Burning Questions for Paramount’s Warner Bros. Deal: Who Does David Ellison Think He Is? What’s Next for Netflix?

As the new reality set in, the questions multiplied. Paramount Skydance shocked the entertainment industry on Feb. 26 with the news that it had reached an agreement to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, muscling aside Netflix to pull off the kind of come-from-behind victory that is usually the stuff of inspirational sports movies. In the days […] Home Film News Mar 4, 2026 8:38am PT Burning Questions for Paramount’s Warner Bros. Deal: Who Does David Ellison Think He Is? What’s Next for Netflix? By Brent Lang, Cynthia Littleton Getty Images As the new reality set in, the questions multiplied. Paramount Skydance shocked the entertainment industry on Feb. 26 with the news that it had reached an agreement to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, muscling aside Netflix to pull off the kind of come-from-behind victory that is usually the stuff of inspirational sports movies. In the days that followed, industry insiders circulated during a busy pre-Oscars awards season weekend in Los Angeles that included the Producers Guild Awards, the Actor Awards and the Eddie Awards. The upshot was a lot of tongues wagging about a deal that will surely change the Hollywood landscape as two pillars of the town — Warner Bros. and HBO — are absorbed into the Paramount Skydance structure. Yes, those assets have changed hands twice in less than six years (to AT&T and then Discovery Inc.) — but they’ve never been taken over by a direct-rival media firm with a whole lot of overlapping operations. Popular on Variety Related Stories Ahead of $55 Billion Go-Private Deal, Electronic Arts Leads Video Game Publishers With Most Game Downloads in 2025