2025 will end with the end of Stranger Things, after which creators Matt and Ross Duffer will be at Paramount. While the pair are knee deep in putting the finishing touches on their Netflix hit, they talked up what’s to come once they’re exclusive to the Mission: Impossible and Transformers studio.
Movie-wise, the brothers intend to focus on original things, but they also told Variety they wouldn’t mind tackling a known property owned by Paramount. However, they stressed any IP they took on would have to be ones they “really responded to,” not just something that’s popular or would make a good headline. They didn’t offer more specifics in terms of criteria, but Matt brought up “botched” properties where “someone swung and missed, [and] then you have an opportunity to do it properly.”
When they’re not tackling movies, the Duffers hope to find and foster new talent, akin to what Shawn Levy did for them by backing Stranger Things. They don’t want to get as big as Bad Robot, though, so they’ll just focus on “identifying really talented people and then just helping them get their vision made and then mostly staying out of the way.”
As for the Duffers’ TV ventures, they intend repeat what they did with Stranger Things and make event shows in the eight-to-10 episode range. Shows with 20-episode or more seasons are “fatiguing,” said Matt, and neither brother grew up a fan of that model. But they want to continue making shows with shorter seasons and a “when it’s done” model, with Matt calling the traditional way “a diminishing return. I like the buildup.” Brother Matt also acknowleged that it’s strange the two even ended up in TV to begin with when they grew up on movies and aren’t really fans of television—but hey, look forward to the last run of Stranger Things episodes beginning November 26.
StarTrek‘s utopian vision for an equal society, especially in terms of gender equality, has always been a complicated aspect of its idealized vision. It’s true that the franchise has a legacy of beloved, nuanced female characters and has championed putting those characters in the spotlight over six decades of storytelling. But it’s equally true that Star Trek‘s often conservative vision of women in leadership roles, as figures of desire, and as beholden to the stories of male characters has sat hand in hand with that feminist progressivism.
There are perhaps, however, few individual seasons of Star Trek from the past 60 years that reflect that dichotomy more than Strange New Worlds‘ recently concluded third.
On paper, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds arguably has one of the largest groups of female characters in its primary cast. Of the current main crew, just four of the show’s central characters are men—Pike, Spock, M’Benga, and this season’s addition of Martin Quinn as the younger Montgomery Scott—in comparison to six women: Una, Uhura, La’an, Ortegas, Chapel, and Pelia. That gap has only grown over the course of the show’s life, with Pelia replacing former chief engineer Hemmer after season one, and even the increased prominence of guest characters like Paul Wesley’s young Jim Kirk has been balanced by an increasingly prominent role for Melanie Scrofano’s Marie Batel (especially this season, as we’ll get into).
Those female characters have also served to facilitate some of Strange New Worlds‘ standout episodes and arcs thus far as well. Uhura’s initial focus as the new perspective aboard the Enterprise in season one flourished across episodes like “Children of the Comet” or in her mentee relationship with Hemmer. La’an’s history with the Gorn played a significant role in Strange New Worlds‘ characterization of the species (for better or worse), and she was given space to process both that and, in episodes like “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow“, her complicated relationship to Khan and the Augments. Una’s revelation of her Illyrian heritage was made a climactic point in the final moments of the show’s first season, leading to a character-defining turn for actress Rebecca Romijn in the season two episode “Ad Astra Per Aspera“.
But, at times, those female characters were also underserved in those first two seasons—a problem exacerbated by season three, rather than wholly created by it. Nurse Chapel’s arc in the first two seasons largely hinged on her will-they-won’t-they relationship with Spock, fizzling out almost immediately after the two were allowed to get together (shortchanging another great female character in Spock’s Vulcan fiancee, T’Pring, played by guest star Gia Sandhu). Ortegas, meanwhile, was regularly criticized for never really getting her own moment to shine in the show, constantly seeking a storyline outside of a perfunctory exploration of her role as the Enterprise helmsperson (a frustration compounded by the fact that the character, a veteran of Discovery‘s Klingon-Federation war, was only ever allowed to be aggressively distrusting of Klingons or other alien species or simply say things like “I fly the ship”).
Unfortunately, of the various factors that led to Strange New Worlds‘ third season failing to come even close to the mark left by seasons one and two—an experimental breadth of tone and genre leading to more misses than swings, an overreliance on connection to Star Trek‘s past, and an ongoing issue of its episodic format increasingly being in friction with the show’s character work, among other things—one that stood out the most was that these prior issues the show had with underserving some of its female characters suddenly began impacting almost all of them.
Across its third season, it has consistently felt like Strange New Worlds has had little idea of where it wanted to take its characters, but especially so with its female ones. Prior arcs like La’an’s traumatic history with the Gorn were dropped or shuffled onto other characters: Ortegas sustains a nearly fatal injury from a Gorn attack in the season’s premiere, setting her up to take on that arc instead, to mixed results—it’s not touched on notably until the penultimate episode of the season, “Terrarium,” in which she’s forced to work with a similarly stranded Gorn pilot, but Erica’s attitude towards hostile species and her own traumatic memory of her injury are almost immediately dropped in the episode with little examination as to why.
Una’s relationship as an Illyrian, a genetically modified humanoid who won legal precedent against Starfleet’s rules against such species being part of the Federation, manifested less as an arc for her and more as a plot device when she essentially became a “magic blood” donor to save Captain Batel’s life.
And then what was continued, or introduced to serve as replacements to those prior character arcs, was almost unified across the majority of the series’ female characters: romantic relationships with men. Almost as soon as she was broken up with Spock, season three introduced Cillian O’Sullivan as Chapel’s new love interest (“new” in that it connected up with her eventual status quo in classic Star Trek) Dr. Korby, with her time in the series largely less about exploring herself and her own agency and more about how her relationship furthered the characters of the men she was romantically involved with. Even more immediately, after Spock’s breakup with Chapel, he was paired with La’an, a move that narratively came out of nowhere and was only largely sold by Christina Chong and Ethan Peck’s chemistry—and again, was more in service to Spock’s character than it was necessarily to La’an or her own agency in the matter.
