It was officially announced on Thursday that Disney had acquired the film and TV divisions of 21st Century Fox. The news officially brought, the Fantastic Four, X-Men and Deadpool under the Marvel Cinematic Universe banner.
CEO of Disney, Bob Iger acknowledged that the Marvel Comics properties would further expand the MCU, and provide the Marvel Studios belonging to Disney, an opportunity to use a variety of characters, major and minor which they didn’t have access to earlier.
James Gunn, the writer-director of Guardians of the Galaxy has already set his sights on some of the characters brought in by this deal, and those include the Silver Surfer, who might feature as a part of the rapidly expanding cosmic presence in the MCU.
The buyout will not only make the heroes accessible to Disney, such as Fox-owned Wolverine, X-Men, Deadpool, Silver Surfer and the Fantastic Four but, they will also lay their hands on some of the most powerful villains of Marvel Comics.
Doctor Doom
Among the most interesting features of this deal is going to be the MCU debut of Victor Von Doom aka the infamous Doctor Doom. It won’t be wrong to call him the most renowned villain of the Marvel Comics world, and he has battled all the leading heroes of the Marvel universe.
He is the leading enemy of the Fantastic Four and a devout rival of his most disliked foe Reed Richards. Doom has also crossed swords with Avengers: Iron-Man, Spider-Man, Captain America, Doctor Strange, Black Panther, Daredevil, and X-Men.
He has had issues with various major and minor Marvel heroes and Doom is just the type of villain who can fit into any franchise. He is as much at home in Fantastic Four movie as he would be in the Doctor Strange sequels, maybe as another sorcerer or in Black Panther as an attacking foreign king. The intertwined nature of the MCU means that Doom can battle the Fantastic Four and later on hatch a sinister plot to take on the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in Avengers 5.
Galactus
Marvel Cinematic Universe entered the cosmic domain with the 2014 film Guardians of the Galaxy, and then this cosmic angle of MCU was further expanded by the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Thor: Ragnarok (both in 2017), both of them bore the influence of Jack Kirby.
Galactus is probably Kirby’s biggest creation. The planet chomping cosmic villain initially debuted in Fantastic Four comics. Galactus resembles a huge guy in a pink and purple costume, and that’s something Marvel Studios are capable of pulling off and selling with ease in the backdrop of their shared universe.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe heroes are already set to battle a universe-threatening enemy in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers 4, therefore, another such a mega team-up is likely to be a “one-shot” appearance, however, if Marvel ever wanted to find another mega universe threatening villain, it won’t be much bigger than Galactus.
Even if the entire MCU is not brought together, still Galactus could come handy in a Fantastic Four film, where some far-outlying planet or a planet nestled in the Negative Zone is under threat of becoming next meal of Galactus. This would compel Reed, Sue, Ben, and Johnny to do what they are best at and save the endangered planet fantastically.
Annihilus
Yet another Fantastic Four enemy, Annihilus hasn’t yet been on screen. This insect-like alien rules the Negative Zone which might be a brand new territory for the MCU adventures. Ant-Man and Doctor Strange, have already been linked by means of the Quantum Realm, and the unveiling of the Negative Zone would usher in a whole new set of risky missions for the heroes.
Annihilus happened to be among the central characters in the mega cosmic themed event of Marvel Comics titled Annihilation and his army of invaders called the Annihilation Wave, happened to be a huge cosmic threat, a risk so mighty that it led to a joint effort between the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Fantastic Four.
Magneto
The leading enemy of the X-Men has been thoroughly exploited in X-Men franchise from Fox, but, he might get another life when he comes to the Marvel Studios fold. Avengers: Age of Ultron was the cinematic debut of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver when they became superhumans due to HYDRA experiments. Although in MCU, they didn’t have Magneto as their parent, the comic books show Wanda and Pietro Maximoff to be the children of this mega-villain.
The powerful baddy might turn out to be the actual father of the Maximoff kids, irrespective of his links with Sokovia, or maybe Marvel would continue progressing without establishing their relationship and just feature Magneto as the biggest and the often returning enemy of the X-Men and somebody who is mighty enough to battle any of the leading heroes of the franchise.
