New Planet of the Apes and Alien films promised in the wake of Disney/Fox merger.

Much of the talk from the aftermath of Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox has revolved around the returning of the X-Men to Marvel, with fans understandably excited about the prospect of an enormous corner of the Marvel lexicon finding a place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

However, there’s plenty of other major franchises with which Disney can pave new futures for à laStar Wars, and during the Disney/Fox presentation at CinemaCon last week two beloved franchises were confirmed as key projects for the company.

Vice Chair of 20th Century Fox Film, Emma Watts dropped the news during the presentation that the Planet of the Apes and Alien properties will be getting new releases, among others such as the Kingsman and Maze Runner franchises.

Both Apes and Alien are at interesting narrative points, albeit at extremely different ends. Matt Reeves concluded the most recent Apes trilogy in 2017 with War for the Planet of the Apes, capping one of this decades finest cinematic journeys while leaving the door ajar for more tales to be told in this universe. This series can be severely mishandled, as seen in Tim Burton’s early 2000’s effort, so there’s definitely an element of safety in continuing to tell stories within an already established world that garnered critical and financial success for Fox.

Alien, on the other hand, sits in limbo in the aftermath of Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, two films garnering very mixed opinions among fans and critics. Whether Disney pulls the plug on Ridley Scott’s AI-driven prequel series is yet to be seen. Neil Blomkamp’s much talked-about Alien 5 seems dead in the water, however the merger has entirely changed the status of the franchise and we can’t rule anything out at this stage.

There’s no word yet on when new films will enter development, but fans of both franchises can be relieved that there is likely more to come.

Source: Screen Rant