In August of this year, Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) CEO David Zaslav decided to axe the original HBO Max movie "Batgirl" that had entered production. Just when the outside world was speculating about its meaning, Zaslav once again expressed his determination to protect the company's most important assets, "Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, these world-renowned 'brand IP' are the focus. We have already After completing the readjustment, we will fully form a business team focused on DC, focusing on the business layout in the next 10 years.”
However, the so-called DC team reorganization may be announced a little early. Zaslav is still looking for the right person to lead the team. Unsurprisingly, finding a leader like Kevin Feige and (Kevin Feige) is unlikely. Producer Dan Lin (Dan Lin) was one of the candidates who had been approached, but could not reach an agreement, it is said that it was because of Lin's conditions, including free support for his own production that had not yet made any money Company Rideback.
At the same time, DC Pictures chairman Walter Hamada also contacted lawyers and DC to negotiate his departure. Although Hamada was persuaded by co-chairman Michael De Luca to wait until the release of Black Adam in October to make a final decision, his intention to leave is already clear .
It's really hard to find the right "leader" for DC. It is not unreasonable that qualified candidates are unwilling to fill this vacancy. First of all, Zaslav's leadership style has emerged, and he is clearly the kind of vigorous and demanding "boss" who makes working under him daunting. Secondly, the company's chief financial officer, Gunnar Wiedenfels, has more than $50 billion in debt to find a solution, so some projects that have been offline for streaming services, although they are unknown when they are cut, can not stop the creation. The internal discussion of the team, coupled with the increase in layoffs, many people began to look for a next home. A chief agent of
mentioned the most crucial reason, "DC will always be compared with Marvel, who would like to do such a job?" Comparing this setting between
and Marvel will make the work difficult. When Kevin Feige entered Marvel, Marvel already had a relatively clear cosmic structure, and the team was all proficient. In contrast, the DC universe has experienced many chaotic stages of strategic adjustment. DC also has some overzealous "fans", sometimes to the point of being "toxic", and a large coterie. A producer thinks, "DC's works are seriously fragmented, and it is not easy to unify planning, , Zack Snyder, , and , Todd Phillips, are all heroes of DC. , but they’re all fighting on their own.”
None of the above, however, comes close to a key question of how long you can stay on—a question that all WBD executives face.
Now, WBD needs to break down its excessive debt on the one hand, and restore investor confidence on the other hand. One of Zaslav's former executives recently received a letter from a professionally-backed company, saying it was entrusted by an unnamed client, asking for an assessment of Zaslav's management style, strategic plan and success rate. The news can represent multiple guesses: it could be a prospective acquirer doing preliminary research; it could be a dissenting shareholder looking for weaknesses; it could be a deep-pocketed investor looking for a next target. In conclusion, the uncertainty for the company is extremely high.
Considering the multiple challenges faced by the company, industry executives basically agree on a guess: WBD will usher in another merger and transaction in the near future. However, because the company's internal structure is still intertwined, relevant negotiations will not start until April 2024 at the earliest. At present, the most likely shot is Comcast (Comcast), which may buy and merge WDB, such as NBCUniversal (NBCUniversal).
But WBD and Comcast have not entered into formal contact after all, and now Zaslav is busy recruitingLei talent manages DC, but it will likely end up being taken over by Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy, who is currently hosting DC. Michael De Luca, a comic book fan, built Blade a few years ago while at New Line and had plans to develop an Iron Man movie, but the then-New Line chairman ultimately didn't pass it This project is considered too risky. According to a source who has worked with De Luca for a long time, "Michael De Luca had a lot of ideas long before the various comic book universes became a thing."
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