Disney have bought Marvel!!!!

Disney have bought out Marvel! The New York Times say the home of Mickey Mouse has spent $4 billion in cash and stock to acquire the rights deal to over 5,000 Marvel characters and their licensing, publishing and future film possibilities. The deal mirrors Disney's multi billion dollar acquisition of Pixar a few years back, which gave that company a new lease of life and the movies Up, Ratatouille and Wall*E. Marvel's Editor-In-Chief Joe Quesada was quick to tweet...

JoeQuesada: If you're familiar with the Disney/Pixar relationship, then you'll understand why this is a new dawn for Marvel and the comics industry.

A new dawn/Pixar?

Can you imagine it - a fully realised Marvel universe set within the realms of Pixar animation, with the best animators and storytellers we have working today crafting tales with Spider-Man, Magneto and Tony Stark?

Marvel is now owned by Disney who could take the franchise and make it into a global leader for superhero entertainment (which it was well on it's way to doing so anyway) or it can boil it down to nothing more than a corporate entity. A gimmick for theme park rides and worlds, with guys paid to wear the costumes to hug the kids.

After all, we must remember this is the company that have let Mickey Mouse simply exist now as a symbol and no longer a character. But again, you look at the work they did after they acquired Pixar and it fills you with hope. If they could hire someone who has the brains to look to the future, a guy like John Lasseter (they must work closely with Jon Favreau one would think), then they could make Warner Bros. green with envy at the possibilites. Especially with WB/DC losing Superman in four years.

Here's a few updates, as transcribed by AICN from a conference call earlier today...

UPDATE #1: In a conference call, the companies said that the deals for movies for characters at other studios (Spider-Man, X-Men, etc.) will stay in place under the terms set by Marvel and the other studios.

UPDATE #2: John Lasseter met with Marvel last week about a possible team-up between Marvel and Pixar and got "pretty excited, pretty fast." They say there's definitely an opportunity there.UPDATE #3: The deal with Paramount Pictures to distribute "Iron Man 2," "Thor," "Captain America" and "The Avengers" stays in place as well, but Disney would like to self-distribute down the line. "When the time comes we'll take a closer look at it." It was actually stated that the deal still included five films, so that is one more film after "The Avengers."

So after Paramount have made The Avengers and all the characters to do with that movie, do they then become Disney properties? The Avengers 2, Iron Man 3 any sequel to Thor and Captain America would presumably be a Disney thing? And by the looks of things... Spider-Man and X-Men at least will stay with their current studios. Lots to think about here. I would recommend keeping tabs on AICN who seem to be tracking this breaking story real well. I'll update with more when I've figured out more closely what all this means!