All the Fox Franchises That Could be Rebooted by Disney and Where They’re At

This article comes from Den of Geek UK.

The acquisition has officially gone through and 20th Century Fox has now been chucked on Disney’s enormous pile of assets along with LucasFilm, Marvel, and everything else (think Scrooge McDuck’s money room, but full of intellectual property). Announcements are trickling out left right and centre about possible plans for all this gold, including rumblings from comic-con about new X-Men and Fantastic Four movies and whispers recently about reimaginings of Home Alone, Night At The Museum, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

It seems like a good time, then, to take stock of the franchises that Fox currently has, what the status of those franchises are, whether a reboot has been announced and how likely it is that Disney will want one.

We’ll keep this updated will Fox/Disney news as and when it appears.

Alien

The most recent film in the franchise, 2017s Alien: Covenant took just over $240 million globally (on a budget of $97 million) which ain’t bad but looked like something of a flop in comparison to 2012’s Prometheus ($403 million), though director and franchise creator Ridley Scott talked up the possibility of more entries after release. It’s a massively popular series packed with possibilities so we’d be surprised if Disney let this one die. Nothing’s been announced but we could easily envisage more movies, spin-off movies, expanded universe extensions or a TV remake at some point down the line.

Alvin And The Chipmunks

There are currently four Chipmunks movies out in the world and despite negative reviews they’ve all done decent box office with the first Squeakquel at the top, taking $443.1 million. Whether there is an appetite for further squeakquels or indeed squea-makes (?) remains to be seen but kids’ movies often make big bucks, and the Mouse House seems like a perfect home for such a thing.

The Chronicles Of Narnia

Fox made the first three films: The Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe; Prince Caspian, and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and there were talks for a fourth – The Silver Chair – though at the end of last year it was announced that Netflix would be making new adaptations of the C.S Lewis books. Netflix now owns the rights to all seven books so this one is pretty much off the table for Disney. 

Diary Of A Wimpy Kid

Disney big bod Bob Iger let slip that Diary of a Wimpy Kid is one of the titles due for a reimagining for Disney+. Whether that means a series or a movie, or a series of movies is anyone’s guess.

Die Hard

There’s been ongoing talk about where to take this franchise next, with talk formerly focused on a prequel centering on a young John MClane in the ‘70s, with the Bruce Willis part obviously recast. But since the acquisition Disney hasn’t said much more about what plans it might have. We’d speculate this is ripe for a remakening though, or at least some sort of spin-off.read more: The Strange History of the Die Hard Movies

Fantastic Four

No news on the details but the Fantastic Four are definitely coming back. A film featuring Marvel’s first family was announced by MCU boss Kevin Feige at San Diego Comic-Con, though no extra info was given. Could the four be brought into the MCU via some facet of the multiverse? We don’t know, but it’s possible.

read more: Why The Fantastic Four Will Thrive in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Home Alone

This one is happening for Disney+, as was revealed during a Q3 earnings call made by Bob Iger. It’s not clear if it’ll be a new movie, or whether it’ll be a TV series just yet. Home Alone directed by Chris Columbus came out in 1990 and starred Macaulay Culkin as an eight-year-old accidentally left behind when his family goes on holiday over Christmas. It spawned several sequels, the fourth of which (Home Alone 4: Taking Back The House) was a 2002 TV movie that was basically a re-make, so we could see a world in which more than one “reimagining” of this franchise exists.

Ice Age

The most recent Ice Age movie, Ice Age: Collision Course, came out as recently as 2016 and while critically the sequels yielded diminishing returns, the franchise as a whole is extremely lucrative, earning $6 billion at the box office. Would Disney remake these films as live action? Turn the franchise into a TV series? Or just make another sequel which effectively works as a reboot? The latter sounds most likely though one way or another this seems like prime IP for the Mouse House to thaw out.

Independence Day

While Roland Emmerich’s 1996 original was a well loved smash, the 2016 sequel Independence Day: Resurgence was a critical and box office disappointment, though that wouldn’t prohibit Disney from having another crack. This could be a good contender for a Disney+ show.

Kingsman

Kingsman: The Secret Service and Kingsman: The Golden Circle director Matthew Vaughn previously announced he had big plans for this franchise based on Mark Millar’s comic books. A prequel movie called The King’s Man is due for release in February 2020, a third Kingsman movie, “the conclusion of the Harry Hart-Eggsy relationship” according to Vaughn, is on the cards and there are plans for a Statesman spin-off based on the US branch where Channing Tatum, Halle Berry, and Jeff Bridges worked is also planned. There was also talk of a TV spin-off so if these plans go ahead under Disney it could have a whole new expanded universe on its hands.

The Omen

There were four films in the original series, each one a little worse than the one before, and the first film has already been remade (badly) once. Then there was that Damien TV show that lasted for one season and got cancelled. But this movie franchise is very much loved so could well elicit another crack, depending on Disney’s appetite to expand its horror portfolio.

read more – The Omen: The Pedigree of a Horror Classic

Night at the Museum

This one’s definitely happening, as mentioned by Bob Eiger in that Q3 earnings call. It’s going to Disney+ but in what format, we don’t yet know.

Percy Jackson

Two films based on Rick Riordan’s YA novels featuring training camp for demigods have been released already – Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief in 2010, and Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters in 2013. If Disney still has the rights to the books they might well decide to continue, or reboot this series. It’s family friendly which suits Disney’s brand and with the right treatment could be its own answer to Harry Potter.

Planet Of The Apes

Disney’s Bob Iger has already indicated that more Apes movies are on the cards at Disney. The recent rebooted trilogy directed by Rupert Wyatt and Matt Reeves were financially and critically successful and at the time of the release of War for the Planet of the Apes, Reeves talked about scope for more stories set in that world featuring groups of apes not lead by Caesar (a bit like Bad Ape in that movie). More simian shenanigans are very much on the cards.

Predator

Shane Black’s 2018 reboot The Predator was such a massive disappointment critically and at the box office that we’d be surprised if Disney wanted to pick this series back up in a hurry. Though Disney now owns both Alien and Predator franchises we can’t imagine a world in which this crossover would be resurrected any time soon either.

Taken

Three movies and a cancelled TV series in and we’re not sure what more Disney might do with Taken. The TV show already explored the prequel route so we’re just not sure where else it could go. However, Disney has a particular set of skills, so never say never.

The Transporter

After Jason Statham kicked off this delivery-man action franchise with three well-liked movies, the series already got a reboot in 2015 with The Transporter: Refueled with Ed Skrein replacing Statham. There’s been a TV show too which ran for two seasons before it got cancelled. It might be that all the juice has been squeezed out of this IP already, but it’s always there should Disney decide to kick start another run.

Wrong Turn

“Disney’s Wrong Turn” is not a phrase that trips comfortably off the tongue but the franchise, which focuses on a family of deformed cannibals and so far boasts six films is supposed to be getting a reboot in 2020 – the film is currently listed as being in pre-production. Whether further Wrong Turns will follow after that will presumably depend on box office, but we can’t see Disney making it a priority.

X-Men

To many the most exciting of the Disney reboots that’s definitely happening, we will be getting more mutants and they almost certainly will be joining the MCU. Kevin Feige dropped that bombshell in the throwaway sentence “there’s no time left to talk about mutants. But you know what, all that stuff’s been rumored. You’ve heard the rumors.” What Disney and Marvel will do is anyone’s guess but the problems with New Mutants and the poor box office of X-Men: Dark Phoenix might indicate a new direction is in order for the franchise.

Read and download the Den of Geek SDCC 2019 Special Edition Magazine right here!