The Skydance-Paramount Megamerger Could Lead to Legendary Jumping Ship

A new report from Deadline reveals that Paramount, under David Ellison, is working out a deal with Legendary. This comes on the heels of the Duffer Brothers’ Upside Down Productions moving from Netflix to Paramount over the weekend. 

The shakeups continue, as Legendary is now interested in starting a multi-picture global theatrical distribution deal through Skydance. The agreement, as Deadline reported, has been in the works since the spring and would exclude China but would give Paramount a built-in streaming window with Legendary for presumably Paramount+, which currently houses Star Trek and the Tom Cruise-led Mission Impossible franchise. It’s a move that lines up with Paramount’s announced plans to up its features output from 15 films a year to 20.

While co-financing is on the table, the trade notes that the Legendary and Paramount slate is “contingent on projects at hand,” and there are no titles announced yet. It also means that while Legendary is moving, pieces of its current slate are staying put in their respective homes, as Legendary doesn’t exactly have an exclusive theatrical agreement with the studios it’s currently working with.

To give examples from Legendary’s past releases, Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim was released through Warner Bros., then Pacific Rim 2: Uprising with Universal Pictures. Similarly, the first Monsterverse movie, Godzilla (2014), was originally in development at Universal before the rest of the franchise was locked in at Warner Bros. The Monsterverse, including the upcoming Godzilla x Kong: Supernova and Denis Villeneuve’s Dune series, which is being capped off with 2026’s Dune: Part Three, are staying put at WB Discovery.

Additionally, after the massive success of A Minecraft Movie, that partnership’s other comedic genre projects are expected to remain as well, including Animal Friends, a live-action animation hybrid comedy vehicle starring Ryan Reynolds and Jason Momoa.

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