WGA Slams Paramount Skydance CEO's Threat to Pull Studio Out of California
The Writers Guild of America has called out Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison for threatening to pull Paramount out of California unless the state's attorney general drops a lawsuit blocking the studio's $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros.
Ellison set an October 1 deadline: settle the antitrust suit over the Paramount-Warner Bros. deal, or Paramount leaves the state. That date carries a financial sting — it is the day Paramount begins paying Warner Bros. shareholders a ticking fee, a daily penalty that accrues for every day the deal remains unclosed. If no settlement is reached and the case goes to trial on March 2, 2027, Paramount could owe over $1 billion to Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders by trial's end, according to Variety (Variety).
The WGA did not mince words. "By threatening to leave the state because it doesn't want the government to enforce the law, Paramount further proves the danger of its outsized power over the industry and what that will mean for writers and the creative community," the guild said in its statement. "This type of behavior is precisely why the merger should be blocked."
The guild filed its own lawsuit jointly through its West and East branches, arguing the merger violates antitrust law and would inflict irreparable harm on industry writers. California Attorney General Rob Bonta is pursuing a separate suit alongside a coalition of 12 states, claiming the deal violates the Clayton Act — the federal law that lets regulators block mergers likely to reduce competition. Bonta's suit identifies three markets where competition would shrink: wide-release theatrical distribution, top-grossing theatrical distribution, and basic cable licensing (Variety).
Bonta himself fired back on X, writing that Paramount "has lost the plot as it continues to lose in court" and calling Ellison's move "another attempt to blackmail the state into letting an illegal deal through."
Ellison has a different theory about why the deal faces opposition. In a New York Times op-ed, he argued that the states object not because of industry consolidation but because a combined Paramount-Warner Bros. would put CNN under his control. Ellison has made no secret of his friendship with President Donald Trump, a longtime critic of the network. Bonta first signalled his intention to scrutinise the deal in June 2026, telling Reuters he would soon decide whether to sue (Reuters).
For the writers, crew members, and creative teams whose jobs hang on what a combined studio commissions, the stakes are concrete. A merger this size reshapes which shows get ordered, which writers' rooms stay open, and which series land on a schedule or get shelved. The WGA's argument is that fewer studios means fewer buyers for scripts — and less leverage at the bargaining table.
The trial is set. The clock is ticking on that October 1 fee. And both sides are dug in.