Even Una and Uhura couldn’t escape this heteronormative focusing either. Uhura was casually paired up with Ortegas’ newly introduced brother Beto (Mynor Lüken) here and there throughout the season, only for their burgeoning relationship to seemingly fizzle out and not be picked up again after the one-two tonal misfires of “What Is Starfleet?” and “Four and a Half Vulcans.” That latter episode, among its many issues, couldn’t even resist also capturing Una in Strange New Worlds‘ obsession with romance, giving her second-most-prominent arc in the season over to an extended gag about a prior, sexually intense relationship with Patton Oswalt’s guest-starring role as the human-obsessed Vulcan Doug.
It’s not even that a romance plotline is inherently a bad thing. The real issue is the fact that Strange New Worlds seemingly only had the idea to do one with the bulk of its female stars this season over giving them any other kind of arc. The only characters that escaped that framing were Pelia, who almost entirely exists as an excuse (a delightful one, at that) for Carol Kane to make one gag after another, and Ortegas, whom the show still struggles to do anything with, romantic or otherwise. And ultimately, all of these romantic arcs have been less about the autonomy of their female halves and instead in service of forwarding the arcs of the men in their lives, further stagnating their characters across the season.
This climaxes and is most obliquely symbolized in the season’s final episode, “New Life and Civilizations,” putting the spotlight on the culmination of Captain Batel and Captain Pike’s romantic relationship. Strange New Worlds had done very little with Batel in its first two seasons outside of her role as Pike’s love interest, outside of endangering her in the Gorn attack that straddled season two’s end and season three’s beginning (season three, again, largely sidelined her for her recovery, focusing on the impact of her situation on Pike instead), but the season three finale placed their relationship at the forefront of the show’s emotional climax. In doing so, it was again less about Batel and who we knew her to be as an individual and more about defining the fact that she was Pike’s girlfriend.
The dramatic thrust of the finale sees Batel confronted with the (largely out of nowhere) revelation that she is the subject of a predestination paradox where she is fated to become a crystallized statue sealing an ancient evil race called the Vezda for all eternity. But instead of centering her own concerns and fears about taking on that mantle—she’d almost literally just been given back her job at Starfleet’s judicial division after a season of fighting to be put back into service—the episode’s emotional throughline becomes almost entirely about Batel ensuring Pike that he’s going to be fine without her (she is almost too keen to essentially sacrifice herself in comparison), leading to an extended dream sequence where she uses her newfound guardian abilities to essentially speedrun Pike through a hypothetical future where they grow old and raise a child together before she is crystallized and, essentially for the series, removed as an ongoing character.
This was, ultimately, Batel’s most prominent appearance in Strange New Worlds, and it not only didn’t really further our understanding of her character, but it was almost entirely framed through the perspective of Pike’s emotional journey and narrative in regard to his own predestined fate.
As Strange New Worlds draws closer and closer to its own conclusion—just 16 episodes of the series remain across its final two seasons, or around two-thirds of one season of a classic Star Trek show—it’s damning that seemingly one of the few ideas it can have for its female characters is defining their arc in relationship to a man. With the time it has left, one of the lessons the series must take to heart is to better explore the wealth of opportunities its breadth of female characters can provide, instead of pigeonholing them into the same arc over and over.
Sometimes, rising prices for streaming services feels as inevitable as death and taxes. So when a serious discount is available, we tend to sit up and take notice. Now, you can get a whopping half off an annual subscription to Paramount+ through September 18. A year of the Paramount+ Essential plan, which is ad-supported, will cost $30 compared to the usual $60. Paramount+ Premium, which is ad-free except for live tv programming, will cost $60 for a year instead of $120.
Paramount+
Get half off plans for new and returning customers through September 18.
This is a substantial deal that both new and returning subscribers can take advantage of; it’s not uncommon for this type of serious discount to only be offered to a first-timer. Anyone who signs up for a year-long subscription to Paramount+ from now through September 18 will be able to get this pricing. The only real caveat with this deal is that you have to pay for the full year in advance; month-to-month subscriptions will still cost the usual rate.
Paramount+ has some great programming options, particularly if you’re a fan of anything involving RuPaul. It’s also the home of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: Lower Decks, which are arguably the best modern additions to the sci-fi show’s canon, as well as the other past and present Star Trek series. The platform offers a solid lineup of sports as well. And if you opt to go for the Premium plan, you’ll also be granted access to Showtime titles such as Yellowjackets and the rebooted Dexter: Resurrection.
Check out our coverage of the best streaming deals for more discounts, and follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.
Paramount+ has formally renewed Taylor Sheridan’s popular crime drama Tulsa King, starring Sylvester Stallone, for a fourth season. The news comes on the night of the Season 3 red carpet event in New York and ahead of the season’s Paramount+ debut on Sunday, Sept. 21. There is a change at the helm for Season 4, with Terence Winter returning as executive producer and head writer and Season 3 showrunner Dave Erickson exiting, Deadline has learned exclusively.
Tulsa King, from Paramount TV Studios and 101 Studios, was earmarked for a two-year (Seasons 3 and 4) renewal when series star and executive producer Stallone closed a new deal last November to continue on the show for two more seasons. Season 3 renewal was announced in March, with Season 4 expected to follow.
This is not envisioned as Tulsa King‘s final chapter, I hear. According to sources, talks are underway with Stallone for a new two-year deal and, if the series’ ratings continue to be strong, it could go to six seasons.
Boardwalk Empire creator Winter served as executive producer and showrunner on Tulsa King‘s first season. He stepped down as showrunner after the end of the season before rejoining the series as Head Writer/executive producer in Season 2. He was based largely in the writers room, with producing director Craig Zisk handling on-set showrunner duties.
