What Will The Skydance-Warner Bros Deal Mean For Animation?

So it's finally happening. After more than a year of trying, Paramount-Skydance has been cleared to buy Warner Bros Discovery. There's been a lot of resistance, with various bodies and States have tried to block it, but to no avail. Now billionaire nepo-baby David Ellison will own the entirety of the resulting mega-corp, and there's nothing we can do about. Ellison announced that the name of the combined entity will be Skydance. Choosing the name of his own corporation over two iconic brands with over two centuries in Hollywood history between them is definitely a sign of his vanity. And possibly a questionable business decision (how widely is the Skydance brand even recognised?) But what does all this mean for the future of animation?

In any merger like this, it can be guaranteed that jobs are going to go. Ellison has already given the marching orders to two top Warner Bros execs, in favour of installing one of his own people to oversee both Paramount and WB. The new company has inherited a massive debt and will need to make savings somehow. This will likely translate into massive job cuts, and it seems most likely they will fall mainly on the Warner Bros side of the business, as it seems that's how Ellison operates. We'll probably see a significant number of series cancelled and movies canned. There could even be some of the tax write-off shenanigans that killed Batgirl and Scooby-Doo: Holiday Haunt. Brace yourself for disappointment.

In terms of animation, Ellison now owns an awful lot of animation studios. He owns Paramount Animation, Skydance Animation, Warner Bros Animation, Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, Cartoon Network (including Cartoon Network Studios), Adult Swim, Nickelodeon (including Nickelodeon Animation), Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe, CBS Eye Animation, South Park Studios (jointly owned by Park County), Avatar Studios, United Plankton Pictures Inc, Warner Bros Japan Anime Production, and DC Animation.

It doesn't take a sharp business mind to see, that's a lot. And the new owners might see some redundancy. Remember when Disney bought 20th Century Fox they promptly shuttered Blue Sky Studios because they didn't want more competition for Disney and Pixar? Ellison is almost certainly going to make cutbacks and most likely will shut one or more of these studios. Again, expect the Warner Bros side to bear the brunt of these cutbacks as Ellison is nothing if not consistent. He's sure as heck not going to shut down Skydance Animation, which as the youngest company with no cultural impact and a pretty weak library, would probably be the most sensible option. Ellison showed poor judgment when he hired John Lasseter after his firing from Pixar; I wouldn't put it past him to do something stupid like put Lasseter in overall charge of animation in the new mega-corp. That would show he has little concern for his female employees.

HBO Max and Paramount Plus are supposedly going to continue to operate as separate entities. Will HBO and Paramount both continue to commission original animation? They both seem to have had considerable success with the medium, and hopefully cuts won't prevent them from continuing to do so.

A lot of the concern over this deal relates to Ellison himself. The billionaire's politics are well known, and people are worried that he will impose his own right-leaning, conservative worldview on the studio's output. There's particular concern in terms of news. However, one example that doesn't seem to support this idea is the fact that he has owned South Park for a number of years, and they still seem to be doing whatever they want. It could be an exception because it's a well-established, decades-old brand and Matt Stone and Trey Parker have considerable clout. Or maybe it's not. Maybe it's wishful thinking, but maybe he'll be more of a hands-off boss than we expect? If he is not though, artists certainly won't be lining up to work with him.

Nobody can really predict anything, and maybe it's all going to work out. But this mega-merger is not great news for Hollywood, ending the days of Warner Bros as an independent studio. It would probably have worked out better if Netflix had bought WB after all. The future is looking extremely shaky for a considerable part of the US animation industry. All we can do is cross our fingers and hope it turns out OK- for us as viewers, but most importantly for all those working in the industry.