The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16th, 1923 as an animation studio, by brothers Walt Disney and Roy Oliver Disney as Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio; it also operated under the names Walt Disney Studio and Walt Disney Productions before changing it to its current name in 1986.
Gargoyles began production at Disney, after being created by Greg Weisman in 1991 before premiering on television in 1994.
Relationship with the Fandom
"We have no obligation to make art. We have no obligation to make history. We have no obligation to make a statement. But to make money, it is often important to make history, to make art, or to make some significant statement. We must always make entertaining movies, and, if we make entertaining movies, at times, we will reliably make history, art, a statement or all three."
- Michael Eisner, 1981 [1]
The Gargoyles Fandom's relationship with Disney has, most of the time, been best described as benign neglect. For the most part, Disney has allowed the fandom to exist and create fanfiction, fanart, and run conventions with no interference. But they have, on occasion, participated. At a few Gatherings, Disney has sent material from its archives to be exhibited as well as sent free merch such as t-shirts, hoodies, and even copies of the DVD to be handed out to fans that attended.
Disney's awareness of the fandom brought about the release of the first DVD set, which featured a fourteen minute documentary about the fandom. Sales were strong enough to warrant the release of a second DVD set, but not for a third set for another eight years. But they have also periodically tested the waters by releasing licensed merchandise, and have more recently acknowledged the series and its fandom in various cell phone games and animated shorts.
After releasing the series on their streaming platform, Disney+, to very good numbers, Disney has licensed more merchandise and comic books. In short, if Disney feels there is money to be made on Gargoyles, they're going to want to make that money.