Layoff fears at Warner Bros ahead of Paramount merger: staff blame James Gunn’s ‘Supergirl’ flop

Around 500 senior Warner Bros. employees joined a Zoom call on Wednesday seeking answers about the $110 billion merger with Paramount — but got few, as Deadline reports. The call was led by the studio’s chief operating officer, Simon Robinson, who also heads the merger integration, along with the legal, communications and human resources chiefs; they admitted they have little visibility into Paramount’s plans. The deal is expected to close in about 10 days, with the new company name and leadership structure expected to be announced before closing. One source described the mood with the words “It feels like a scramble”, while another said “People are very concerned about the survival of the Warner Bros brand”.

Employees fear a wave of layoffs, even though Paramount claims the roughly $6 billion in savings will come mainly from real estate and data servers, not layoffs. Employees don’t believe it: “We’ve been here before. We know what it looks like” — AT&T handed WarnerMedia over to Discovery just four years ago. A former Turner publicist said that since David Zaslav took control, “there’s just been thousands of jobs lost”. Anger is also fueled by the fact that severance payments are being capped and contract renewals suspended, while Zaslav himself is expected to walk away with more than $600 million from the deal — and he wasn’t even on the call.

Meanwhile the blame game has begun over the commercial failure of James Gunn’s “Supergirl”, which cost $186 million net and earned only $126.3 million worldwide. The home entertainment and data analytics teams, according to Deadline, “were none too happy about DC’s Supergirl tanking”, while some employees believe DC Studios “chose the wrong comic book character to adapt”. According to Nielsen measurements, “Supergirl” drew 304 million viewing minutes in its first four days on HBO Max, ranking fifth for the week of September 7–13 — behind the opening weeks of “Superman”, “Black Adam” and “The Flash”. No Warner Bros film this year has crossed the $100 million mark in the U.S.; the top domestic earner is “Wuthering Heights” with $84 million — a sharp decline compared to 2025, when the studio earned $4.38 billion worldwide and 11 Academy Awards.

Some employees feel reassured by David Ellison’s message and say “a few people… landed at Netflix and Amazon MGM Studios” — others are job hunting. Paramount will inherit at least 39 Warner Bros films dated from October 2, 2026 through the end of 2028: the first will be “Digger” (October 2), then the horror “Clayface” (October 23) and the big one, “Dune: Part Three” (December 18); the “Barbie” sequel has not yet been greenlit but is expected to be a priority. Meanwhile a federal judge on Thursday postponed approval of Paramount’s deal with 12 states — the parties have until Monday, September 28.