Tulsa King went back to having a formal showrunner in Season 3 with Mayor of Kingstown showrunner Erickson taking on those duties. Erickson, who recently also stepped down as showrunner of the upcoming Tulsa King spinoff series, NOLA King, starring Samuel L. Jackson, will now focus solely on Mayor of Kingstown. NOLA King will be introduced on Tulsa King, with Jackson guest starring on Season 3.
This marks a full-time return to Tulsa King for Winter, who was a consultant in Season 3. Like in Season 2, there is no separate showrunner
Tulsa King‘s second season delivered Paramount+’s most watched global premiere at the time with 21.1 million viewers for the opening episode. It was the #1 global Paramount+ original series in 2024 and a Top 10 original series across all SVODs in Q4.
In Season 3, as Dwight’s (Stallone) empire expands, so do his enemies – and the risks to his crew. Now, he faces his most dangerous adversaries in Tulsa yet: the Dunmires, a powerful old-money family that doesn’t play by old-world rules, forcing Dwight to fight for everything he’s built and protect his family.
From left: McKenna Quigley Harrington, Bella Heathcote, Martin Starr, Vincent Piazza, Dana Delany, Sylvester Stallone, Annabella Sciorra, Frank Grillo, Garrett Hedlund and Jay Will
Bennett Raglin/Getty Images for Paramount+
The series also stars Martin Starr, Jay Will, Annabella Sciorra, Neal McDonough, Robert Patrick, Beau Knapp, Bella Heathcote, Chris Caldovino, McKenna Quigley Harrington, Mike “Cash Flo” Walden, Kevin Pollak, Vincent Piazza, Frank Grillo, Michael Beach, James Russo, with Garrett Hedlund and Dana Delany.
Jackson will appear in Season 3 as Russell Lee Washington Jr. before headlining NOLA King.
Produced by Paramount Television Studios and 101 Studios, Tulsa King Season 3 is executive produced by Sheridan, Sylvester Stallone, Dave Erickson, David C. Glasser, Ron Burkle, David Hutkin, Bob Yari, Jim McKay, Sheri Elwood, Ildy Modrovich and Keith Cox. Erickson also serves as showrunner. The series is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.
The upcoming Running Man remake is set in a United States where people watch contestants try to survive being hunted. Watch any game show (or reality TV in general), and the host is as important as the players themselves, and that’s where Colman Domingo comes in.
He plays Bobby Thompson in the film, who hosts the titular blood sport that’s the talk of the country. We got a little bit of the character in the trailer, and according to Domingo, playing a guy like that is like “[being] in a whole different film than anyone else.” Like he told Entertainment Weekly, Thompson’s only seen through the context of his show, where he’s “operating, manipulating, charming, not only the studio audience, but the guests as well.”
Despite not having any backstory to lean on, Domingo revealed two inspirations for Bobby: his old theater days of “being able to hold an audience” and Jerry Springer, whose reality show used to be a big deal in the mid-2000s and became a reliable time-killer for schoolkids during snow days. Domingo watched the two-part documentary on the late TV show host the night before filming his scenes and recognized Springer’s skill in “inciting and letting people…do what they need to do on a platform and really let them engage in the worst behavior and still feel like he had nothing to do with it. He’s just there moving the show along. I felt like, what an interesting strategic way to abstain from any responsibility of what happens on that set.”
Bobby’s need to keep the masses entertained also extends to his look, which Domingo said comes courtesy of writer/director Edgar Wright and costume designers keeping him looking “impeccable in every way. Maybe it made sense for Edgar to cast me because I think he knew I could possibly pull it off.” Style has always been a hallmark of Wright’s movies, and Running Man looks to keep that trend going—which, to Domingo, is a great incentive to see the film in theaters on November 14. The holidays are no stranger to event films, and he’s positive “this one is going to be a massive event in our cinemas.”
Paramount Skydance, backed by the family of CEO David Ellison, is getting ready to make a bid to take over all of Warner Bros. Discovery before the two companies can go through with their plan to split, per a new report from The Wall Street Journal. If such a deal happens, it would put networks as diverse as CBS, CNN, TCM, and MTV under one roof and result in the combination of two historic Hollywood studios, Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. There has been speculation in multiple media outlets for months about something like this happening — the idea of HBO Max and Paramount+ combining into a single app is a no-brainer — but the speed with which it could be coming together, so soon after Skydance closed its deal for Paramount, does feel a tad surprising. Deadline is also confirming the WSJ story, though it throws a bit of cold water on how much urgency there is to the bid: “Nothing new there, he’s just taking a closer look, assessing the pros and cons,” says a Paramount source quoted by the trade outlet.
We’re probably still a long way away from such a deal actually becoming reality (if it does), and to be clear: No offer has been made. It’s also not clear how WBD management and shareholders would react — though WBD stock soared nearly 30 percent after the WSJ story broke — or whether news of this possible bid brings out other potential buyers. It’s still early days.
That said, given how much Hollywood loves a merger these days, it’s always worth thinking about what comes next and what such a mash-up of media giants might bring — for good and (mostly ill). Some immediate questions and thoughts about the possibility of Para Bros.:
➼ If the Ellisons get control of WBD, they get control of CNN. Given how much Paramount has pushed CBS News rightward in the past couple weeks, it’s easy to imagine the Trump White House won’t stand in the way of the Ellisons taking over WBD. In fact, one could see it happily pushing for a deal that would put CNN in the hands of owners even more accommodating than its current overseers.
➼ Bari Weiss, founder of the right-wing outlet The Free Press, is rumored to be in line for a major gig at CBS News. If this deal happens, will she end up overseeing a CBS News powered by CNN — or all of a combined CNN-CBS News?
