With the ousting of veteran studio chief Toby Emmerich on Wednesday, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav is moving full speed ahead in reshaping one of Hollywood’s legacy studios, making clear that he will be the person in charge.
As the well-regarded Emmerich leaves for a production deal, the studio is being broken up into three distinct divisions — Warner Bros. and New Line, DC Entertainment and Warner Animation Group — with a Disney-style structure that reports directly up to Zaslav.
“It seems pretty obvious to me that he wants to front a real challenge to Disney,” one Wall Street bank analyst told TheWrap.