WGA Says David Ellison’s Threat That Paramount Will Leave California Over AG’s Antitrust Lawsuit “Proves The Danger Of Its Outsized Power”

As expected, the Writers Guild of America has not taken kindly to Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison‘s latest threat to pull the storied studio out of California if state AG Rob Bonta refuses to settle an antitrust suit to block the planned merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.

“By threatening to leave the state because it doesn’t want the government to enforce the law, Paramount further proves the danger of its outsized power over the industry and what that will mean for writers and the creative community,” the guild said in a statement to Deadline on Tuesday afternoon. “This type of behavior is precisely why the merger should be blocked.”

The WGA is also suing to block the merger. That lawsuit, filed jointly by the WGA East and West in the Northern District of California, seeks to stop the $110 billion acquisition on the grounds that it violates federal antitrust law and would cause specific harm to writers. 

The writers opted to file their own suit rather than join Bonta and a group of 20 state Attorneys General in their case in order to target labor-specific concerns the AGs’ action doesn’t cover — though the cases are related and have been assigned to the same judge.

Bonta’s case is set to go to trial in federal court in the Northern District of California March 2027. He’s already responded to Ellison’s threats as well, calling it “another attempt to blackmail the state into letting an illegal deal through.”

Ellison made his comments to the company’s top executives at a meeting last week, affirming that he will start the process of exiting California on October 1, unless Bonta negotiates a settlement. October 1 is the day Paramount starts to accrue a so-called ticking fee of $7 million a day agreed to in the WBD deal terms if the transaction hasn’t closed by then. Paramount had asked the judge for a November trial date.