➼ Will the studio attrition from five major studios to a mere four accelerate moviedom’s seemingly endless doom cycle of sequels, reboots, and tired IP retreads? Coming just a half-dozen years after Disney’s $71.3 billion swallowing of 21st Century Fox, the Para Bros. merger would necessarily trigger a cascade of industry executive layoffs but also drastically reduce the number of studio suitors vying for hot, original movie projects. That would leave less room for new filmic voices and engender frictionless pushback against the kind of corporate groupthink responsible for the boring sameness behind our current multiplex malaise. (Exhibit A: This summer delivered the worst cumulative box-office returns since 1981 adjusted for inflation and discounting COVID lockouts.)
➼ Given the trend toward streaming consolidation (see Hulu on Disney+), importing the relatively small content offering of Paramount+ into HBO Max feels like a given under any merger scenario. That said, David Ellison has already started working to dramatically improve the tech of Paramount+ and HBO Max has had its own user-experience issues. It’s quite possible the end result of a deal would be the creation of a totally new platform with, yes, another new name. HBO Max, we hardly knew ye.
➼ The amount of layoffs that would result from this merger is depressing to consider. As it is, Paramount Skydance is already planning to pink-slip thousands of employees this fall. The pain will be real and deep.
➼ Will putting DC and Star Trek in the same corporate family give us the Star Trek–Superman crossover some Trekkers have fantasized about? Who knows, but the IP-sharing potential of a Warners/Paramount combo is huge. The same company would control The Godfather and The Sopranos, Top Gun and Barbie, I Love Lucy and Friends.
➼ Assuming Para Bros. stays in the cable business, would ancient enemies Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network team up to give the new entity enough IP to better take on Disney? Or would the new company care about kids and animation at all?
➼ And the most important question of all: Will David Zaslav, fresh off his role in the new Sphere remix of The Wizard of Oz, get himself a cameo in the next Yellowstone spinoff? Or will he ride off into the retirement sunset, having successfully added tens of millions to his net work this decade?
David Ellison is positioning himself as Hollywood’s newest power broker, with his family preparing a bid that could put Paramount and Warner Bros. under one roof. Jason Mendez/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures
For years, whispers have percolated around a potential merger or acquisition between Warner Bros. and Paramount (now under Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Skydance, respectively). The tenor of these conversations just rose an octave thanks to reports of the Ellison family preparing for a formal bid. Will this be legacy studios’ best and last chance of creating a real rival to Netflix and YouTube? Or is it simply another experiment that stock-conscious executives hatched? Either way, such a deal would face enormous financial and creative challenges while also holding the potential to transform Hollywood.
Growing a content library for the sake of volume without any consideration for audience fit is like trying to explain the third act of Tenet to your grandmother—it’s just not going to make sense. But on paper, a combined entity would be armed to the teeth with top-notch brands and talents.
A WBD-Paramount merger would trigger an intellectual property field day with DC, Harry Potter,Game of Thrones, Dune, Lord of the Rings, The Conjuring, Top Gun, Mission: Impossible, Transformers, Sonic, A Quiet Place and Star Trek under the same corporate parent. Cartoon Network, which the current WBD leadership downsized, might live once more alongside Nickelodeon as an irresistible one-two punch in kids media (or get sold off). Imagine no longer fretting about your overall TV slate because proven hitmakers Chuck Lorre, Taylor Sheridan and Bill Lawrence all work in-house on existing deals.
“The real test would be creative and product-market fit,” Steve Morris, founder and CEO of digital marketing agency New Media, told Observer.
Theatrical stakes
As of this writing, Warner Bros. accounts for 28 percent of the domestic box office market share while Paramount sits at 6.6 percent. This varies year-to-year, though. Since 2021, Paramount has enjoyed fewer tentpole peaks (Top Gun: Maverick notwithstanding) but delivered steadier conversion of awareness to theatrical intent on a film-by-film basis by opening week, according to Greenlight Analytics, where I work as Director of Insights & Content Strategy. WB’s slate has proven streakier in pre-release tracking, but its impressive highs in awareness, interest and theatrical intent tend to best Paramount’s.
Warner Bros. targets 12 to 14 theatrical releases annually, while Paramount wants to ramp up to 15 to 20 per year. A merger will almost assuredly reduce total output. 20th Century Fox released an average of 14 annual movies theatrically between 2015 and 2019. That number has dropped to around four under The Walt Disney Company’s ownership. Reducing the number of legacy movie studios again at a time when Big Tech grows stronger in entertainment by the day might cause a full-blown panic throughout the industry.
Consolidation of this magnitude usually leads to greater franchise dependency, squeezing out mid-budget and indie fare in the process. In turn, this results in less consistent volume for movie theaters (already a problem), less leverage for talent at the negotiating table, and a race toward the middle in terms of creative programming. Not fun.
Small-screen realities
WBD and Paramount collectively accounted for just over 13 percent of total U.S. TV usage (broadcast, cable, streaming) in July, trailing only YouTube, according to Nielsen’s Media Distributor Gauge. If we examine combined streaming catalog demand shares, which account for all original and licensed films/TV series on-platform, in the U.S. across 2024, we get a No. 1 ranking at 23.4 percent, according to Parrot Analytics. Even accounting for overlap across both services, the combined customers of WBD (122.3 million worldwide streaming subscribers between HBO Max and Discovery+) and Paramount+ (79 million) would pack a punch.
But WBD thought volume alone would close the gap with Netflix when it smushed together Max and Discovery+. Look at how that turned out. And while select content across Warners and Paramount commands high demand, a potential combo platter wouldn’t necessarily move the engagement needle immediately.
Unlocking the full value of the combined content catalog would require a complete overhaul of the streaming user interface and experience, an endeavor that’s as costly as it is timely. In the 2020s, with subscription fatigue already gnawing at quarterly earnings and FAST growing faster than SVOD, would both leadership and shareholders really have the patience for such an undertaking?
