Why Harry Potter and Gandalf Won’t Be Teaming Up with Optimus Prime

In 2022, Brian Robbins, then leading Paramount Pictures, was desperate to bring two cinematic universes together. While making “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” he got sign-off from Steven Spielberg, the franchise’s executive producer, to have G.I. Joe appear in a coda to the latest movie. Hasbro, the company behind both toy lines, also gave its blessing for both the cameo and future crossover projects to come. But there was one holdout. Michael Bay, the director of the first four “Transformers” movies, worried that bringing the characters together would “cheapen” the series.

“I called him 50 times,” Robbins told me in a 2023 interview. “I would not let him off the hook. And when he finally stopped dodging my calls, we got him to sign off.”

Well, Robbins is gone now, having been ousted when Skydance’s David Ellison bought Paramount in 2025, and the studio has abandoned its plans to bring together G.I. Joe and Transformers on the big screen. However, the struggles that the executive faced in pushing a languishing franchise in a dramatically different direction may be instructive as Ellison merges Paramount with Warner Bros. as part of a $111 billion megadeal he closed this week.

When Ellison touted the union at a press conference on the Warner lot, he emphasized the arsenal of IP under Skydance’s control. The merged companies will boast two movie studios and brands like HBO, CBS, MTV, NewLine, and Adult Swim, plus a vast library of thousands of films and shows. But if you’re picturing Harry Potter on the deck of the USS Enterprise or Gandalf riding shotgun with Optimus Prime, you’re out of luck. Not only are those objectively terrible ideas, but chains of title put guardrails on what studios can do with many iconic characters.

“It’s complicated,” said Rachel Landy, a professor in the Cardozo School of Law. “If something is entirely original to Warner Bros. and wasn’t based on any preexisting book or comic book, they likely have 100 percent of the rights, and they can be transferred. But a lot of their marquee products are based on comic books, books, toys, and dolls. When Warner Bros went to make a movie, they had to get permission from some holder of the underlying rights and obtain a license.”

So, Warner Bros. can keep making Harry Potter shows and movies until audiences finally cease to care about the Wizarding World, but they would need J.K. Rowling’s sign-off to put her characters in another franchise (something she’d probably never grant). The same goes for Optimus Prime, which Hasbro controls through its ownership of Transformers, or any of the wizards and hobbits who pop up in the Lord of the Rings — which Warners can adapt thanks to an often contentious licensing agreement with J.R.R. Tolkien’s estate. Star Trek is owned outright by Paramount thanks to its 2019 merger with CBS, which controlled the original 1960s series, but not the subsequent films.

“You always have to go back to what the original contract says can happen and what kind of allowances it provides for how characters can be adapted in different settings,” said Orly Ravid, associate dean of the Southwestern Law School’s Donald E. Biederman Entertainment, Media, and Sports Law Institute. “I’m not sure it makes much sense for studios to cross-pollinate their franchises, but their ability to do so is on a case-by-case basis. Many of the underlying rights holders negotiated for lots of protections.”

Insiders at Warner Bros. and Paramount poured cold water on the idea that Batman, which Warner’s controls outright through its ownership of DC Comics, will pop up in, say, “Mission: Impossible,” which Paramount owns thanks to its 1968 purchase of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’s production company Desilu. At least they don’t think that kind of franchise mashup will happen in a live-action film.

“When it comes to comic books, you need to stay true to the canon,” one executive explained. “Fans can get really mad.”

The executive did predict that the world of animation may offer opportunities for experimentation, citing the example of “The LEGO Movie,” which saw characters like Batman pop up in a series of family films set in a toy world.

Spokespeople for Paramount and Warner Bros. both declined to comment, but making the merger pay off will involve combing through the archives and figuring out what films and shows need to be rebooted, revived, and reimagined, as well as what needs to be left in the vault.

“Paramount has done a lot of diligence to ensure that they can exploit what they want to exploit or the deal isn’t worth it,” Landy said.

If authors and creators hope they can wrest control back of their characters because Warner Bros. has a new owner, they are out of luck. Nearly every licensing deal includes language reassigning the rights to “any entity with which [the] company is merged” (IndieWire reviewed examples of these types of contracts). Those pacts will be hard to wiggle out of, but given that Ellison cozied up to the Trump administration to get his deal approved, his executive team may need to reach out to reassure left-leaning artists about plans for their creations.

“Those who don’t agree with the politics of Paramount’s ownership may look more closely at their contracts to get a sense of what will be assigned as part of the merger and what consent rights they’ll continue to have,” Landy said.

Plenty of properties don’t require consultation. Warner Bros. controls characters like Tom & Jerry, Bugs Bunny, and Superman through its ownership of Hanna-Barbera and DC, whereas Paramount can do whatever it wants with “Top Gun,” Dora the Explorer, or SpongeBob SquarePants, having created that IP.

Skydance certainly seems interested in moving quickly to bring back certain franchises. In their first year at Paramount, film chiefs Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein greenlit sequels to “Days of Thunder” and “World War Z,” commissioned a live-action “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” and enlisted Jason Blum and James Wan to make another “Paranormal Activity.”

And their first announcement after the Warner Bros. deal closed was that they had tapped Bay and Spielberg to return for an eighth “Transformers” movie. But “G.I. Joe” won’t be joining forces with the Autobots this time. No, that film series is getting rebooted by “Eastbound & Down” creator Danny McBride.