When worlds collide
Disney bought 21st Century Fox. Here’s what Empire’s Chris Hewitt wants to see out of it — pretty please?
1 Avengers Vs X-men
For years, the Disney-owned Marvel Studios hasn’t been able to go near the X-men, because some bright spark years ago sold the film rights to Fox. Now, mutants are fair game to share the screen with Tony Stark and his superfriends. What this means for the ongoing X-men films, from Dark Phoenix to Deadpool 2, remains to be seen, but expect the X-men to be integrated into the MCU once Avengers 4 is wrapped up in 2019. Most of the roles will likely be cast from scratch, but might this be the thing to lure Hugh Jackman out of superretirement, to wield Wolverine’s claws one more time?
2 Restore the fanfare to Star Wars
There’s no getting around it: watching Star Wars movies without the thrill generated by seeing the Fox logo and hearing Alfred Newman’s iconic fanfare just isn’t the same. We need that drum roll. We need the parping of that brass section. We need those sweeping strings over the Lucasfilm logo. Restore the Fox logo to all Star Wars films, and do it forthwith.
3 The Incredisimpsons
Disney owns Pixar, home to one of the greatest animated family sagas, The
Incredibles. But now they own the greatest of all animated families — The Simpsons. The crossover potential is enormous. Homer chugging Duffs with Mr Incredible? Marge and Elastigirl busting a crime ring down the Kwik-emart? Jack-jack literally eating Bart’s shorts? Make it happen.
4 War For The Planet Of The Jack Sparrows
People love movies about lovable pirates. People also love movies about intelligent apes taking over the world. It’s fair to say, though, that the Planet
Of The Apes reboot trilogy received more critical love than the recent Pirates
Of The Caribbean movies. A simple solution: bring the apes into the world of Captain Jack Sparrow. Picture it: the
Black Pearl comes ashore, laden with pirate gold — only to be apprehended by apes on horseback. Scurvy monkeys!
5 Muppets On The Orient Express
At this very moment, Sir Kenneth of Branagh is beavering away on his script, and slowly waxing Hercule Poirot’s moustache, for Death On The Nile, the follow-up to Murder On The Orient Express. But the Disney takeover could change the direction of that film entirely. What if Branagh, instead, remade Murder On The Orient Express, but with Muppets? Picture it now: Kermit in the Willem Dafoe role. Miss Piggy doing her best Michelle Pfeiffer. And as the odious bellend bumped off to set the plot in motion? Why, Waldorf and Statler, of course…