Shocker: There are problems at Warner Bros. Discovery. There seem to be nothing but problems at Warner Bros. lately, from the cancellation of Batgirl to the dumping of a lot of programming off HBO Max to the continuing story of Ezra Miller, jet-setting menace. What’s one more?
And this is a big one. According to Deadline, Legendary — the studio behind Dune and the recent rash of Godzilla/King Kong movies — is shopping itself around to other studios now that its deal with Warner Bros. has expired and it apparently didn’t like the new offer that Warner Bros. made. If Legendary does leave, it could be a big deal, since Dune and the MonsterVerse were an important part of the Warner Bros. catalog.
Legendary is reportedly in talks with Sony and Paramount. That said, Warner Bros. has been here before. It first teamed up with Legendary in 2005; between then and 2014, Legendary produced the Dark Knight trilogy, Pacific Rim, and more. Then they worked with Universal for a while before returning to Warner Bros. to release Detective Pikachu in 2019. So maybe this is just another cycle.
Legendary Pictures may leave Warner Bros. behind
That said, things are changing at Warner Bros. To start, it’s now Warner Bros. Discovery after its recent merger, and is now headed up by CEO David Zaslav, who is behind some of the studio’s most recent controversial decisions. Maybe it’s time for Legendary to change too.
It’s also possible that Legendary is still smarting from the pandemic-era, pre-Zaslav decision to release movies like Dune simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max. In any case, for ordinary viewers, this probably won’t mean much; Dune: Part 2 will still come out sooner or later, regardless of who distributes it. For Warner Bros., it could mean a lot, but we’ll have to wait and watch for the details.
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