Talent and brand tensions
As kid-in-a-candy-store exciting as it would be for content executives to have so much franchise power and top-tier talent at their disposal, the logistical nightmare of balancing so many high-profile spinning plates boggles the mind. The Ellisons may have deep pockets, but funding always remains finite in Hollywood. Leadership would need to decide how to split the pie between, say, competing talent deals such as Tom Cruise and Timothee Chalamet (WBD) versus Will Smith and the Duffer Brothers (Paramount). How would you like to be the executive tasked with explaining to the talent why one slice is smaller than the other?
No matter which way you cut it, certain talents and brands would inevitably feel shortchanged compared to others. In a town built on egos, you might as well strike a match next to a powder keg. It’s a good problem to have, but the abundance of choice doesn’t guarantee strong strategy and execution.
Speaking generally about media mergers, Comscore Senior Media Analyst Paul Dergarabedian zeroed in on the brand issue. “Do they get diluted, spun off, marginalized, or are they exploited well to get the best results? That’s got to be part of the equation,” he told Observer.
Regulatory and financial hurdles
The list of reasons why any such deal can’t or won’t happen runs equally long as why it will. The DOJ and FTC emphasize even greater scrutiny on major M&A these days. Governing bodies would almost assuredly require divestitures, especially if a deal happened before WBD officially split off its cable assets. Some percentage of linear networks on both sides would have to go. It’s hard to see CNN existing alongside CBS News, for example. Even after jettisoning TV channels, both companies would still suffer from over-exposure to the rapidly declining linear TV business. Good luck trying to explain those numbers to angry shareholders.
WBD’s streaming division profits in part because it includes linear HBO revenues. Meanwhile, Paramount’s streaming business still wasn’t consistently profitable at the time of the sale to Skydance. On top of all that, both companies are saddled with considerable debt at the moment. It’s highly possible that any potential deal is more trouble than it’s worth.
Any combination of Paramount and Warner Bros. would yield a content slate exploding with blockbuster firepower. The new company (I’m going to start saying WarnerMount from now on) would snatch the franchise crown straight from Mickey Mouse’s head as it fed its streaming and theatrical furnace a steady diet of dynamite. But creative, regulatory, technological and financial challenges rightfully threaten to cloud the starry eyes of ambitious CEOs. (I’d love to see what the Skydance team can do with Paramount on its own).
Mergers and acquisitions have not proven to be the silver bullet Hollywood hoped they would be over the last 20 years. Would Warners and Paramount be any different? Perhaps. But more often than not, this tactic has been more exposing than helpful.
There is a lot going on in the news today. And just when you thought “hey, maybe it is slowing down,” news broke that Paramount, which recently merged with Skydance, is playing with the idea of merging with another company: Warner Bros. Discovery. You know, another merged entertainment entity.
Right now, it is just simply an idea in the mind of David Ellison, who was formerly the CEO of Skydance Media before it became officially part of Paramount. Now, Ellison is the CEO of Paramount and his family is one of the richest families in the world. So if he is really trying to merge the companies, it could be a possibility.
According to Deadline, this isn’t just an out of the blue thought. “Ellison has been looking at Warner Bros for a while,” Deadline says an individual close to Paramount told the publication. “Nothing new there, he’s just taking a closer look, assessing the pros and cons.”
Now here is the thing, as John Mulaney once said “Now we don’t have time to unpack all of that.” While this is currently a big MAYBE for the companies, it probably isn’t a great idea to have one mega studio but also what do I know? I’m not a studio head. Maybe the meeting of the minds will prove me wrong and decide that it is, in fact, good.
But given the rest of the current state of the world, I’m going to go out on a limb say that this one is one we can all just address at a later date.
Here are some other things we saw on the internet today:
Yes, we do want to see Frank Reynolds edited into our favorite movies (Pajiba)
Natalie Portman really is just like us, meaning she loves Studio Ghibli (Collider)
We have all been cursed by having to watch Andrew Como walk the runway at NYFW (Jezebel)
Rachel Leishman (She/Her) is an Assistant Editor at the Mary Sue. She’s been a writer professionally since 2016 but was always obsessed with movies and television and writing about them growing up. A lover of Spider-Man and Wanda Maximoff’s biggest defender, she has interests in all things nerdy and a cat named Benjamin Wyatt the cat. If you want to talk classic rock music or all things Harrison Ford, she’s your girl but her interests span far and wide. Yes, she knows she looks like Florence Pugh. She has multiple podcasts, normally has opinions on any bit of pop culture, and can tell you can actors entire filmography off the top of her head. Her current obsession is Glen Powell’s dog, Brisket.
Her work at the Mary Sue often includes Star Wars, Marvel, DC, movie reviews, and interviews.
Last month, Skydance Media, the entertainment giant, completed an $8 billion acquisition of one of Hollywood’s most prestigious studios, Paramount. Skydance, owned by David Ellison, son of Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison, now reportedly has its eyes set on another historic movie studio: Warner Bros.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Paramount Skydance is currently preparing a majority cash bid for Warner Bros. Discovery. If completed, the son of one of Donald Trump’s most powerful supporters (and, as of this week, the tech billionaire to unseat Elon Musk as the world’s richest person) would own a gargantuan portion of America’s entertainment industry.
Not a whole lot of information has been released yet about the reported deal. The Journal notes that the bid would be for “the entire company, including its cable networks and movie studio.” Gizmodo reached out to Paramount and Warner Bros. for more information.
The Ellison elder has been described as a personal “friend” of Trump, and the New York Times reports that, not long after Trump’s presidential victory, Ellison “appeared at Mar-a-Lago to sit in on a transition meeting.” He also visited the White House earlier this year to take part in the launch of the Stargate Project, an AI infrastructure initiative that will be a boon for the data center industry.
