The waters are still rough for Warner Bros. Discovery as the company announced more post-merger layoffs. The layoffs were due to structural changes and unmet financial targets and will affect future animation and unscripted content.
In a report made by Deadline, Warner Bros. plans to target multiple departments, and staff reductions are expected to happen this week. While it’s unknown how many people would be affected, the previous layoffs back in August affected around 70 of its staff members. The previous layoffs heavily affected HBO Max’s Non-Fiction Originals, International, Acquisitions, Casting, and Live-Action Family Originals departments.
It is predicted that the animated TV department will be heavily impacted by the upcoming cutbacks after HBO Max decided to cut back on the genre. Another area that may be affected is the Unscripted content, which is more likely to happen as Warner Bros.’ head of development and programming for Warner Horizon Unscripted Television stepped down this week.
Alongside the layoffs, Warner Bros. is also preparing for impact after CW changes ownership, which will affect some of their live-action shows.
An insider told Deadline that the company was given financial targets for Q4 and it’s usually in October when staff could expect cuts.
“Everyone was given financial targets going into Q4. Those targets include head counts, and October was always the expectation for the ax to fall.”
Warner Bros has been under the spotlight ever since its merger with Discovery. The studio has canceled multiple projects, such as Batgirl, and the company has slashed original content on HBO Max. Despite the cuts, the film studio announced that it’s still producing its live-action adaptation of The Flash, and both Black Adam and Shazam 2 are still making their way to the cinemas.
