People waking up on the morning of Monday, December 8th might have thought that the big news of the day would be the Golden Globes nominations, but David Ellison had other plans. The recently new owner of Paramount Studios, not content with writing aggrieved letters about his failed bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, made it street official: Paramount/Skydance was going to try a hostile takeover of WBD, backed by Saudi money and Jared Kushner.
Netflix head Ted Sarandos quickly stepped in with Big Man energy to calm the waters – they saw this coming, not to worry.
“Today’s move was entirely expected,” Sarandos said. “We have a deal done, and we are really happy with the deal for shareholders, for consumers, it’s a great way to create and protect jobs in the entertainment industry. We’re super confident we are going to get it across.”
In the same call Sarandos and co-CEO Greg Peters also attempted to act like theatrical will be just fine – they love movie theaters!
“In this transaction, we pick up three business we’re not currently in, so we have no redundancies currently,” said Sarandos. “One of them is a motion picture studio with a theatrical distribution machine.”
As predicted, Superman is one of the successes that Sarandos would not have messed with:
“If we did this deal 24 months ago, all those movies we saw this year do so well for Warner Bros would have been released in the same way in theaters. I’m talking about Minecraft, I’m talking about Superman, I’m talking about Weapons, I’m talking about Sinners,” said the executive, who cut his teeth in home video, referring to Warner Bros’ strong $4 billion-plus global grossing 2025.
“These movies will be released on Netflix through theaters the way Warner Bros did it before, but with the Warner Bros operating entity. It’s really important the way they create, and the way they drive value. We didn’t buy this company to destroy that value.”
If he really means this, he will be the only visionary CEO who doesn’t, in fact, destroy the value of WBD, because previous owners AT&T and Discovery did a pretty good job of that.
Returning to our main focus, DC Comics, once again, the DC universe as it is currently being stewarded by James Gunn and Peter Safran is definitely seen as one of the crown jewels of the WBD acquisition. David Zaslav, current top dog at WBD, has been lavishing them with a level of priase he previously reserved for house flippers:
“The work of James and Peter, their creative vision, it’s compelling and a great economic return,” Zaslav told Businessweek on Dec. 4, stepping out of a conference room with a dozen bankers, lawyers and executives in New York as he was negotiating the deal. “There’s no storytelling content that we have that provides a bigger palette than DC, and there’s nobody around right now who can tell these stories with the same imagination and excitement.”
Sarandos has yet to prove his comic book bona fides by naming his favorite run on the Legion, but he has alluded to the value of the DC IP library in a call on Friday.
“You should think about ways that you can explore all these IP universes beyond that of just making tentpole movies. Examples would be some of the earlier moves from the DC universe for things like ‘Penguin’ has turned into great television.”
Ah yes, the joy of IP – so much fun to suddenly be able to dream about it.
Meanwhile, the Ellison bid for WBD has been stressing their commitment to theatrical – no lauding of DC just yet, but give it time.
“Paramount is committed to growing the film and TV output of both businesses, including a theatrical slate of 30 plus theatrical releases per year. We’re going to satisfy the needs of the moviegoing public,” he added.
For their part, James Gunn and Peter Safran’s deal goes through 2027, which will see the release of Supergirl, Lanterns and the animated Clayface in ‘26, and Man of Tomorrow in ‘27. They’re holding tight for now:
Netflix has told Warner Bros. it will release the studio’s films in cinemas, which would buck Sarandos’ decades-long antipathy toward theatrical distribution. It isn’t clear if the movies will screen in theaters for extended periods of time—or even at all, once Warner Bros.’ existing contractual obligations to actors, directors and theater chains are fulfilled. “The communal, theatrical experience is something that is incredibly important and remarkably well suited to our big spectacle films,” Gunn tells Businessweek.
For now, Safran and Gunn say they’re not letting larger corporate goings-on alter their plans. They’re focusing on scripts. “What makes us irreplaceable is truly the mind of James Gunn. He’s been the architect of this grand vision,” Safran says. Gunn puts the mission more succinctly: “If you’re gonna make a Batman movie, it better be f—ing awesome.”
But what about the Paramount takeover bid? What would that mean? A report on the changes at Paramount since Ellison took over paints an unhappy picture of ascendant bro-culture:
“The one thing I’m trying to figure out is what other big priorities they are embracing,” says a rival executive. Asks another studio head, “Is there anything that isn’t a male-driven action movie?”
Paramount insists there is. During an Aug. 13 media event, Greenstein name-checked such franchises as Star Trek, Transformers and World War Z. He also indicated an interest in horror (Paramount is home to A Quiet Place and Smile) and R-rated comedies. Insiders at Paramount say the team’s guiding principle is ensuring that every movie is an event. This doesn’t just mean franchises, it could include risqué comedies for both men (think: The Hangover) and women (Bridesmaids) or dramas targeting Black audiences (à la The Woman King, which Greenstein made at Sony).
It’s hard to see the specific Gunn/Safran vision for the DCU staying unchanged at WBD/Paramount, but money talks and South Park just got a big renewal so anything is possible.
Doubtless as the Battle for WBD heats up we’ll both sides talking about how much they love DC’s library of characters and the upcoming DCU slate.
In all the shocking twists and turns of the last few weeks, some other comics-related matters have come bobbing to the surface. Snyderbros are once again clamoring for the Snyderverse to be unleashed. However Netflix has been Zack Snyder’s home away from home for the last few years, and it wasn’t a happy home: all of his projects at the streamer have reportedly been canceled:
Then came something even more telling: Netflix canceling Twilight of the Gods, Snyder’s mythological animated series. Add that to the reported collapse of future Rebel Moon installments and the earlier shelving of the Army of the Dead expansions and the picture becomes stark. Every major Zack Snyder-backed initiative at Netflix has either stalled, been quietly dropped, or outright rejected and canceled.
So basically: not a chance. The Snyderverse is over, my friends. Just accept it.
Another player floating around in online speculation is Mark Millar, whose Millarworld line of comics was acquired outright by Netflix back in 2017. This was in the early days of Netflix creating original content, if you can believe it, and seemed like a handy way to acquire a whole library in one pass. Most Millar-related projects have been unsuccessful, however, and he’s likely to join Snyder in Netflix purgatory if he hasn’t already.
And finally DC Comics, the little publishing arm that could. Obviously it’s all been speculation so far, and they’re but a tiny leaf carried along by the rushing currents of Hollywood history at this point. Someday Netflix will realize they own this business unit, but we’ll deal with that when we get to it.
One funny thing though, when talking to various folks speculating about all of this, I tried to ascertain where DC Comics lies in the WBD org chart….no one really knows. Jim Lee and Marie Javins report to General Manager Anne De Pies, who formerly reported to Pam Lifford. Lifford left WB in 2022, to be replaced by Robert Oberschelp, named Head of Global Consumer Products, back in October 2023. While that seems to settle the matter, some folks I talked to over the last few days were just sure that DC is under DC Studios, which really doesn’t make much sense because running consumer products licensing is a whole different business than making movies….but there you have it. Putting that in my tickler file for future investigation – but in these crazy times, don’t expect it too soon.