Ellison Sr. has also floated the idea of buying TikTok, which would put the family in control of yet another massive media acquisition, albeit of a slightly different kind. Last August, the New York Times reported that Oracle was helping the Heritage Foundation, the right-wing org behind Project 2025, to identify a list of Trump loyalists for the new administration.
There appears to be an Ellison family interest in propping up conservative voices. A report published earlier this month by Puck stated that Ellison Jr. was looking to buy Bari Weiss’s The Free Press for somewhere between $100 and $200 million. The New York Times reported on Wednesday that Ellison is considering giving Weiss a top editorial position at CBS, which is owned by Paramount.
At the same time, Ellison Jr. has also been accused of engaging in a “side deal” with President Trump as part of CBS’s $16 million settlement with the president over what he said was an unfairly edited interview with Kamala Harris from last year. That alleged side deal supposedly “up to $20 million of programming in support of conservative causes,” although Paramount immediately clarified “that it wasn’t aware of such terms,” the Hollywood Reporter reported in August. Nevertheless, House Democrats have announced their intentions to look into the matter.
Paramount Skydance, apparently now in a state of permanent merger, plans to make a bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, . The company was recently formed following of Paramount for $8 billion. Newly anointed Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison was able to afford the acquisition thanks to , Larry Ellison.
Despite Warner Bros. Discovery’s to split back into , “the bid will be for the entire company, including its cable networks and movie studio,” the report says. A successful acquisition of the company will likely be very pricey. According to The Wall Street Journal, “Warner Bros.’s nearly $33 billion market cap is more than double that of Paramount Skydance.”
Further consolidation in the entertainment industry will likely lead to less varied and interesting film and television, but a merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery could also concentrate even more power in the hands of the federal government.
Prior to the deal going through, to settle a lawsuit with Trump, which may have affected the President’s stance towards the acquisition. Skydance’s commitment to abandon DEI programs at CBS and make the television network “embody a diversity of viewpoints across the political and ideological spectrum” was also cited as justification for the FCC approving the acquisition. Following the deal, Paramount appointed Kenneth Weinstein as an Ombudsman to “review editorial questions and concerns from outside entities and employees.” Weinstein previously served as an advisor to the Trump administration, Variety reports.
Fusing two giant Hollywood studios obviously impacts competition. The question now is how the FCC will respond to this possible acquisition, with even more money and power on the line.
With streaming service prices constantly on the rise, it can feel like good deals are few and far between. But they do come around every once in a while — such is the case with Paramount+ right now. You can get half off annual subscriptions through September 18; that brings the Essential (with ads) plan down to $30 for one year instead of $60, and the Premium plan down to $60 for the year instead of $120.
Paramount+
Get half off plans for new and returning customers through September 18.
This is a substantial deal that both new and returning subscribers can take advantage of; it’s not uncommon for this type of serious discount to only be offered to a first-timer. Anyone who signs up for a year-long subscription to Paramount+ from now through September 18 will be able to get this pricing. The only real caveat with this deal is that you have to pay for the full year in advance; month-to-month subscriptions will still cost the usual rate.
Paramount+ has some great programming options, particularly if you’re a fan of anything involving RuPaul. It’s also the home of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: Lower Decks, which are arguably the best modern additions to the sci-fi show’s canon, as well as the other past and present Star Trek series. The platform offers a solid lineup of sports as well. And if you opt to go for the Premium plan, you’ll also be granted access to Showtime titles such as Yellowjackets and the rebooted Dexter: Resurrection.
Check out our coverage of the best streaming deals for more discounts, and follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.
For a while, Walmart+ members have been enjoying a free Paramount+ subscription. Walmart announced that beginning on 9/15/25, members will be able to choose between the ad-supported plans of Peacock and Paramount+ at no additional cost.
This is a cool benefit of Walmart+ and the flexibility to now choose Peacock gives it more value.
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Secretary of DHS Kristi Noem’s interview aired on the program last week. The administration accused CBS of deceptive editing and ‘whitewashing’, prompting an update to their interview policy
Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
On Friday, CBS News announced a significant change to its interview policy for the Sunday show “Face the Nation” following backlash from DHS Secretary Kristi Noem over editing her recent interview.
The news network states that “Face the Nation” will start airing its interviews unedited or aired “live-to-tape”, an industry term meaning recorded in real-time. This change comes less than a week after Kristi Noem appeared on the show and criticized CBS for their edits upon its release.
In a statement from the DHS, Noem criticized CBS, claiming the interview was “shamefully edited” to “whitewash the truth.” The interview, which aired on August 31, partially covered Kilmar Abrego García, a Maryland man who was illegally deported to El Salvador despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation due to fear of persecution.
In the DHS’ recent statement about the interview, Noem says “CBS shamefully edited the interview to whitewash the truth about this MS-13 gang member and the threat he poses to American public safety.”
The press release said CBS cut “nearly four minutes” of Noem’s 16 minute speech on air and “in doing so, removed more than 23% of [her] answers exposing the truth about criminal illegal alien Kilmar Abrego García, President Donald Trump’s lawful actions to protect the American people, and Secretary Noem’s commitment to fight on behalf of the American people and their tax dollars.”
CBS responded by defending its procedure, stating that the interview was “edited for time and met all CBS news standards.” They added that the full interview and transcript were uploaded online the same morning the interview aired. The four-minute cut included claims or allegations made by Noem that have not been proven true in court.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem with federal agents during a raid in Highland ParkCredit: Department of Homeland Security
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However, on Friday, CBS took further action, announcing that “in response to audience feedback” they have “implemented a new policy for greater transparency” in interviews. Now, interviews for the Sunday show will be aired in full and unedited.
This is not the first time CBS has received criticism from the Trump administration over an interview. Notably, Trump sued CBS last fall during his campaign over a “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris, where he alleged that CBS edited the footage in Harris’ favor.
