This morning saw the huge announcement that Disney is purchasing Fox Studios to the tune of $52.4 billion.
Disney gets a plethora of IPs including the X-Men, Fantastic Four, Deadpool, Avatar, The Simpsons, FX Networks, National Geographic and lots more.
While comic book fans are pretty much ecstatic, the merger doesn’t come without controversy.
Logan director James Mangold and noted comic book writer Mark Millar all voiced their reservations.
Now the Writers Guild of America adds to it as they are dead set against it.
The Writers Guild represents more than 10,000 writers in the industry, and they issued the following statement against the Disney and Fox deal:
“In the relentless drive to eliminate competition, big business has an insatiable appetite for consolidation. Disney and Fox have spent decades profiting from the oligopolistic control that the six major media conglomerates have exercised over the entertainment industry, often at the expense of the creators who power their television and film operations. Now, this proposed merger of direct competitors will make matters even worse by substantially increasing the market power of a combined Disney-Fox corporation. The antitrust concerns raised by this deal are obvious and significant. The Writers Guild of America West strongly opposes this merger and will work to ensure our nation’s antitrust laws are enforced.”
The Disney and Fox deal isn’t guaranteed as it still has to go through the Justice Department, though President Trump did comment he is in favor of it.
It’s also being accounted that the deal might take around 18 months or so to set in, so it might be a while before the immediate impacts of Disney owning the Fox properties is felt.
