Sam Register Exits Warner Bros. Animation After 18 Years at the Helm
Sam Register is stepping down as president of Warner Bros. Animation, Cartoon Network Studios and Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe, ending a run that began when he joined the studio as a producer in 2007. Channing Dungey, chairman of Warner Bros. Television Group, said she and Register mutually agreed not to renew his contract, according to Variety.
Register has spent more than 30 years inside what is now Warner Bros. Discovery. He started his animation career at Cartoon Network in 1994, a decade before moving across to Warner Bros. Animation. Along the way he launched Cartoon Network's first website in 1998 and developed series including Chowder, The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, Star Wars: Clone Wars and Ben 10 Variety.
He took over Warner Bros. Animation as executive VP of creative affairs in 2008 and added Cartoon Network Studios to his remit in 2020, when the two divisions were brought under his leadership Variety. Two years later, Warner Bros. TV Group laid off 82 staffers and consolidated its operations, merging Cartoon Network Studios into Warner Bros. Animation. Register continued to oversee all three animation units — Warner Bros. Animation, Cartoon Network Studios and Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe — through that restructuring, per Variety and Cartoon Brew.
The slate he leaves behind is busy. Current series in production include Adventure Time: Side Quests, Bat-Fam, Batman: Caped Crusader, Creature Commandos, My Adventures With Superman, Primal, Regular Show: The Lost Tapes and The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball. During his tenure, Warner Bros. Animation produced titles such as Looney Tunes Cartoons, the Animaniacs revival, Harley Quinn, Young Justice, Teen Titans Go! and Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal. Register also executive produced the feature film Teen Titans Go! To the Movies and the live-action/animated Tom & Jerry movie Variety.
A search for his replacement is underway. In the meantime, Matt Matzkin continues to lead business operations, and the creative department heads remain in place: Jay Bastian (current series), Jason DeMarco (anime and action), Audrey Diehl (kids and family), Sarah Fell (Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe, U.K.), Peter Girardi (alternative programming and adult) and Sammy Perlmutter (long form and specials) Variety.
For the writers' rooms, animators and production crews working across those three studios, the immediate question is who inherits the top job and what that means for which series get renewed, which land on the bubble — meaning a renewal is still undecided — and which fade out. No replacement has been named, and no statement has been made about changes to the current production slate.
