Warner Bros. Discovery CFO Says Company Is Entering a Chapter of Rebuilding

Warner Bros. Discovery is entering a new chapter of “relaunching and building” after scrapping a substantial number of films and TV shows last year.

As reported by Variety, Warner Bros. Discovery CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels said during the Citi 2023 Communications, Media, and Entertainment Conference that, while 2022 was about restructuring, the company is “done with that chapter”.

“We took a little bit of time to make sure that we do it properly,” said Wiedenfels. “For some of the titles, we’ve found new homes elsewhere. That’s why this took six or seven months. But I think we’ve come to great solutions and, most importantly, we’re done with that chapter.”

Making such significant changes – such as the headlining scrapping of Batgirl – was a necessary move according to Wiedenfels, despite the huge amount of backlash Warner Bros. Discovery received for the move.

“That was very important to all of us, to really use 2022 to leave the purchase accounting behind us, leave those initial strategy changes behind us, get it all out there in terms of our restructuring estimates and then be able to turn the page forward,” he said. “I think the team has laid a great foundation and I’m really excited about the growth from here.

“From my perspective, we really have command and control over the business now. There were some surprises in the first months of the combination, as you know, but we put out the guidance for this year at the end of the summer and I’ve been very, very pleased with all of our operating trends over the second half of the year.”

Batgirl was just one of several projects affected by the merging of Warner Bros. and Discovery as, even within the DC universe, close to two dozen films and TV shows were affected.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.