It's been on and off more than your typical soap relationship, but it looks like The Walt Disney Company's acquisition of 21st Century Fox's assets may be finally happening,
Days after rival Comcast dropped out the running, The Hollywood Reporter states that shareholders for both Disney and Fox met in New York's Midtown Hotel and agreed in favour of the $71.3 billion purchase.
The deal would include Fox's movie and TV properties (The Simpsons, Fantastic Four, X-Men etc), FX, National Geographic, Star India, 30% of Hulu, and a 39% stake in Sky.
Related: Disney has just bought Fox – what does this mean for the X-Men and the MCU?
"We are incredibly pleased that shareholders of both companies have granted approval for us to move forward, and are confident in our ability to create significant long-term value through this acquisition of Fox's premier assets," Disney CEO Bob Iger said in a statement.
Previously, Comcast has stepped away from buying most of Fox to focus on its bid for Sky instead.
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Last month, Disney upped its bid for Fox from $52 billion to a huge $71.3 billion after Comcast outbid them and the US Department of Justice later approved Disney's new offer, provided that it sell off Fox's regional sports networks.
Fox's news networks are not included in part of this purchase.
Fans are hoping that this deal will allow Marvel Studios to integrate all of the Fox-owned Marvel properties, including mutant characters like Wolverine, Storm and Deadpool, into the Marvel Cinematic Universe – although we quite like the MCU focusing on more out-there heroes, if we're being honest.
Outside of the movies, the acquisition of long-running shows like Family Guy and Futurama is going to add a lot of value to the House of Mouse's upcoming streaming service.
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Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he's covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish.
