With the announcement this morning that The Walt Disney Co. plans to buy key assets of 21st Century Fox, a longtime dream of comic book fans is in reach: the consolidation of most of Marvel Comics' most recognizable, and most lucrative, superheroes -- including the X-Men, Deadpool and the Fantastic Four -- in one cinematic universe.

RELATED: Disney Seals Fox Deal, Plans to Reunite X-Men, Fantastic Four With Marvel

That won't happen overnight, of course, or even over the course of six months. No, the acquisition will require the approval of shareholders and then U.S. government regulators, a process than could take a year or more. It's only sometime after that when we might see the Guardians of the Galaxy and Fantastic Four unite to battle Galactus, or the Avengers face off against the X-Men over the fate of Magneto.

Until then, though, we have five big questions about what the Disney/Fox deal will mean.

What's the deal mean to the future of the X-Men movie franchise?

x-men: dark phoenix

In its announcement, Disney proclaimed the agreement with 21st Century Fox "will provide the opportunity to reunite the X-Men, Fantastic Four and Deadpool with the Marvel family under one roof and create richer, more complex worlds of inter-related characters and stories that audiences have shown they love." Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger cleared up any potential ambiguity in an early-morning call with investors, when he referred to an expansion of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

So the plan, at least at this early point, appears to be to integrate the X-Men and Fantastic Four into the cinematic universe Marvel Studios launched in 2008 with Iron Man. What form that might take remains to be seen; approval of the Disney/Fox deal by federal regulators could take anywhere between 12 to 18 months.

RELATED: Disney Gains Full Star Wars: Episode IV Rights in Fox Deal

Fox already has three X-Men films -- The New Mutants, Deadpool 2 and X-Men: Dark Phoenix -- targeted for release next year, with Gambit, X-Force, X-23, and a Multiple Man movie in the pipeline, along with assorted sequels. Barring any unexpected behind-the-scenes calamities, those three 2018 movies will be released as planned. The long-discussed Gambit, starring Channing Tatum, could also very well debut in 2019 under the Fox banner. After that, however, the future gets a little hazy.

Dark Phoenix writer/director Simon Kinberg, who's long helped shepherd Fox's X-Men franchise, already has a relationship with Disney; he co-created the animated Star Wars Rebels and is credited as creative consultant on Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It's possible the global media giant will simply move ahead with his multiyear plan for the franchise, with its assorted spinoffs, but it seems even more likely Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige will be eager to chart a new course for the properties.

Page 2: [valnet-url-page page=2 paginated=0 text='Will%20Deadpool%27s%20Future%20Still%20Have%20An%20R%20in%20It%3F']

Does this mean the end of R-rated Deadpool films?

Not at all. We've all seen the tweets and Facebook posts declaring the Disney/Fox deal means fans "should say goodbye to Deadpool" as he was depicted in the blockbuster 2016 film. That is, Ryan Reynolds' potty-mouthed, violent antihero will lose those crowd-pleasing qualities in order to move his R-rated adventures into something closer to PG territory. Reynolds himself has even had fun with that possibility.

Deadpool-Mickey-Mouse

However, Disney knows a $783 million winner when it sees one. It's difficult to imagine the House of Mouse will strip away those elements that helped to make Deadpool a success. In his call with investors, Iger assured them there is a place for Deadpool, in its current form, at Disney.

RELATED: Disney CEO Assures Fans Deadpool Will Likely Remain R-Rated

"It [Deadpool] clearly has been and will be Marvel-branded. But we think there might be an opportunity for a Marvel-R brand for something like Deadpool," he said. "As long as we let the audiences know what's coming, we think we can manage that fine."

It's worth noting that Disney has long used the Touchstone Pictures division to distribute films targeted to adult audiences.

How many Marvel films a year is too many?

marvel comics heroes

Even before its acquisition by Disney in 2009, Marvel had begun to establish itself has a brand with the release of Iron Man and (with Universal Pictures) The Incredible Hulk, which lay the groundwork for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Since then, virtually every major Hollywood Studio has attempted to duplicate Marvel Studios' success with a shared cinematic universe, and most have failed, spectacularly. In a span of less than a decade, the Marvel Studios name has come to mean something with general audiences; it's a brand so strong that it can easily shrug off those releases that don't quite reach "blockbuster" status.

But what happens when Marvel, which has already increased its annual output to three films, adds the X-Men and Fantastic Four to its slate? Is Marvel Studios equipped to produce four, five or even six big-budget features in a single year? What's more, is the goodwill built up around the Marvel brand enough to overcome the tarnish attached to Fantastic Four after Fox's three turns with the franchise?

How will Warner Bros. respond?

DC Films fanfare

Warner Bros.' attempts to play to catchup to Marvel Studios have met with decidedly mixed results, to put it kindly. Neither 2011's Green Lantern nor 2013's Man of Steel proved to be the studio's answer to Iron Man, and its subsequent launch of the so-called DC Extended Universe has encountered repeated problems, with only Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman emerging as an indisputable commercial and critical success.

RELATED: With Disney Buying Fox, Do the Upcoming X-Men Films Even Matter?

The announcement of the Disney/Fox deal arrives a week after news of a DC Films executive shakeup intended to get the studio's house in order following the disappointing performance of Justice League; it's the second such move since 2016. Warner Bros. then unveiled logos for an updated DC movie slate, which omitted a number of features reported to be in development, leaving fans and industry observers with numerous questions.

The reorganization of DC Films is expected to be complete by January, likely with those operations more fully integrated into the larger studio. Now, of course, the executive placed in charge of mapping the DCEU's future will have to contend not only with Marvel Studios, but one soon to be in control of all of Marvel Comics' most recognizable superheroes. (Yes, Sony still controls Spider-Man, but the two companies are collaborating for the time being.) Does DC Films continue its new/current route, which appears to be a focus on individual movies over a tightly interwoven cinematic universe, or do executives and producers go back to the drawing board, again?

Can Marvel finally give the Inhumans a rest?

The cast for Inhumans pose in front of Black Bolt's logo.

With the lucrative X-Men film and television rights controlled by Fox, Marvel had in recent years attempted to elevate the Inhumans, long supporting characters of the Fantastic Four, to marquee heroes in their own right. What began with a dramatically increased presence in comic books culminated this fall with Marvel's Inhumans television series, heralded with a first-of-its-kind IMAX theatrical premiere. That didn't go well. At all.

The drama was widely criticized for its low production values, with even IMAX's chief executive acknowledging -- too late! -- than Inhumans wasn't up to snuff. The eight-episode drama didn't are any better during its broadcast run on ABC, where its ratings sank so low that it even dragged down those of 20/20. Neither Marvel nor ABC has announced plans for a second season, which is for the best.

The Inhumans, that oddball race of genetically engineered superhumans living on the moon, aren't the X-Men -- and no matter how hard Marvel tries, in comics and on television, they likely never will be. Once the Disney/Fox deal is finalized, Marvel will no longer have to pretend otherwise.