A good portion of Fox’s live-action X-Men movies has been added to the Canadian library of Disney+. Disney’s $7.3 billion acquisition of 20th Century Fox has given the former control over Fox’s most popular franchises (and a handful of other properties). When Disney+ launched in November, Pixar, Star Wars, Marvel, and Fox titles (all owned by Disney) became available on the streaming service. However, there weren’t as many 20th Century Fox properties available as people expected.
Given Fox’s extensive filmography, which includes the X-Men and Fantastic Four movies, many people found the latter franchises’ absence surprising. The majority of the Marvel superhero movies have been available from the get-go on Disney+; however, the X-Men films, which are arguably pioneering ones for the genre, have not been. Disney has been very strategic with their territory in the past, archiving films that haven’t been deemed a high priority (many of which made by 20th Century Fox). Similar to Disney management of their new properties, their approach to Disney+’s streaming library appears to be a selective one.
In Canada, however, the live-action X-Men movies have now become available on Disney+; X-Men, X2, X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, X-Men: First Class, The Wolverine, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and X-Men: Apocalypse can all be streamed north of the American border. Still absent from Disney+’s library are the most recent X-Men movies: Dark Phoenix, Deadpool, Deadpool 2, and Logan. Dark Phoenix will most likely become available at some point but R-rated entries like Deadpool and Logan may never find their way to the family-friendly Disney+ (hosting only PG-13 or softer content). It also remains to be seen how a vulgar character like Deadpool will fit into the MCU at all.
Disney has announced that they will be rebooting many Fox classics. The thing fans seem to be most excited about are Marvel’s (under Disney) confirmed plans to incorporate the Fantastic Four and X-Men mutants into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Those films/characters will be receiving reboots as well, except for Deadpool. Outside of Deadpool and Deadpool 2, the X-Men franchise has recently seen a plummet in box office popularity, something Disney has been upset about after the Fox merger (the Dark Phoenix flop for example).
The fact that the X-Men movies are now available to stream in Canada is good news for fans that may have been worried about the abandonment of those initial X-Men films. Disney acquisition of 20th Century Fox not only adds an overwhelming amount of potential to Disney+’s ever-expanding library, but risks many films/franchises/characters getting lost in the shuffle. Marvel’s slow-burn plan to work out how mutants will appear in the MCU clouds those characters and plotlines in mystery, but this news from Canada might hint at Disney+ subscribers the world over soon being able to stream the original X-Men movies until the mutants undoubtedly flood the MCU many years from now.
More: MCU Theory: Cable’s Avengers Tech In Deadpool 2 Brings In X-Men
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