After years of tax write-offs, political favors, silencing of critics and sun downing of cultural institutions, the intimidating merger between Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures could move forward as soon as this week. While state-level challenges and the upcoming midterms made the seismic deal uncertain, swift backroom deals with the likes of Gavin Newsom have seemingly put things back on track. A new hype reel unveils the name for this new proposed megalith, Skydance, shared by the likes of James Gunn who has been confirmed to survive the shake ups.
Kicked off in 2024, the two giants announced their intention to merge into a single company. While Warner’s David Zaslav shelved numerous completed projects and boomeranged names for HBO Max, Paramount’s David Ellison had been even more ruthless in shoring up the deal. In hopes of quieting Trump’s FCC, the studio has been seemingly eager to appease the president, ending Stephen Colbert’s Late Show run and retooling its news operations around internet conservatives. For a second this seemed to have backfired. With CNN also in play, 12 states threatened to challenge the deal, most prominently California. After some bargaining, Ellison promising to produce 30 studio films a year, it seems those states opted to settle. The deal, which will smash and atomize everything from MTV to Mortal Kombat, is now back on track.
With mere days before the deal, it seems that major shake ups have already begun at Warner Bros. The two studio heads, Pam Abdy and Mike DeLuca, are reportedly on the way out. In spite of Zaslav’s artless cost cutting, the two facilitated hits like Sinners, Weapons and the Dune sequels. While currently on a weak leg, the decadent Tom Cruise vehicle Digger looking to be the year’s biggest dud, Vulture reports that the major reason for their ouster is that Ellison simply does not like them.
The same cannot be said of James Gunn, apparently. Gunn and DC producer Peter Safran are reported to remain within the studio. While it’s become a bit of an ongoing joke that the DCU has reset itself more often than the one in the comics, the ongoing adventures of David Corenswet’s Superman will not end just yet. At least not because of this merger. Following reporting of his job security, Gunn shared an endorsing video promoting the new merger. Named after the studio Ellison founded 20 years ago, the proposed Skydance will have control over CNN, CBS, MTV, Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Batman, SpongeBob SquarePants and all therein. Sure sounds like a monopoly, which laws typically discourage, but what are you gunna do?