum of Natural History who discovers that after dark, the museum’s collection comes to life. The film recieved mixed reviews (including plenty of praise for its Jumanji-esque excitement, action, and humor), earning $600 million at the box office and spawning two $400 million-earning sequels. Night at the Museum is far from a perfect family film, but it did land with audiences unlike Disney’s contemporary outings…
And of course, you know Disney loves a franchise… especially one that’s already established for them. A reboot of Night at the Museum was among the first projects whose development was announced after the closure of the Disney-Fox deal. Now, we know that it’ll be a Disney+ exclusive. But that’s not all… Legendary songwriter Alan Menken (behind the music in nearly all of the Disney Renaissance films) announced that he’d been put to work on a potential stage adaptation of Night at the Museum.
With or without it, the franchise feels so right for an animated Disney+ series or more. And with Disney’s writing team on board, we have no doubt that a Mouse-led Night at the Museum could sincerely be a hit… as long as they don’t make the same mistakes again.
6. X-Men, Daredevil, Elektra, Deadpool, and Fantastic 4
Though it’s nearly impossible to imagine today, Marvel wasn’t always a $4 billion brand. In fact, in the 1990s, a number of takeovers, splits, divisions, and ownership changes ultimately led to the company’s 1996 bankruptcy filing. So it’s no surprise that – in the midst of financial turmoil – 1990s-Marvel was willing to make a lot of deals. Yes, the same era that would provide Universal with ironclad, perpetual use of the Marvel superheroes in Orlando also saw Marvel auction off its heroes to film studios: Iron Man and the Avengers to Paramount; Hulk to Universal; Spider-Man with Sony; Fantastic 4 to Fox…
But of course, it was 2000’s X-Men (twenty years ago!) that finally landed, propelling 20th Century Fox into an endless stream of superhero flicks (that we’re still in the midst of). Fox quickly produced 2003’s Daredevil and its spin-off Jennifer Garner-vehicle, 2005’s Elektra. But X-Men remained not only Fox’s superhero standard, but the central franchise of the genre (that is, until the Avengers came along…). In any case, X-Men spawned a core trilogy, a prequel trilogy, a trilogy of Wolverine films, and two spin-off movies in the R-Rated Deadpool franchise.
Of course, a dozen multiverse-spanning, timeline-jumping, cast-swapping, celebrity-ensemble entries over two decades will tire even the most fervent fans, and Fox’s ret-conned second attempt at telling the celestial Dark Phoenix story crashed and burned in 2019, officially ending Fox’s run with the heroes with a whimper. That said, there’s zero doubt that Disney will revive the X-Men in a future phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the pie-chart wedge of characters returned to Disney by way of regaining the X-Men is gargantuan.
Yet more evidence that Disney won’t see the X-Men as a dead horse: they’ve already committed to reviving Marvel’s Fantastic 4 (also salvaged from 20th Century Fox after two disastrous adaptations of the hero team’s origin). It’s likely that – as they did once gaining say over the oft-rebooted Spider-Man – Disney will skip the origin stories and simply work their regained heroes into the MCU in more organic ways. So even if Disney’s acquisition killed off the Netflix-exclusive Daredevil series, don’t be surprised to see Charlie Cox’s version of the character pop up on Disney+… or in the upcoming, multi-verse-spanning Spider-Man 3…
7. Ice Age
When Toy Story debuted in 1995, it revolutionized animation. Not only did Toy Story prove that audiences would enjoy a full-length, computer-animated feature film, but that animation was not the exclusive domain of Disney anymore. As we know, the dawn of computer animation would lead to a number of competing studios in the early 2000s, each rising as Disney’s hand-drawn efforts pretty plainly failed. One of the studios to bank on the art was Blue Sky, who turned from special effects and television commercials to partnering with 20th Century Fox to try their hand at feature films.
