Disney and Fox deal: What will happen to Lucifer and Gotham?
Even though Lucifer and Gotham air on FOX, the Disney/Fox deal seemingly doesn’t affect them.
It’s now official, Disney has bought a portion of 21st Century Fox, which includes its film studio and other entertainment assets. The whopping $60 billion-dollar deal was unveiled this Thursday morning, officially bringing the X-Men, Deadpool and the Fantastic Four back to Marvel. While this is terrific news for comic book movie fans, Disney’s acquisition of Fox property left many Lucifer and Gotham fans in a state of panic. Many thought this would mark the end of the beloved shows. But fear not, Lucifer and Gotham fans, there’s really not much to worry about.
Both Lucifer and Gotham air on Fox’s broadcasting division, but according to Forbes, the Disney/Fox merger gives these shows a massive benefit. The deal gives Disney all of the shows Fox currently produces (The Gifted, The Simpsons and others). But, what Disney doesn’t get are the shows that are licensed to Fox, those made by other production companies. These are shows like Lucifer and Gotham, which are owned by Warner Bros. (Since Disney already owns ABC, they can’t acquire Fox’s broadcasting network as well.) If Disney decides to cancel any of the Fox-produced shows, it would leave Fox’s broadcasting division without much content to air. Hence, it would likely force Fox to rely on licensed content, which according to The Hollywood Reporter, is a massive win for production studios like Warner Bros. and Sony. This means that more seasons of Lucifer and Gotham are certain.
As evident in a different Forbes article, though, the acquisition of Fox Broadcasting by a different studio is also plausible. As previously mentioned, Disney’s acquisition of Fox’s television slate leaves Fox Broadcasting with lesser content. This would either incentivize Fox to air more content owned by other studios (ie. Lucifer, Gotham), or sell the network to a studio like Warner Bros. or Sony. Either way, it’s a win-win for us Lucifer and Gotham fans. The network needs to stay afloat in the coming months, so it would be ludicrous of Fox to abandon said shows.
Evidently, the two shows are virtually untouched by the Disney/Fox deal. Warner Bros. still gets to air Lucifer and Gotham on FOX, and, if 21st Century Fox does indeed sell the network, then more likely than not the shows will still air with no implications.
So yeah, Lucifer and Gotham aren’t going anywhere. Especially since Lt. Marcus had a huge revelation in Lucifer’s fall finale and Jerome is set to make his Gotham comeback very soon.
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Update: Via The Hollywood Reporter, Fox CEO and Chairman Rupert Murdoch released a memo, and said, the deal won’t be in place for 12-18 months. So, it won’t be for a while, potentially until 2019, for everything to settle.