In the end, the tech bros bullied their way to get their toys. After months of threats and whining, Paramount made an offer to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery that was so high that made the previous bidder for the entertainment giant, Netflix, back away. The result? Most certainly, Warner Bros. will essentially cease to exist as it is merged into Paramount.

Paramount already stated that HBO, the premium cable service and its app HBO Max will be merged into its anemic Paramount+ streaming platform and the company will initiate billions of dollars in cuts to Warner Bros. which translates to lost jobs that would have been largely secure if the Netflix acquisition went through. Netflix promised to continue releasing Warner Bros. films in theaters and would have treated HBO and Warner Bros. as a prestige arm of Netflix, but now that is off the table.

Given the result of the last major merger of two entertainment companies, Disney and 20th Century Fox, turned out to be that Fox for all intents and purposes vanished, this development does not bode well for Warner Bros. Then again looking at Paramount’s meager film releases lately (they don’t even have any Star Trek films scheduled to be released this year during the franchise’s 60th anniversary), which has been small and nothing to rave about, perhaps buffering their release schedule with Warner Bros. product may be an improvement. Just keep in mind that ever since Skydance acquired Paramount last year, there has been very little for the company to rave about and they are in significant debt, and will have much more when they complete their purchase. This will likely mean far less offerings from our favorite genre franchises.

This development is very alarming given the closeness the owners of Paramount have with Donald Trump and his administration and their willingness to essentially become a media arm of the administration by hampering critics of the administration. Anyone thinking the bigwigs at Paramount won’t interfere with the creatives will be in for a rude awakening. Yes, Paramount owns Star Trek and the franchise has been derided by the right wing for being “too woke”, which is laughable since Star Trek has always been more progressive than believed and pushed barriers ever since the pilot episode. But it is believed that once the contract for Alex Kurtzman, the top creative behind the current Star Trek franchise, expires this year, Star Trek will undergo a massive rebooting and who knows what will direction it will take under the current owners.

Getting back to Warner Bros., obviously its properties like DC, Looney Tunes, Mad Max, Dune, Harry Potter and Game of Thrones will now belong to Paramount, cue the Star Trek/DC tie-in comics and Spongebob meets Bugs Bunny cartoons. Now, if Paramount had a brain and left its owners’ agendas at the door, it would leave the franchises alone to to do their own thing. Let’s see if this happens.

Even though James Gunn and Peter Safran, the current heads of DC Studios, will remain in their positions, according to Paramount, do not expect this arrangement to last. Given Gunn’s outspoken views against Trump and the fact that his film Superman blatantly criticized the policies of the Trump administration, expect some major pushback from Paramount with future DC projects. What could very well happen is that once his contract expires, Gunn will bail and if Disney moved fast they would snatch him up immediately and groom him to take over Marvel Studios once Kevin Feige retires. Even if Disney does not hire Gunn, he will be a hot commodity who will be sought after by the few remaining film studios.

Of course, the merger of two major film studios would violate anti-trust laws, and there was precedent for this when Disney brought Fox in 2017. That event could have been considered a one-off situation, but this one happening less than ten years after the Disney purchase. This could lead to more mergers and in the end audiences and consumers lose out. Don’t be surprised if we get news soon about more mergers. Sure there are laws against this but since when did that impeded the current corporate-friendly government?

No matter anyone’s beliefs, this development is disturbing because the lessening of competition will lead to less choice and increased prices for consumers. Naturally, the only way to counter this is though money, the only thing the corporations listen to. For now, let’s take a moment of silence to commemorate Warner Bros. and HBO for their decades of quality films and TV shows.