Paramount Warner Bros. Discovery Merger Closes: What Skydance Means for James Gunn and DC Studios

The merger of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery is officially done, and the combined company is now simply called Skydance. For DC Studios, the headline is that James Gunn and Peter Safran are sticking around as the heads of the studio. There is a lot more DC news tied up in this, so let me walk through all of it.

The $110 billion Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery merger closed on Tuesday

According to an article from Yahoo Finance, the Paramount Warner Bros. Discovery merger has closed after a battle lasting nearly a year, paving the way for Skydance. The outlet reports that the $110 billion merger of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery closed on Tuesday afternoon, after Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan denied a last minute effort to halt the deal.

The new company, known as Skydance, and that name is important, brings the HBO Max and Paramount Plus streaming services under one umbrella. That comes roughly 7 months after Paramount won a long bidding war with Netflix for Warner Bros.

The part I think is just as important is that the company said all of its direct to consumer streaming services will unify into a single service over time. Maybe some people can save some money with that coming up. Skydance has also already begun trading on the stock market under the symbol SKYD. So it is complete. The merger is done.

David Ellison reportedly backed a 10 year plan from James Gunn and Peter Safran

Skydance is now the umbrella that everything sits under, and David Ellison is the CEO of Skydance. That makes him the person at the top who is now over DC Studios.

Ellison actually visited the set of Man of Tomorrow, and reportedly, while he was there, James Gunn and Peter Safran presented a 10 year plan for DC Studios to him. Ellison reportedly backed the plan and liked what he saw, which is great news.

James Gunn's DCU is currently the most popular universe on streaming

As of a few days ago, James Gunn's DCU was the most popular universe on streaming. Lanterns is the number one show on HBO Max, Supergirl is the number one movie on HBO Max, and Superman is trending in 14 countries on Netflix.

So right now the DCU is pretty big, despite any hate you might see online. There is a lot of love online and there is a lot of hate online, but as I see it, "despite what you hear, it's actually really big right now."

Gunn and Safran will be the only studio heads reporting directly to David Ellison

Gunn and Safran will remain the heads of DC Studios under the new company. In fact, they are going to be the only studio heads who report directly to Skydance CEO David Ellison. A lot of people are interpreting that as a sign that DC Studios will still have creative freedom.

That is what I hope is the case: no interference from Skydance at all, nobody telling them to do this and do that, just letting James Gunn and Peter Safran do their thing. For the most part, I think that is what Warner Bros. was doing already, so this is really great news. They have also been added to the CEO's top leadership at Skydance, so as far as DC is concerned, it seems like everything is going pretty well right now.

Unfortunately, the heads of Warner Bros. Pictures, Pam Abdy and Mike De Luca, are not staying and will be replaced.

James Gunn is already writing his next DCU project, and the Man of Tomorrow assembly cut is done

Gunn has also confirmed a couple of things. First, he is already writing his next DCU film. When asked whether he was already writing his next film, he replied to a comment: "Already in it. I had to do something while I was waiting for the assembly." He was talking about the Man of Tomorrow assembly cut, so while he waited for it to be completed, he started writing his next project. I would say it is probably a movie, though maybe a show. We will have to wait and see.

Second, the Man of Tomorrow assembly cut is complete. Gunn confirmed it is done. So nothing has really changed with his plan, and everything is still on track for Man of Tomorrow, which is shaping up to be a really big movie. If you think about all the characters that are going to be in it, it is a lot.

I think David Ellison probably went on set, saw some of that, sat down with James and Peter, and decided it all looked good. And I think he thought it was so good that his attitude was essentially: you are on board, just report to me and do your thing.

Sony's Madame Web shows what happens when studio executives get in the way

I think that is a big deal, because we have seen studio heads, the people at the very top, get in the way. We have seen this a lot with Sony. Dakota Johnson played Madame Web, and while it was not her fault, the movie was terrible. In interviews after the movie, she said that the executives at Sony have no idea what the fans want. She was given a certain script, and by the end they had interfered so much that the movie was completely different from anything that script showed.

That is unfortunate, but it shows what happens when studio heads get in the way. That is why all of this sounds great to me. It sounds like Ellison is essentially saying: your plan looks good, Lanterns is doing well, and Man of Tomorrow is shaping up to be really good. It is a big ensemble film with so many people in it. It is not a Justice League film, but it looks like we are building to something really big and a really big storyline.

Of course, it depends on how you view Gunn's DCU right now. If you hate it, this might be really bad news for you. But if you are liking it, loving it, or just waiting to see if James Gunn cooks, this is good news.

The DCU plan stays the same under Skydance, though the budget might be smaller

Essentially, nothing is really changing at DC Studios. They are just under Skydance now, James Gunn is still there, and the plan is still the same. When I say the plan is the same, I do not mean the plan that Gunn presented to us years ago. That original plan has probably changed. But the plan he has in his head with Peter Safran and everybody there, and the way he is going to build the DC universe, is still the same.

The only thing we have heard is that he might have a slightly smaller budget. Considering he is now under the Skydance umbrella, who knows? Then again, they did just pay a lot of money to acquire Warner Bros. and everything that comes with it.

Overall, if you have been enjoying Gunn's DCU, this is good news, because the DCU is going to essentially stay the same. "I don't think we could have afforded another reboot", whether that meant a new Superman or another new Batman, even though we have not gotten our new Batman yet. I do not think we could have started over when this universe just got started. I am really excited for the future of DC.

Do you think the DCU will keep its creative freedom under Skydance, or could a tighter budget change Gunn's plans?