'The Simpsons' Predicted Disney Would Buy 20th Century Fox

Throughout its nearly 30 years of being on television, The Simpsons has mocked every facet of pop [...]

By Patrick Cavanaugh

Throughout its nearly 30 years of being on television, The Simpsons has mocked every facet of pop culture imaginable, often saving its harshest critiques for its own network, FOX. Following the rumors that talks have begun for The Walt Disney Company to purchase 21st Century Fox, one Twitter user pointed out how The Simpsons has already made that joke.

Taken from the 1998 episode "When You Dish Upon a Star," the series predicted that it was only a matter of time before Fox would be purchased by Disney, possibly predicting the acquisition 20 years before those rumblings began.

The Simpsons isn't the only series to have put a clever spin on the logo, as Futurama, which takes place in the year 3000, changed the logo from "20th Century Fox" to "30th Century Fox."

One of the biggest, and eeriest, predictions from The Simpsons that came true was based on an episode from 2000, "Bart to the Future," which shows Lisa Simpson becoming president. In the episode, Lisa at one point shared, "We've inherited quite a budget crunch from president Trump." It would take another 16 years before Trump was elected president.

Given how specific and early this joke was made, fans were shocked about the prediction becoming a reality.

"That just seemed like the logical last stop before hitting bottom," Simpsons writer Dan Greaney told The Hollywood Reporter of the joke. "It was pitched because it was consistent with the vision of America going insane."

While it's too early to tell what Disney's purchase of Fox could mean, the first thing fans are jumping to is the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Marvel initially sold the rights for the X-Men to Fox in the mid-'90s when the company was on the verge of bankruptcy. In 1999, Fox released X-Men, which kicked off the beginning of what would become 20 years of superheroes dominating the box office.

Due to the success of the X-Men franchise and its films thus far, Fox's ownership of these characters has prevented any characters related to that universe from appearing in any Marvel Studios films.

Three years ago, Disney and Sony, who owned the rights to Spider-Man, came to an agreement to allow Spider-Man to appear in Captain America: Civil War, marking a significant partnership for the two brands. Were Disney to officially purchase 21st Century Fox, the X-Men, Fantastic Four and Deadpool to appear in Marvel Studios films going forward, a move that would be sure to please fans around the world.

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