With David Ellison having cleared all remaining regulatory hurdles, the $111 billion megamerger between Warner Bros. and Paramount is set to close on Tuesday, October 6th. The focus has now turned on the changes to expect as the new combined organization comes to life.
This week, Ellison cleared up one of the most fundamental questions by unveiling the company’s new name through a Thursday post on X. The combined Warner Bros.-Paramount company will operate under the name Skydance, the name of Ellison’s production company. Ellison explained his rationale on X, saying he chose Skydance so the new company’s name wouldn’t “diminish, alter or overshadow” either Warner Bros. or Paramount.
While Ellison’s decision to name the new company Skydance can be framed as not platforming either studio over the other, it can also be seen as in indication that the goal of management is to create something completely new, which is not defined by the existing identities of either studio. The organizational structure for Skydance appears to include leaders from both Warner Bros., Paramount and new contributors from the across the industry. Ellison announced that Ynon Kreitz, the former CEO of Mattel, will join him in a Co-CEO role. Then came reports of WBD streaming head Casey Bloys staying with the new company while Paramount’s current streaming head Cindy Holland would be leaving. It’s the inverse with the film division, with Ellison assigning Paramount’s film heads Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg to run the studios whereas Warner Bros.’ film heads Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy will be leaving.
The news of DeLuca and Abdy’s departure was particularly striking given how much they were praised in 2025 for their success in directing the Warner Bros. film studio. However, WBD has had a much less successful year in 2026, and their style of allocating big budgets on original films could be seen as too risky for a company as heavily leveraged as the new Skydance. A case in point would be this weekend’s disappointing performance of DIGGER, which reportedly cost $180 million to make. As much as De Luca and Abdy are respected, their approach could be too risky for Ellison to endure.