To date, Blue Sky has released 13 feature films (with one more en route for January 2022). Most are, unfortunately, somewhat forgettable. None match Disney or Pixar for quality. But five of those thirteen are sequels to the studio’s first film and biggest hit, 2002’s Ice Age. Laugh all you want, but Ice Age narrowly outperformed Disney’s similarly prehistoric undertaking, 2000’s Dinosaur (yes, the largely-forgetten inspiration for the Lost Legend: Countdown to Extinction) and unlike the declining returns on Disney’s films and sequels in the early 2000s, each of Ice Age’s four sequels performed better than the one before, up to $880 million.
The end result is that Disney animation purists can groan and give Ice Age side-eye all they want; they can decry it a tasteless series without the kind of timelessness Disney’s known for; they can lump it in with those “other” studios’ movies filled with “fart jokes,” gross-out humor, and top 40 soundtracks… but guess what? Ice Age 2, 3, and 4 each outperformed Tangled. No, no, it’s okay: you can read that again. Yes, even this film’s three sequels did better than Disney’s Tangled. So ask yourself if it’s really so crazy that Disney+ will soon feature a spin-off film, or that Disney seemed poised to embrace this franchise?
It’s difficult to say what will come of Blue Sky Studios in the medium-term. Does the Walt Disney Company want to maintain three feature length animated film studios – Walt Disney Feature Animation, Pixar, and Blue Sky? Might Blue Sky become the company’s more “independent” banner for lower-cost animation? Might Ice Age merely make its way under the Disney umbrella while the Blue Sky brand is retired? And for that matter, would it really be so unbelievable to see Ice Age characters meet-and-greeting at Disney Parks? An Ice Age float in a parade? Ice Age merchandise in the gift shop at the exit of DINOSAUR? We’ll have to see…
8. The Simpsons & Futurama
Like Anastasia, one of the most perplexing propositions to come from Disney’s $71 billion acquisition of 20th Century Fox was the idea of The Simpsons joining Disney canon. One of the world’s most iconic (and long-running) animated series, The Simpsons is as engrained in American pop culture as Mickey Mouse or Ronald McDonald. About 700 episodes of the series have been broadcast. And not only would Disney now own them; they’d actually use them.
Reportedly following extensive evaluation, Disney determined that The Simpsons would not be relegated to Hulu or placed under the 20th Century banner, but absorbed into the highly-guarded Disney brand. So as strange as it may be to imagine “The Simpsons” finding their way into Disney Parks, it’s even stranger to imagine Disney suddenly abandoning the property that they viewed as a major 20th Century coup. Seriously, think about it.
Just think, The Simpsons was considered an anchor IP for Disney+ when it launched! And if that weren’t evidence enough that Disney hardly plans to separate itself from The Simpsons, Disney “welcomed” the family by making them the subject of the theatrical short shown before Pixar’s Onward. Seriously! Disney can do a lot with The Simpsons… Well… Except…
Yes, in 2008, both Universal Studios Florida and Universal Studios Hollywood licensed “The Simpsons” to replace each park’s version of the Lost Legend: Back to the Future – The Ride. To make matters worse, Universal returned to each in the years after and followed the Wizarding World formula, inventing full Springfield, U.S.A. lands filled with exclusive in-universe food and drink, from Lard Lad Donuts to Flaming Moes. Yes, Universal already cornered the market on Simpsons-themed lands. Does that mean Disney won’t ever bring “America’s First Family” home? We wouldn’t count on it…
In any case, Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox included 20th Television, whose library includes not only The Simpsons, but Bob’s Burgers, King of the Hill, Family Guy, American Dad, and Matt Groening’s other Fox series Futurama. Now, in our perfect world, Universal Studios Florida’s Men in Black: Alien Attack might’ve become a Futurama ride, recasting its World’s Fair pavilion as New New York and creating a mini-Matt-Groening land between New New York and Springfield… But alas, now it’s up to Disney to embrace Futurama just as they did The Simpsons. Maybe as a replacement for Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin? Eh, with Pixar’s new Lightyear film on the way, the outlook here’s not so good.
