Hollywood’s discontent with Paramount Skydance’s lucrative acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery grows by leaps and bounds as 4,000 players from Tinseltown have now signed the petition to block the merger valued at just under $111 billion. And a number of new Star Trek alums have joined the cause by signing the petition, as J.J. Abrams (Kelvin Timeline films) and Tig Notaro (Starfleet Academy) already did.
Holly Hunter, who portrays Nahla Ake on the controversial Starfleet Academy series officially joined the cause by signing the open letter (via BlockTheMerger.com) as did Wil Wheaton of The Next Generation fame.
Wheaton’s character, Wesley Crusher, most recently returned to the franchise as the Traveler in the must-see animated series, Star Trek: Prodigy.
James Cromwell, who is best known for portraying Zefram Cochrane in The Next Generation’s best feature film, Star Trek: First Contact (1996), also signed the petition opposing the merger of the Paramount Skydance Corporation and Warner Bros. Discovery.
Michelle Hurd, who played Raffi in every season of Picard has now signed, too, as has Patton Oswalt, who played the hilarious Vulcan Doug — an ex-love interest of Number One (Rebecca Romijn) in season 3 of Strange New Worlds.
Personally, I’m not surprised more Hollywood creatives have signed the petition opposing the merger. However, the news broke earlier today (Thursday, April 23) that Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders voted “overwhelmingly” to back the sale to Paramount Skydance at $31 a share.
Unfortunately, for Warner’s David Zaslav, the CEO’s $500 million+ salary was rejected at the same time. The Board Chair of Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc., Samuel A. Di Piazza, Jr., said in a statement (per Deadline):
“We appreciate the support and confidence our stockholders have placed in us to unlock the full value of our world-class entertainment portfolio with Paramount, we look forward to creating an exceptional combined company that will expand consumer choice and benefit the global creative talent community.”
I doubt the petition will do any good in stopping Paramount Skydance’s acquisition of Warner Bros. However, while Paramount believes the merger will go through during this year’s third quarter, this is far from a done deal.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has not approved the Paramount/Warner Bros. merger, and there is still a regulatory review to face, not to mention the United States Department of Justice is looking the move over still.
Share your thoughts and comments with us on Paramount Skydance’s merger with Warner Bros. via the Redshirts Always Die Facebook and X pages. And those who are interested can read the open letter opposing the acquisition in its entirety at BlockTheMerger.com.
Live long and prosper, Trekkies!
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