Fox Tried to Buy Time Warner; Would Have Made 'X-Men vs. Justice League' Possible

While superhero fans keep dreaming about seeing X-Men and the Avengers together in the same movie, Rupert Murdoch is making moves that would make X-Men vs. Justice League a reality.

On Wednesday, The New York Times reported that Murdoch's 21st Century Fox had offered $80 billion to buy rival Time Warner. Time Warner rejected the offer, but had the deal gone through, 21st Century Fox would have picked up Warner Bros. and HBO but spun off CNN to avoid competitive concerns about one company owning both CNN and Fox News.

The Times wrote that while "Time Warner has rebuffed his effort and no talks are underway, Mr. Murdoch is determined and unlikely to walk away anytime soon, people briefed on the matter said. And he has a track record of pursuing companies that first said no before giving in." For example, when Murdoch set his eyes on Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal a few years ago, he hit a ton of resistance, but in the end, the media mogul made the deal happen.

Some reports noted that if Murdoch were successful in acquiring Time Warner, many elements of that company and 21st Century Fox would remain separate. That might be the company line, but how long could a company that owns rights to the X-Men and Fantastic Four and outright owns characters like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman resist putting those characters into the same film?

Could Disney and Marvel Studios stop this? Perhaps there's something in the licensing deals for X-Men and Fantastic Four preventing Fox from doing that. If not, a 21st Century Fox-Time Warner superhero merger could be what drives Disney to write a check for whatever Sony wants for the cinematic rights to Spider-Man. A movie featuring the X-Men and Batman would be a massive money machine. Disney and Marvel Studios would have to do whatever necessary to combat that threat.

As of now, though, there's no deal. That said, don't be shocked when Murdoch does pull this one off down the road.