It looks like Disney purchasing Fox may be a lot more than just some grandiose industry rumor. Earlier this month, news broke that the Mouse House was looking to buy most of 21st Century Fox. Specifically, everything on the TV and film side of things, save for anything sports and/or news related. That means, they would own 20th Century Fox and Marvel would regain the rights to the X-Men and Fantastic Four. While it seemed like talks had cooled down a bit, a new report claims that Disney is "speeding toward" a purchase of Fox, behind closed doors. Here's what Deadline has to say about the situation.

"Disney is progressing speedily toward that rumored acquisition of Fox. The version I heard has the Murdoch clan keeping possession of sports and news properties, and the rest of TV and the film studio going to Disney. Radio silence right now from both studios, and given how Disney made the Marvel and Lucasfilm deals under the cone of silence, if this happens we'll probably only know it when it's announced. It is certainly being talked about today. Not surprisingly, the reaction around town is not enthusiasm, because of the uncertainty that comes with potentially reducing a major studio to content generators under the Disney silo system."

Much of this lines up with the initial report regarding the Disney acquisition of Fox, but this makes it clear the deal is still being discussed and, depending on what is going on "under the cone of silence," this deal could be much closer to actually happening than we realize. As this report also notes, that would mean some great things for Disney fans, but it could also have some negative consequences on the movie world as a whole, in terms of content.

20th Century Fox, as a movie studio, is responsible for a great many franchises and original movies. The Alien, Planet of the Apes, Predator and, most notably, X-Men franchises live there. For the most part, those don't seem like movies that would be made under the Disney umbrella. Marvel would still make superhero movies, but would Deadpool or Logan really happen at Disney? Not to mention all of the original movies that may not get made under Disney, like The Revenant and Hidden Figures, just for a couple of recent examples. And what of franchises like Die Hard? There's a lot to consider here.

It's also really important to note, just to provide further context and to show just how serious this possibility is, that Sony is also reportedly, or at least has, had talks to possibly take over 21st Century Fox as well. So this isn't just Disney. It really looks like Fox is looking to give their movie and TV business to a competing studio, consolidating the entertainment industry in a big way. At this point, it seems like a matter of when, not if, another studio buys Fox.

If Sony emerges as a dark horse and gets the deal done, that would actually be good for X-Men fans as well. Sony would be happy to make R-rated superhero movies, as they're doing with Venom currently. Not to mention that they're working with Marvel Studios on Spider-Man movies currently. So they'd probably be willing to work with them on future X-Men movies and crossover movies as well.

Much of this is speculative, but the talk of Disney purchasing Fox is much more than a big rumor. Deadline's new report makes a good point that, if this deal does happen, we'll probably find out about it in a pretty out of the blue way. We may not know when that announcement could come, but don't be too surprised to hear that Disney has officially purchased Fox in the near future.