To follow up on some huge news from earlier this year, it appears that Disney is extremely close to agreeing a deal to purchase 20th Century Fox. Well, several of Fox’s key divisions, at least.

In a new report from Variety, it’s believed that talks are in the final stages for a takeover worth a whopping $60 billion. To give you an idea of just how huge that figure is, Disney previously purchased Lucasfilm and Marvel for $4 billion each, while the House of Mouse splashed out $7.4 billion on Pixar.

Another key element in this deal getting signed, sealed, delivered is that Comcast have dropped out of the running. Previously, Comcast was looking to rival Disney in any deal for Fox.

As far as we’re aware, any deal that does happen – and it looks like it really is only a matter of time right now – would be for Fox’s movie studio and their FOX TV production company.

Of course, one of the most grin-inducing elements of this deal for genre fans is that it could bring a whole new lick of paint to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Considering that Disney is the home of the MCU, this could have pretty monumental ramifications on this shared superhero realm due to Fox owning the cinematic rights to Marvel properties such as the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. In case we need to spell it out for you: this means that Xavier’s mutants and Marvel’s First Family could be brought into the MCU.

In the X-Men’s case, given their storied history so far, it would likely make sense to just continue with the key players of that X-world and incorporate them into the greater MCU. For the FF, though, after the troubles of Josh Trank’s turd-tastic Fantastic Four movie of 2015, we wouldn’t be surprised if a new cast was assembled if the Fantastic Four do indeed wind up in the MCU at some point down the line.

Considering that the FF have been such a huge and pivotal part of the Marvel comic book world for so many decades, despite how wonderful the Marvel Cinematic Universe is, it still feels slightly strange that Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm aren’t propping up the Yancy Street corner of the MCU.

Other notable properties that Disney would acquire as part of any such deal include heavy hitters such as the Avatar franchise, the Alien series, the Kingsman movies, and the beloved Planet of the Apes saga. Then there’s the television side of things, with shows such as The Simpsons, Family Guy, The X-Files and Gotham all heading to Disney if and when the purchase of Fox is completed.

Given how Disney is in the midst of developing their own on-demand streaming service, expanding their catalogue with such huge movies and TV shows could instantly position them as a serious rival to the likes of Netflix and Amazon.

As ever, expect more on all of this as it continues to develop.