9. Alien
It’s not every year that a film truly revolutionizes pop culture, but 1979’s Alien did just that. Eschewing the era’s squeaky clean images of tomorrow, Alien (and 1977’s Star Wars) arguably originated the “used future” aesthetic that would become pop culture staples of the ’80s and ’90s Unlike the gleaming white visions of the future that had inspired the Lost Legend: Walt’s Tomorrowland and Space Mountain, Alien anticipated a future of claustrophobic spacecrafts, dystopian corporations, amoral artificial intelligences, and – of course – the animalistic, instinctual, and unpredictable Xenomorph. A grotesque, psychological sci-fi body horror masterpiece, Alien spawned a four-film main series, a distant prequel series headed by Prometheus, and a vast extended universe of comics, short films, web series, and a two-film crossover series with 20th Century Fox’s Predator.
Of course, Alien is also of great interest to Disney Parks fans since it famously could’ve featured in one of Disney’s most talked-about attractions… At the height of Michael Eisner’s “Ride the Movies” era, Imagineers began to toy with the concept of using binaural audio to create a horror attraction that would simulate a monster set loose on an audience. As the project gained legs, its Imagineers began to develop a version that could use Fox’s Xenomorph alien, licensing the film from Fox as they’d done with Star Wars, The Muppets, and Indiana Jones. Ultimately, the version without the movie monster moved forward, becoming the Lost Legend: The ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter. Disney did license Fox’s film, though, awarding it a scene among other cinematic landmarks in the Lost Legend: The Great Movie Ride.
Would we expect Alien to start showing on the Disney Channel? Obviously, no. But Disney confirmed at the 2019 ComicCon that they’d “continue to create new stories” in the Alien series, and a third entry in the prequel trilogy is reportedly in production despite its 2017 predecessor underperforming. But more to the point, Disney is a master at understanding how expanded stories can keep an IP alive and relevant, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see graphic novels, comic books, or a Disney+ Original Series to build out the mythos of Ridley Scott’s world. Frankly, Prometheus – set decades before Alien, and only briefly featuring under-evolved versions of the Xenomorph – would’ve made a perfect, slow-build, deep, exploratory Disney+ series. But alas.
In any case, Alien is literally a game-changing film with one of the most iconic movie monsters ever… and Disney controls its fate. It’s fun to imagine what a return to Space Age, ’70s-inspired Tomorrowland could entail if Alien really did find its way there one form or another…
20th Century+
As of now, we have no doubt that Disney lawyers are still scrambling their way through formerly-20th Century Fox IPs to figure out the entanglements of each. Despite the absorbed studio’s IP adding massive stores of content to Disney’s catalogue, 20th Century will probably never be its own category on Disney+ or otherwise. But as this list shows, that doesn’t mean acquisitions from this $71 billion deal won’t make their way into Disney’s brand… or its Parks.
Make no mistake: there are thousands and thousands and thousands of movies, television shows, characters, and brands that now fit somewhere into Disney’s content portfolio in one way or another. For example, Disney now owns FX and its associated networks (FX, FXX, and FXM) as well as FX Productions, which has a hand in Legion, Homeland, and American Horror Story. Disney also has production and distribution rights for shows in 20th Century’s archive, like 24, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Hill Street Blues, M*A*S*H, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and The Shield. (And c’mon… don’t you want Buffy on Disney+?)
While the 10 franchies we listed here may be the most exciting additions for fans of Disney Parks, they’re far from the only… The X-Files. Planet of the Apes. The Kingsman. Independence Day. Rio. The Shape of Water. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Modern Family. Slumdog Millionaire. 127 Hours. Black Swan. 12 Years a Slave. Birdman. TITANIC. Seriously, this changes everything. So as the Content Wars wage and in out of Disney theme parks, don’t go thinking 20th Century Fox will keep in its lane. Just like Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars, it’s all Disney now… and it just may begin to feel that way sooner than you expect…
