NEW YORK — The Writers Guild of America has entered the fight against Paramount’s proposed $81 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, filing a federal lawsuit Tuesday that aims to stop the deal from going through. The union argues the merger would cause “specific harm” to film and television writers throughout the country.
The federal complaint, filed jointly by the Writers Guild of America West and Writers Guild of America East, states that a Paramount-Warner merger “threatens the economic and creative health of the American entertainment industry.”
According to the union, combining the two entertainment giants would reduce the number of competing studios and hand the newly enlarged company both the motivation and the power to cut writer pay and reduce the number of projects available for employment.
“This proposed combined entity would be the largest employer of writers, with tremendous power to suppress our wages, eliminate opportunities for emerging writers, cut jobs across the industry, and produce less programming,” said WGAE President Tom Fontana in a written statement.
A merger between Warner and Paramount would bring together two of Hollywood’s last five remaining legacy studios. It would place Warner’s HBO Max, its vast content libraries — including titles like “Harry Potter” — and CNN under the same ownership as Paramount-controlled CBS, films such as “Top Gun,” and the Paramount+ streaming platform.
The WGA’s legal filing claims the deal would violate antitrust law by shrinking competition across three specific areas of the writing industry: episodic television and streaming series writing, TV writing contracts overall, and screenwriting for major theatrical releases.
Skydance-owned Paramount pushed back, insisting that a combined Warner-Paramount operation would actually “expand opportunities for writers, not shrink them.” The company also repeated commitments to release a minimum of 30 films annually with a 45-day exclusive theatrical window, continue working with independent production companies, and keep “two distinct film studios” operating.
“A stronger Hollywood only means something if it’s stronger for the writers who power it,” Paramount said in a statement.
The WGA’s lawsuit comes just one day after a coalition of 12 states, led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, filed their own legal challenge against the merger. That lawsuit alleges the deal would “extinguish competition” in Hollywood, leaving moviegoers and cable TV customers nationwide with fewer options.
The group of states had asked Warner and Paramount to hold off on finalizing the merger until a court could “fully evaluate” their concerns. After the companies quickly declined, the coalition filed an emergency motion late Monday night in federal court requesting a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to immediately halt the transaction.
Paramount responded Monday by calling the states’ allegations “wrong on both the facts and the law” and pledging to “vigorously defend” its acquisition of Warner.
The mounting wave of legal challenges could complicate Paramount’s timeline for completing the purchase. Regulatory reviews are still underway in the European Union and the United Kingdom, which has signaled it may step in. However, Paramount has already secured approvals from several countries, including the United States under the Trump administration, as well as China, Canada, and Australia.
Both companies had been hoping to wrap up the deal during the third quarter of this year. In their Monday night emergency filing, the states suggested the companies could attempt to finalize the transaction as soon as July 22. When accounting for debt, the total value of Paramount’s proposed purchase of Warner reaches nearly $111 billion based on outstanding shares.
