Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has commented on the future of the company’s entertainment business, saying he believes some of its biggest franchises are “underutilized” and that they are actually the company’s biggest growth opportunities one. He uses the analogy of cookies to make his point.
During his speech at Goldman Sachs’ Communacopia + Technology event, he singled out film franchises such as “Harry Potter,” DC franchises such as “Superman,” “Batman” and “Joker,” as well as “Game of Thrones” and “The Devil.” “Ring” and other fantasy series movies. He said these franchises are known to people around the world and will spend their time and money if deployed correctly.
“The good news for us is that it’s underutilized. We haven’t done Superman in 14 years [note: Man of Steel was released in 2013 and Batman vs Superman came out in 2016. We haven’t done Lord of the Rings in a decade. We haven’t done Harry Potter in 12 years [note: the third Fantastic Beasts, set in the Harry Potter universe, came out in 2022],” Zaslav said. “It’s like we have the best cookie. But we’re not on the shelf yet. We might have the best cookie. But if you go to the grocery store and it’s not on the shelf, you can’t create value from it.
The Lord of the Rings live-action series is set to return in 2026, tentatively titled Gollum, with Andy Serkis re-directing and starring Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Bones (the film’s creator). ) co-starring. Ian McKellen, who played Gandalf in the earlier film trilogy, has said he would return, while Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) and Orlando Bloom (Legolas) have also expressed interest in returning .
As for Harry Potter, a new TV series is about to retell the stories of all seven books, with casting calls for Harry, Ron and Hermione starting just this week. Zaslav said if the show is successful, it could give Max a decade of new content.
And then there’s Superman – which new DC Films boss James Gunn recently wrapped production on, starring David Corenswaite as the titular Superman: Man of Steel. The film is set to be released in July 2025, and there are high hopes that it will be a success and possibly lead to sequels and spin-offs.
Extrapolating from Zaslav’s cookie comments, some may view this as an attempt to “squeeze” some of WBD’s largest franchises, a process that hasn’t gone well for other large companies. On the surface, Zaslav seems keen on trying to create a Marvel/Star Wars-esque situation where new versions of major series are released on a regular basis. Disney, which owns these franchises, later acknowledged that the content market was oversaturated and was scaling back, moving toward a “less is more” approach.
None of this is surprising, though, as Zaslav has repeatedly talked about focusing on franchising to make money, and his comments today are in line with that mindset.
Zaslav went on to say that Warner Bros. Discovery Channel is “the greatest creative storytelling company in the world” and he is confident about the future because “the best content wins.”
“At our core, we’re just a storytelling company. That’s what we’re all about,” the executive said, noting that some of the company’s competitors come from other businesses such as retail and mobile phones. But Zaslav said Warner Bros. Discovery Channel is first and foremost a storytelling company. “Storytelling is the only business we’re in. We do it at CNN. We do it at HBO and Max. We do it at Warner Bros. Television. We do it on free air. We do it with our programming. We tell stories and that gives us real focus,” he said.
When Warner Bros. and Discovery Channel merge in 2022, Zaslav becomes CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery Channel. Warner Bros. Discovery has made a series of drastic cost-cutting moves, including canceling nearly-finished films like “Batgirl” and “Coyote vs. Arkham” as well as massive layoffs.
