Warner Bros. Film Chiefs De Luca and Abdy Exit as Paramount Merger Looms
Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy are leaving their jobs running Warner Bros. films.
Entertainment newsletter Puck first reported the exit on 2 October 2026, in a piece titled “The Mike & Pam Era at Warner Bros. Is Ending”. The Hollywood Reporter confirmed the news the same day.
They took charge in 2022. Since then De Luca and Abdy have led the Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, the arm of the studio that decides which films get made, financed and released to cinemas.
Their departure is linked to a planned 111 billion US dollar merger between Warner Bros. and Paramount Skydance, according to The Hollywood Reporter. If that combination goes ahead, Paramount film heads Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein are expected to oversee both movie studios.
The streaming side is changing as well. Cindy Holland has left her post as Paramount Skydance’s streaming chief. HBO and Max chief Casey Bloys is expected to lead streaming efforts for the combined group.
What comes next for De Luca and Abdy is not settled. They have told associates they have been in talks about a possible role at Netflix, according to The Hollywood Reporter. That is described only as talks, not a signed deal, and no new job has been announced.
The exit ends a volatile four-year run. Puck described their tenure as a big-swing approach that brought artistic highs followed by a punishing 2026. The pair had come under scrutiny in early 2025 after a run of costly disappointments, as reported by Variety, before a stronger run in late 2025 that Puck in December that year characterised as six months of blockbusters and Oscar contenders.
Only weeks earlier, the two had appeared together at the Toronto International Film Festival to discuss the return of young cinema audiences and how they work with directors, according to Deadline. Warner Bros. Discovery had also listed Abdy as Co-Chair and chief executive of Warner Bros. in its July 2025 plan for the company’s future structure.
For cinemagoers, this means new decision makers. The people at the top of a studio choose what gets funded, when it opens and how long it plays before streaming.
