Universal bids to buy Warner Bros., including Harry Potter
Universal may acquire “studio assets” from Warner Bros., owner of the “Harry Potter” movies.
This story is outdated. Netflix purchased Warner Bros. on Dec. 5, 2025. See what this might mean for the future of theme parks in our separate coverage.
Photos by Blake Taylor
December 2025: Comcast bids for Warner Bros.
Comcast, the parent company of NBCUniversal, bid to acquire and potentially “spin out” Universal into Warner Bros., according to The Hollywood Reporter. Paramount and Netflix also submitted offers, THR says, but Universal is particularly of interest to the theme park attractions industry and our readership here at AttractionsMagazine.com.
If Universal owned Warner Bros. franchises such as Harry Potter or DC Comics, that may influence theme parks in significant ways.
Universal frequently collaborates with Warner Bros. to create The Wizarding World of Harry Potter attractions in theme parks globally, including the recent Ministry of Magic at Epic Universe, which opened in May. Universal also hosts Scooby-Doo and Beetlejuice character meet & greets in its parks, both WB properties. These all represent licensing partnerships, though; Universal doesn’t own any of those franchises.
Warner Bros. licenses its name and characters to various theme parks around the world, but does not outright own any parks. These include Warner Bros. Movie World (owned by Village Roadshow Theme Parks) in Australia and Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi (owned by Miral, the same company partnering on Disney’s upcoming Abu Dhabi theme park) in the United Arab Emirates.
These licensing partnerships are overseen by Warner Bros. Discovery Global Experiences, which also operates WB studio tour attractions in Hollywood, London, and Tokyo.
Additionally, WB licenses its Looney Tunes and DC Comics franchises to Six Flags parks, but does not hold an ownership stake in Six Flags itself.
October 2025: ‘It’s our job’ to consider all options, Universal exec says
If Universal were to acquire anything from WB’s portfolio, “it would be streaming assets and studio assets since there’s no other parks assets out there,” said Mike Cavanagh, president (and future co-CEO, effective in 2026) of Comcast, Universal’s parent company, during the corporation’s quarterly earnings call on Oct. 30, 2025.
On Oct. 21, Warner Bros. announced it is currently reviewing potential sale options (in addition to its previously announced separation of Warner Bros. Discovery into two separate companies). Universal is not mentioned in WB’s announcement, nor is any specific buyer.
“You should expect us to look at things that are trading in the space around our industry,” Cavanagh said. “It’s our job to try to figure out if there are ways to add value.” (We’ve transcribed Cavanagh’s full remarks below.)
Full quote about Universal potentially buying Warner Bros. assets
During a Q&A segment of Comcast’s quarterly earnings call on Oct. 30, 2025, an investor asked:
I have to ask about all the speculation about Warner Bros. Discovery … if you could share any thoughts about how you think about those assets, the complementarity of those assets, and whether or not in this political environment M&A [mergers & acquisitions] of that kind is even possible.
In response to this question, Mike Cavanagh, president (and future co-CEO, effective in 2026) of Comcast, said:
We’ve said repeatedly, and I’ll say it again, that the bar is very high for us to pursue any M&A transactions given how strongly we feel about the businesses we have, the strategies we’re pursuing, and the opportunities we have ahead of us. That continues to be an important anchor point for how we think about things.
Second point I’d make is you should expect us to look at things that are trading around our industry. It’s our job to try to figure out if there’s ways to add value.
But I would point out with the Versant spin1, we’ve set NBC media business up, pairing Peacock on the streaming side with NBC broadcast. You’ve seen lots of news lately about us attracting the NBA, Taylor Sheridan, and the like over the long term, and you put that business alongside one of the finest studio businesses in the industry and our parks business, and I think the strategies we have are really sound and durable without M&A.
That said, the question about what’s feasible to get any deals through: obviously the fact that we’ve been taking the path of setting up Versant as our cable network business to pursue strategies that didn’t fit inside the new NBC media business with great strength and assets and the cash flows they have with light leverage, and that is on track to happen.
You can expect any view we would have about other media assets that could be complementary to our existing media business would be of the same sort. So in this case, it would be streaming assets and studio assets since there’s no other parks assets out there. That makes us such a unique company ourselves.
I think in light of that, what we’d be looking for and what we’re gonna look like post the Versant spin, I think more things are viable than some of the public commentary that’s out there.
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- Cavanagh’s mention of “the Versant spin” refers to NBCUniversal spinning off its cable networks into a new company called Versant. See the company’s official site for more details on that. ↩︎
