Lanterns is What Happens When You Give Heroes to People Without Moral Centers This week on the podcast, Brian and Darryl break down the newly completed Skydance, Paramount, and Warner Bros. Discovery merger and what the massive new entertainment company could mean for movies, television, HBO Max, Paramount+, and the franchises now living under one roof. Then we head back to Richmond for Ted Lasso Season 4 Episode 10, close the book on Neagley Season 1 with Episodes 7 and 8, and dive into the Lanterns finale, where John Stewart solves Hal Jordan’s murder and somehow comes out the other side looking a whole lot more like a future villain than a superhero. Episode Index Intro: 0:07 WB/Paramount Evolve to Become Skydance: 9:11 Ted Lasso Season 4 Episode 10: 27:56 Neagly Season 1 Episodes 7-8: 48:55 Lanterns Season 1 Episode 8: 01:03:40 WB/Paramount Evolve to Become Skydance What Happened: The Paramount/Warner Bros. Discovery saga is officially over. On October 6, 2026, Paramount Skydance completed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. The combined parent company immediately changed its corporate name to Skydance Corporation and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker SKYD. This does not mean Paramount Pictures or Warner Bros. are being renamed Skydance. Think of Skydance as the new corporate roof sitting over both historic studios and their enormous collection of television, streaming, sports, gaming, and entertainment brands. The transaction valued Warner Bros. Discovery at roughly $110 billion in enterprise value, with approximately $81 billion in equity value. WBD shareholders received $31.01666668 per share when the deal closed. Warner Bros. Discovery’s old publicly traded stock ceased trading, with WBD becoming part of the new Skydance organization. David Ellison remains Chairman and CEO of Skydance, while former Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz becomes Co-CEO. Ellison is primarily responsible for strategy, creative direction, and technology, while Kreiz is overseeing day-to-day operations and the enormous job of integrating the companies. How We Got Here: – August 7, 2025: Skydance Media completes its original merger with Paramount Global. The resulting company becomes Paramount, a Skydance Corporation, with David Ellison running the business. – Late 2025: Warner Bros. Discovery becomes the center of a bidding war. Netflix reaches an agreement for Warner’s studio and streaming operations, while Paramount Skydance pushes for the entire company instead. – December 8, 2025: Paramount takes its offer directly to WBD shareholders with an approximately $108 billion all-cash hostile bid for the entire company. – February 26, 2026: Warner Bros. Discovery’s board determines that Paramount’s revised $31-per-share all-cash offer is superior to its existing Netflix agreement. – February 27, 2026: Netflix exits the bidding war and Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery sign their definitive $110 billion merger agreement. Paramount also assumes responsibility for WBD’s $2.8 billion breakup fee to Netflix. – August 2026: Paramount announces that the transaction has received the necessary regulatory clearances across nearly 70 countries. Remaining legal challenges still have to be resolved before the companies can close. – September 30, 2026: Paramount and WBD announce that they expect the transaction to officially close October 6. – October 6, 2026: The deal officially closes. Paramount Skydance becomes Skydance Corporation, Warner Bros. Discovery joins the company, WBD stock disappears, and SKYD begins trading on the NYSE. So What Does Skydance Own Now? The combined company is kind of ridiculous. On the movie side, Skydance now controls both Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures, along with New Line Cinema and the broader Warner film operation. That puts franchises including DC, Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, Top Gun, Mission: Impossible, Star Trek, Transformers, SpongeBob, and a massive century-plus film library under the same corporate parent. Television includes HBO, CBS, Warner Bros. Television, CBS Studios, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, TNT, TBS, Discovery, Food Network, HGTV, TLC and numerous other networks and production operations. Streaming includes HBO Max, Paramount+, Discovery+, Pluto TV and the company’s other digital services. It also brings together Warner Bros. Games, DC, CBS Sports and TNT Sports under the same company. What Happens to HBO Max and Paramount+? This is probably the biggest question for regular customers. Yes, Skydance has officially confirmed that its major direct-to-consumer streaming products will eventually become one service. That means HBO Max, Paramount+ and Discovery+ are ultimately headed toward a unified streaming platform rather than remaining three completely independent services forever. Skydance’s announcement specifically says its streaming products will “unify into a single ...
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