UPDATE 9/9: Dungey now says Warner Bros. will name a new animation boss — and that Paramount was told of Register’s exit.
UPDATE 9/9: Insiders say Casey Bloys could be next: his HBO deal runs out in 2027, and HBO Max could be gone after the Paramount merger.
UPDATE 9/1: Our insiders say the same two words are coming for DC leadership: “contract expired” — Gunn’s deal runs out in 2027, and there is no new extension.
UPDATE 8/26: One day after Register’s exit, TheWrap reported Paramount plans to keep Gunn and Safran “alongside other top creative execs.” Per our insiders, Register’s exit is what “kept” looks like once the contract expires.
Warner Bros. Animation is losing its longtime boss, and it’s the same playbook we have been told is happening with James Gunn.
Sam Register is exiting as president of Warner Bros. Animation, Cartoon Network Studios and Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe, with Warner Bros. Television Group chief Channing Dungey telling staff in a Tuesday memo that the two mutually agreed not to renew his expiring contract, writing, “I know this comes as a surprise and you have a lot to digest,” per THR.
Deadline adds that Dungey said: “It’s with mixed emotions that I announce the studio and our head of animation, Sam Register, have mutually agreed not to renew his contract.”
Register departs next week, and Variety reports a search for his replacement is already underway.
In the meantime, business chief Matt Matzkin continues running operations while the division’s creative department heads — including Jason DeMarco on anime and action — lead their respective areas.
Register said in a statement that he’s ready for the next chapter of his life and thanked the teams he built.
18 Years Running WB Animation
Register ran Warner Bros. Animation for 18 years, joining in 2007 and taking over the studio in 2008 after a decade at Cartoon Network, then adding Cartoon Network Studios to his portfolio in 2020.
His shop is responsible for a massive chunk of what fans actually watch out of WB animation: Teen Titans Go!, Harley Quinn, My Adventures with Superman (Season 4 is in doubt as it sounds like Jack Quaid said farewell), Batman: Caped Crusader and the long-running DC Universe animated movie line all came out of studios under his watch.
The news of his departure comes with Tuesday’s release of Batman: Knightfall – Part 1: Knightfall.
The exit also comes with timing you couldn’t script: the executive running Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe is walking out the same day Warner Bros. announced a new live-action Flintstones movie from producer Ryan Gosling built around Hanna-Barbera’s flagship property.
To be clear on the org chart, Register’s studios sit on the television side, and the animated Meet the Flintstones movie lives at Bill Damaschke’s separate theatrical Warner Bros. Pictures Animation unit, so nothing about his departure touches that project directly.
An Exit In The Middle Of The Paramount Fight
The bigger context is the same cloud hanging over everything at Warner Bros. right now: the Paramount takeover.
Buyers are already circling New Line Cinema and the cable networks while Paramount’s battle to close the deal drags on, and California AG Rob Bonta just canceled settlement talks while accusing Paramount of playing games.
An expiring contract in the middle of an ownership change tends to become an exit.
Dungey can run a replacement search, but whoever takes Register’s chair is being hired into a company David Ellison is fighting to own, and the long-term animation strategy — like every other long-term call at Warner Bros. — ultimately waits on the next owner.
The shows already in production keep moving under the department heads; the direction of the studio is another matter.
We also go over what happened with that recent WB exec who left surrounding the Supergirl fallout.