Though experts considered Trump’s suit to have legal weaknesses, CBS’ parent company, Paramount Global, agreed to a $16 million settlement in July. The settlement was announced as Paramount sought approval from the Trump administration for a planned merger with Skydance Media.
Some critics think the settlement was influenced by the merger and are concerned about news organizations facing litigation from political figures. CBS News is currently looking to hire an ombudsman, a designated official appointed to investigate complaints such as Noem’s.
Since her start as Secretary, Noem has remained at the center of controversial headlines and in conflict with news networks. In 2024, she appeared on Fox News and blamed “fake news” for putting the “worst spin” on her memoir, referring a Guardian article that covered the chapter where Noem writes of her decision to shoot and kill her dog, and then her goat.
In June 2025, Noem claimed that LA was a “war zone” and “would have burned down if left to the devices of the mayor and governor”, which Mayor Karen Bass called an “outright lie.” With litigation issues on the rise, journalistic integrity and independent press remain hot topics of debate.
Due to pressure from the administration, news channels such as CBS are undergoing additional measures to revisit their reporting policies.
With streaming service prices constantly on the rise, it can feel like good deals are few and far between. But they do come around every once in a while — such is the case with Paramount+ right now. You can get half off annual subscriptions through September 18; that brings the Essential (with ads) plan down to $30 for one year instead of $60, and the Premium plan down to $60 for the year instead of $120.
Paramount+
Get half off plans for new and returning customers through September 18.
This is a substantial deal that both new and returning subscribers can take advantage of; it’s not uncommon for this type of serious discount to only be offered to a first-timer. Anyone who signs up for a year-long subscription to Paramount+ from now through September 18 will be able to get this pricing. The only real caveat with this deal is that you have to pay for the full year in advance; month-to-month subscriptions will still cost the usual rate.
Paramount+ has some great programming options, particularly if you’re a fan of anything involving RuPaul. It’s also the home of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: Lower Decks, which are arguably the best modern additions to the sci-fi show’s canon, as well as the other past and present Star Trek series. The platform offers a solid lineup of sports as well. And if you opt to go for the Premium plan, you’ll also be granted access to Showtime titles such as Yellowjackets and the rebooted Dexter: Resurrection.
Check out our coverage of the best streaming deals for more discounts, and follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.
Legendary has inked a three-year pact with Paramount to distribute its movies, with the Capcom video game adaptation Street Fighter the first out of the gate. The Kitao Sakurai-directed feature now has a release date of Oct. 16, 2026.
The film is currently in production, with Paramount and Legendary releasing the first plot details for the movie, which will be set in 1993, the year the popular game Street Fighter II hit arcades.
Here’s the new logline: “Set in 1993, estranged Street Fighters Ryu (Andrew Koji) and Ken Masters (Noah Centineo) are thrown back into combat when the mysterious Chun-Li (Callina Liang) recruits them for the next World Warrior Tournament: a brutal clash of fists, fate, and fury. But behind this battle royale lies a deadly conspiracy that forces them to face off against each other and the demons of their past. And if they don’t, it’s GAME OVER!”
The Legendary deal, now official, was reported to be in talks on Aug. 18 and comes after its output deal with Sony expired at the end of 2024. Legendary’s former partner Warner Bros. will continue to distribute key franchises such as the eventual sequel to the nearly $1 billion hit A Minecraft Movie, as well as 2026’s third Dune and 2027’s Godzilla x Kong: Supernova.
The Street Fighter movie has a sprawling cast, including Noah Centineo as Ken Masters, Andrew Koji as Ryu, Callina Liang as Chun-Li, Joe “Roman Reigns” Anoa’i as Akuma, David Dastmalchian as M. Bison, Cody Rhodes as Guile, Andrew Schulz as Dan Hibiki, Eric André as Don Sauvage, Vidyut Jammwal as Dhalsim, with Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson as Balrog and Jason Momoa as Blanka.
It also stars Orville Peck as Vega, Olivier Richters as Zangief, Hirooki Goto as E. Honda, Rayna Vallandingham as Juli, Alexander Volkanovski as Joe, Kyle Mooney as Marvin and Mel Jarnson as Cammy.
“Legendary has built a reputation for ambitious, globally appealing films, and we’re excited to be partnering with them. Street Fighter is the perfect start to our collaboration, which we believe will be strong and lasting,” said Josh Greenstein, co-chair of Paramount Pictures and vice chair of platforms, and Dana Goldberg, Co-Chair of Paramount Pictures and Chair of Paramount Television.
Added Legendary CEO Josh Grode: “Partnering with David, Dana and Josh and their teams at Paramount marks an exciting new chapter for Legendary as we continue to pursue a diversified growth strategy—expanding our output, building new franchises, and creating more films for global audiences. This partnership is an extraordinary opportunity, and we look forward to working closely with Paramount on stories that will captivate and inspire moviegoers worldwide.”
This is just one of many key early moves made by David Ellison’s new Paramount, which lured Stranger Things creators the Duffer Bros. from Netflix, inked a $7.7 billion deal for UFC rights, and signed Will Smith’s Westbrook to a first-look film deal.
Walmart+ has announced an improvement to the entertainment experience by introducing Peacock as an option besides longtime partner Paramount+.
Beginning on Sept. 15, Walmart+ members will be able to choose between the ad-supported plans of Peacock and Paramount+ at no additional cost.
Since its launch in 2020 with three core benefits, Walmart+ has rapidly expanded, offering free same day delivery on grocery and Rx, free shipping with no order minimum, gas discounts, and 5% unlimited cashback through the newly announced OnePay CashRewards Credit Card.
