How The Death Of “Deadpool” Could Be A Terrifying Precursor To Fallout Of Disney-FOX Post Merger

 

This thing was doomed from the get-go.

Almost one year ago, we proclaimed that FX Networks had just saved the world by ordering a new Deadpool animated series to a 10 episode series. Featuring Emmy-winning producers Stephen and Donald Glover, the series had tremendous promise especially when you factor in that Metalocalypse/Venture Bros.animation house Titmouse studios was tapped to animate the series. 

But then something happened. Fall of 2017, Disney had made an offer to purchase 20th Century FOX assets. Marvel fanatics were floored because this meant that the TV and Film rights of classic Marvel franchises like X-Men (which includes Deadpool), Fantastic Four, and the Silver Surfer would revert to the same studios that give us killer movies and TV series like Jessica Jones, The Avengers, and Black Panther. On the other hand, people started to think about the downsides of the Disney-FOX deal. Could franchises like The Simpsons, Family Guy, and the Ryan Reynolds-fronted Deadpool film be asked to tone it down to Disney’s family-friendly targeted audiences? Right away Disney boss Bob Iger scoffed at notions that this would happen and FOX-signed producer Seth MacFarlane appeared to help quell any notions that Family Guy might suffer as a result.

For cable television, FX Networks(part of the Disney networks should the merger go through) is a very artist-friendly network. Arguably the net is responsible for increasing the visibility profiles of Ryan Murphy, Kurt Sutter, and the recently discredited Louis C.K. into household names by not hindering the producers’ creative outlets which forced competing networks like AMC, USA, and now Paramount to consider doing the same thereby ushering in what many consider to be the “golden age” of cable television spawning the likes of The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, American Horror Story to knock off broadcast networks’ long-held dominance at the Emmy’s.

On the opposite side of creative freedom lives Disney’s Cinderella palace and regular complaints from producers of television shows feeling creatively handcuffed when developing new intellectual property. There was a time where Disney XD tried to drop the black curtains and open up its primetime slots for older-skewing franchises, but a year later, and only the recently departed Star Wars Rebels was able to really take advantage with producers of franchises like Fish Hooks, Gravity Falls, and others offering claims of creatively stifling production meetings. Sensing a possible future conflict, FX Networks mainstay Ryan Murphy would dart post-Disney/FOX merger to Netflix and even more recent, Donald Glover has Tweeted pages from the Deadpool script. Veiled accusations of racism against Marvel Studios, Taylor Swift jokes, and more ideas that usually fit the fourth-wall breaking commentaries that a Glover-voiced Deadpool had they been in print format,  apparently was the root cause of the TV show’s cancellation, with the Glovers claiming that the Disney-owned Marvel wasn’t fond of their commentary that wouldn’t sound out of place on Adult Swim’s The Boondocks. 

But that’s the difference in a Disney-owned production house and if the Disney-FOX merger goes through (which it is expected to do so), we probably don’t have a lot to be worried about with existing intellectual property, rather new content. A lot of shady shit goes down behind closed doors at the house the Mouse built. For example, when Bruce Jenner wanted to have his gender reveal televised, the producers of Disney-ABC’s 20/20 promised an ESPY award for heroism to go along with a hefty fee to secure the interview…this 15 months after having vehicular manslaughter charges mysteriously swept under the carpet for the one-time Olympic male athlete.

From the looks and sounds of it, Deadpool would have fit right at home on a network that was built on taking chances. Archer would’ve made for an incredible lead-in, and for the first time since the 1990s, an animated take on a Marvel comics franchise would come with it a stern quality that is largely missed in today’s Disney-Marvel Animated offerings. A stark glimpse into the uncertain future of a Disney-FOX world.