DC Comics to sit under Josh Silverman in new Skydance unit

DC Comics will report to Josh Silverman inside a newly combined Skydance licensing organisation.

Skydance has brought its publishing and consumer-products teams together as Skydance Products & Publishing, with Silverman as president of global products and publishing, according to Variety. The change puts DC Comics, home to Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, under the same roof as licensing for a long list of screen franchises.

That list is broad. The group handles licensing, deals that let other companies make toys, clothes, books and other goods using a character or title, for Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, The Lord of the Rings, DC, Star Trek, SpongeBob SquarePants, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Hanna-Barbera and Looney Tunes, Variety reported on 9 October 2026.

Silverman is no stranger to that world. He joined Paramount Skydance in 2025 as president of global products and experiences after a spell as chief franchise officer at Mattel, the toy maker behind Barbie and Hot Wheels.

He will not start from scratch. Robert Oberschelp, president of global consumer products at Warner Bros. Discovery, is staying on and will report to Silverman in the new structure.

The new name tells the story. Publishing covers comics and books. Consumer products covers the rest, from T-shirts to lunchboxes. Putting them in one organisation means one team handles how characters appear on the page and on the shelf.

Scale matters here. Skydance said the combined company is the world's second-largest media and entertainment licensor after Disney, with an estimated 22.5 billion US dollars in global retail sales. That figure counts the shop tills, not studio profit. It covers everything sold with those characters on it.

The reshuffle follows a busy period for the company. Skydance Media closed its 8.4 billion US dollar merger with Paramount in August, according to Variety. Other posts are also taking shape. Andy Gordon serves as president of Skydance, while Tony Driscoll was named head of games and experiences at Skydance, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. Jim Sterner will remain chief people officer and continue to lead human resources, according to Variety.

Licensing rarely makes headlines. It is quiet work. Yet it decides what fills toy aisles and bookshops months after a film or series ends.

For fans, this means less change on the shelf than in the office. Comics will still arrive as comics. Toys will still arrive as toys. Short version: same heroes, new chart. What is different is who signs the paperwork behind them.