With this enhanced benefit, members can access an array of premium entertainment. They’ll have the freedom to choose between Paramount+ Essential, featuring a vast selection of championship sports, iconic franchises, popular movies and hit original series such as NCIS: Tony & Ziva (premiering Sept. 4), Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Landman and Tulsa King, or Peacock Premium, known for live sports, blockbuster films, reality TV favorites, next-day access to NBC and Bravo programming, and Spanish language content such as the Telemundo Hub.
To make the offering even more flexible, members can switch between the two services every 90 days.
Paramount has just signed a deal with Microsoft and Activision to make a movie based on the iconic Call of Duty franchise. The valuation of the deal hasn’t been revealed, .
We don’t know much about the specifics of the deal, other than it covers a live-action feature film that Paramount will develop, produce and distribute. This means we don’t have any information about the cast, creative team or what game or era the film will pull from.
After all, there have been more than 30 mainline games in the franchise. Some of the standard Call of Duty games could make for decent, yet slightly derivative, war movies, while the more futuristic titles could spin out into sci-fi epics.
Variety reports that . The deal is for one movie but industry sources indicate that there’s potential here for Paramount to expand the franchise to more movies and TV shows. Get ready for the CoDCU.
Paramount an $8 billion merger with Skydance, after making . Since that happened, the newly-formed media conglomerate has been on a spending spree.
It lured the creators of Stranger Things and shelled out over $7.7 billion for for the next seven years. The company recently announced plans to , eventually hoping to release 20 films annually. As for games, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7arrives on November 14.
Activision Blizzard and Microsoft’s Call of Duty franchise could take its blockbuster success to the big screen.
According to Puck’s Matt Belloni, Paramount is currently negotiating for film rights to the long-running shooter series. Getting this IP is said to be a “tough priority” for new Paramount head David Ellison, since it’d be another major gaming property in the studio’s portfolio after Sonic the Hedgehog. There’s a new Call of Duty game annually—Treyarch and Raven’s Black Ops 7 lands in November—and typically among the bestselling titles of each year.
Way back in 2015, Activision Blizzard opened a movie studio to kickstart a Call of Duty cinematic universe, starting with a film that never materialized. The publisher hasn’t tried making a movie since then, as it’s had a busy couple of years. But now it’s part of Xbox, which is slowly embracing adaptations: along with the now-ended Halo show, there’s a Gears of War movie coming and a TV show based on Obsidian’s Grounded. (Blizzard games Overwatch and Diablo also had shows in the works, but the developer’s deal with Netflix fell through.)
What does a Call of Duty movie look like? That’s a good question, since the series has jumped between various real and fictional wars over its 21-year lifetime, from World War II to the modern day and far future. (Don’t forget the one set in space!) Or failing that, it could always take the easiest route possible and do a movie based on the ever-popular Zombies or Warzone modes.
For his remake of Ang Lee’s 1993 romantic comedy, director Andrew Ahn put an even queerer spin on The Wedding Banquet. Kelly Marie Tran, Lily Gladstone, Han Gi-chan, and Bowen Yang star as a two couples living together. Tran and Gladstone’s Angela and Lee are trying to have a child while Gi-chan’s Min is being asked by his grandmother (Youn Yuh-jung) to return home to Korea, which would mean leaving his boyfriend (Yang) behind. What comes next is a grand marriage scheme of mixed couplings to try and get Min a green-card and Lee and Angela more money for another round of IVF. (Streaming September 8.)
Noteworthy selections in bold.
Winter Spring Summer Fall, streaming premiere A.I. Artificial Intelligence Addams Family Values Afflicted Along Came A Spider Angel Heart Approaching The Unknown April Fool’s Day Area 51 Arrival Asylum Below Beneath Blade Blade II Blade: Trinity Body Cam Brick Mansions Burke & Hare Cesar Chavez Cloverfield Cursed Daybreakers Disturbia Dracula III: Legacy Face/Off Fatal Attraction Frida Friday the 13th Friday the 13th Part II Friday the 13th Part III Friday the 13th Park IV: The Final Chapter Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan From Dusk Till Dawn From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman’s Daughter Galaxy Quest Gattaca Geostorm Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days I Know What You Did Last Summer Jacob’s Ladder John Carpenter’s Escape from L.A. Kiss the Girls La Bamba Labor Day Life Like Water for Chocolate Loosies Margaux Mommie Dearest Murder On The Orient Express National Lampoon’s Animal House Nick of Time Nobody’s Fool O (Othello) Overlord Patriot Games Perfume: The Story of a Murderer Phantoms Piñero Quinceañera Road to Perdition Safe Scary Movie Scary Movie 2 Scary Movie 3 Scream 4 Seven Psychopaths Sleepy Hollow Small Soldiers Spell Spontaneous Student Bodies Super 8 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street Sweet Dreams Teaching Mrs. Tingle The Addams Family The Commuter The Crow The Crow: City of Angels The Crow: Wicked Prayer The Devil Inside The Faculty The Gift The Grifters The Haunting The Hunter The Island The Last Exorcism Part II The Longest Yard The Loved Ones The Mechanic The Monster Squad The Night Clerk The Parallax View The Reckoning The Relic The Ring The Stepford Wives The Sum of All Fears The Terminal The Uninvited The Woman in Black To Catch a Thief Twisted Universal Soldier Up in Smoke Vampire in Brooklyn Venom Vertical Limit Virtuosity Wes Craven Presents: Dracula 2000 Wes Craven Presents: They Witness World War Z
Wolves
NCIS: Tony & Ziva, series premiere
Old Henry Superhero Movie
2025 Video Music Awards
The Wedding Banquet, streaming premiere
Thirst Trap: The Fame. The Fantasy. The Fallout., documentary premiere
The Tiny Chef Show, season 3 Personal Shopper
The Reunion, season 1
Primetime Emmy Awards
Air Disasters, season 22 The Adventures of Paddington, season 3
Tulsa King, season 3 premiere A GRAMMY Salute to Earth, Wind & Fire Live: The 21st Night of September, special
