With the merger between 20th Century Fox and the Walt Disney Company now complete (at least in business terms, the actual machinations will take a while to figure out), there was concern that some of Fox's big franchises might quietly be put out to pasture. But in its big CinemaCon presentation in Las Vegas this weeks, Disney executives stressed that the likes of Kingsman, Alien and the Planet Of The Apes film series will still be alive and kicking under the new regime.
The Mouse House, of course, thrives on its franchises and brand names, so we doubt it would want to let potential moneymakers lie fallow. And while the Alien series seems to be in limbo at the moment, Ridley Scott keeping a hold of that one in the face of other filmmakers' attempts, Matthew Vaughn is already shooting Kingsman prequel The Great Game, with plans for a third film under way.
As for Apes, the trilogy shepherded by Rupert Wyatt and, for the last two movies, Matt Reeves could spawn more films, though War For The Planet Of The Apes felt like a solid wrap-up for now. We'll wait and see how it all shakes out – Disney may well just end up treating Fox like another arm in its range of labels including Pixar and Marvel, giving hope to the future of franchises outside of, say the X-Men, which is destined to fold into the MCU.
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