In addition to the rest of Warner Bros. Discovery, the animation studio Cartoon Network Studios, known for such hits as The Powerpuff Girls, Samurai Jack, Adventure Time, and Over the Garden Wall, is feeling the financial pinch. Warner Bros. TV Group Chairman Channing Dungey delivered a pretty dungy note to staff on Tuesday, October 11, announcing 82 layoffs and the non-filling of 43 open positions.
The company’s scripted, unscripted, and animation divisions will be down by 26% as a result of these 125 employment cuts. In addition, programs for developing new creative talents, such as Stage 13, the Warner Bros.
Writers’ Workshop, and the Warner Bros. Directors’ Workshop, were terminated, according to the memo. (The firm said on Wednesday that the Writers’ Workshop and Directors’ Workshop will henceforth be a part of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion division.)
According to the memo, WB is “implementing a new streamlined structure in which the development and major production teams will now operate across both Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network Studios” in the animation industry.
Sam Register, the executive in charge of WB Animation, took over management of CN Studios following the Warner Bros. Discovery merger. The studio had a long history of producing innovative works by emerging artists.
More resources will be distributed throughout the studios as a result of the new structure (teams like casting, artist relations, and legal already were). While CN Studios continues to create original cartoons for CN, Adult Swim, and HBO Max, WB Animation will continue to concentrate on extracting limitless value and reboots from classic IP.
“Having a suite of studios allows us to have a different strategy when we talk to talent,” Register told Vulture in May 2022. Do you adore Scooby-Doo? Are you a fan of Looney Tunes? That is possible. Do you have a unique idea of your own? We do, however, have a studio for that. “
Register stated earlier in the year that he was committed to creating fresh pilots for the Cartoon Cartoons anthology series. Invincible Fight Girl and Unicorn: Warriors Eternal are two upcoming unique projects.
A number of animated projects, including those from CN Studios like Driftwood, have been canceled since president and CEO David Zaslav took over the megamerger Warner Bros. Discovery.
He has also removed titles from CN Studios from HBO Max’s streaming library, including Infinity Train and Summer Camp Island. If you announce a 200-episode order for more Apple & Onion, we’ll take it all back.
