During a new Disney earnings call that HN Entertainment has been listening to, CEO Bob Iger has been talking about the upcoming merger with 21st Century Fox and has revealed that they hope the volume of content will increase their library for their streaming service Disney+.
Also, he reaffirmed that Disney is keen on continuing R-rated franchises at the studio such as Deadpool, Kingsman, and possibly even Alien, but making sure that audiences know they’re mature material by branding them as such.
“We do believe there is room for the Fox properties to exist without significant Disney influence over the nature of the content. Meaning that we see that there certainly popularity amongst Marvel fans for the R-rated Deadpool films, for instance, we’re going to continue in that business, and there might be room for more of that.”
Bob Iger once again confirms FOX properties that are specifically Rated R like #Deadpool #Alien etc. will continue as they are at Disney, but will be clearly branded as such pic.twitter.com/oiYN2Xx1i4
— HN Entertainment (@HNEsocial) February 5, 2019
In December 2017, Iger said he was interested in Deadpool sequels which would mean that Deadpool 3 and X-Force will likely live on. Branded them as R-rated could mean that Marvel Studios may expand to a mature arm such as Marvel Max or Marvel Knights.
Iger specifically calls out “Deadpool,” wants to keep making sequels. “There may be an opportunity for an R-rated Marvel brand as long as we let audiences know what’s coming.”
— Ben Fritz (@benfritz) December 14, 2017
This is the first time we’ve had some comforting hints concerning the Alien franchise could stay R as Disney is also interested in keeping Matthew Vaughn’s Kingsman franchise going as well. Kingsman: The Great Game and Kingsman 3 will be released when 20th Century Fox will be under the Disney umbrella.
The state of the Alien franchise is a little unknown at the moment as Neill Blomkamp has seemingly walked away from Alien 5, despite Sigourney Weaver being open to returning someday with Neill back as well. Ridley Scott’s ambitious prequel/sequel plans stalled as Alien: Covenant failed to hit box office targets that Prometheus previously had, and then Alien: Awakening was eventually thrown into development limbo. Covenant’s lead actress Katherine Waterson (Daniels) is still game to return if Awakening is ever brought back to life.
There is a good chance a television project could end up coming out of this and I’ll keep supporting the idea of an Amanda Ripley (Alien: Isolation/Alien: Blackout) string of films being the common ground of a soft-reboot/continuation of the Ripley story without having to do Alien 5 or Alien: Awakening.
I think it’ll be a while before Disney reveals what their future plans for Alien will ultimately be. I’m curious if we’ll hear a plan for Predator in the near future as well.
SOURCE: WALT DISNEY COMPANY
