After much speculation, media giants Paramount and Skydance reached an agreement, effectively merging the companies. The $8 billion deal will see Skydance CEO David Ellison become the CEO and Chairman of the new Paramount and Jeff Shell, former CEO of NBCUniversal, become President.
Many of the different divisions and hierarchies will undergo a lengthy restructuring over the next several months, with the goal of refocusing the company into a new era of creativity and eliminating some redundancies within the different departments of both companies. 
However, one of the more interesting parts of the merger revolves around the company’s animation division, specifically in terms of leadership. Skydance Animation is currently headed up by former Pixar Animation and Disney Animation boss John Lasseter. Lasseter unceremoniously left Disney following some questionable accusations. Since then, he has headed up Skydance’s animation division with multiple former Disney writers and directors joining him.
The merger announcement stated: “Skydance’s exceptional pool of in-house creative animation talent, led by pioneer John Lasseter, will expand Paramount’s animation capabilities as well as consumer products opportunities over the long-term.“
While nothing is 100% clear as of yet, if Lasseter will indeed head up Paramount’s newly formed animation division, he will not only have greater power over a wider range of projects but also access to a wide pool of intellectual properties, such as the Nickelodeon library.
The situation is somewhat ironic given the fact that in 2019, Paramount Animation refused to collaborate with Skydance Animation over Lasseter’s hiring. Now, the same studio that shunned him now apparently works for him. Paramount currently has three animated projects set to release both this and next year. The other in-development projects might be affected following the merger, given the fact that Skydance Animation also had a number of films in the pipeline.
What do you think? Will John Lasseter become the head of Paramount Animation? Will he make Paramount a major competitor in the field of animation against Disney? Let us know your thoughts.
Source: The Cartoon Brew
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