I'm not sure if you are aware that the Walt Disney Company has this extremely overpriced club called D23.  For an annual fee of $75.00 you get a four issue magazine subscription to D23 Magazine (cover price $15.95, which comes to $63.80 if you bought them on the newsstand—"Wow, that's a savings of over negative fifteen percent."), and the chance to spend more money to buy exclusive merchandise from their website, as well as tickets to exclusive events.  But, I digress.

The point, after the jump

 

The D23 club is having their first Fan Expo at the Anaheim Convention Center this year and it looks fabulous.  Tickets were 111 for all four days ($90 for D23 members, which I guess could make up for what you overpay on the magazine subscription) Ehile I would love to be there in person, I just couldn't make it happen this year.  Thankfully, in this world of texts, blogs and 24 hour youtube, news from the expo is disseminated almost instantaneously. 

The D23 expo kicked off with a speech from Bob Iger.  He addressed the Marvel acquisition.  Basically, he said Marvel is still be Marvel and that Disney has no intention of changing them.  He also said, as many have speculated, that Disney will let the current licensing deals for movie and theme parks run there course.  Specifically, he said there were no plans to interfere with Universal's Island of Adventure.  Iger said,

"There are also some legacy agreements that Marvel has in a variety of ways, to the theme park with Universal, to the distribution of the live-action films, So until some of these things work their course, or until we get a better sense when the deal closes, there isn't much planning that can be done until we reach an agreement."

Iger also said:

"As you'd expect, due to the nature of Marvel, it’s a business we’re very familiar with. Well known characters and weird stories and a product that transcends gender and age and geographic territories

When you look at it as part of the Walt Disney Company and the application, the presence of Marvel is virtually in everything that we’re in. You can expect that over time, that’s what you will see. We became impressed with the talent of Marvel as we got to know them better. Once the the deal closes their is expected integration, but we plan to keep Marvel as an entity and and to respect both the talent that is there, working as one and also respect what Marvel is and what the essence of Marvel is. There will be no Disneyfication of Marvel.

More coverage can read at Scifiwire.com; Collider.com; First Showing; Comingsoon.net; and Screen Crave.

And now, completely unrelated, a tour of the Walt Disney Theme Park Booth from Orlando Attractions Magazine.