is cartoon network really dead?

How Warner Bros. Killed Off Beloved Franchises

by Richie Hinojos, Public Relations

Arts & Entertainment

Company mergers have recently deleted many shows and television projects on Cartoon Network and HBO Max, completely wiping them from their social sites. Warner Media — the company that holds the rights to all Cartoon Network shows, HBO Max projects, and Adult Swim series — has begun to tear down their own products’ marketing following a company merger with Discovery. While Cartoon Network hasn’t been much down by any means, this merger was catastrophic for the television program creators and Warner Media employees.

Beginning in early 2021, people began to notice that Warner Media and HBO Max were directly ignoring their fans’ demand for the renewals of their most popular shows. The show Infinity Train is a prominent example of this: at the time HBO Max was launching its streaming service, the show had the highest demand for a renewal of any other on the platform, and quickly became the #1 most watched animated series with 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.

However, despite the company’s plan to add four additional story installments (the equivalent of two seasons), it was suddenly canceled. Ironically, this all happened around the same time Infinity Train was getting its own art exhibit in Los Angeles. Fans could not understand why Warner Media and HBO Max refused to renew the series.  Renewing it made sense right? The streaming platform would gain more revenue from its faithful fanbase, and the fans would get to see more of the show they had been craving. But alas, no explanation was ever given. 

The Adult Swim animated series Final Space met a similar fate: the shows’ fans begged for its return, only for it to be canceled around the same time the company merger was about to begin. These and many more stories went unfinished — left in the dust — as the companies decided to carry on merging with the Discovery company. 

   But this isn’t even the worst part.

In the midst of project cancellations, a more serious issue arose last August when Warner-Discovery began erasing all of these shows from their streaming service, taking down their  soundtracks from Spotify, and wiping every related video to the shows on the company’s YouTube channel. As a result, every creator, writer, artist, actor, director, and composer invested in the creation of these shows would never see their work come to fruition for a global audience. All of the work and dedication they had put into their art was gone.

Fans took their outrage to another level with movements like #RenewInfinityTrain. Olan Rogers, the creator of the series Final Space, made a public announcement about what had happened. Rogers confirmed fans’ suspicions, explaining that the main reason behind the content removal was so the companies no longer had to pay the creators residuals — the money creators received for the views their shows got after they were canceled.

But when all hope seemed lost, fans found a spark that gave them faith: Olan Rogers confirmed that he will be working on a new adult animated film titled Godspeed that follows a similar path to Final Space. Rogers launched a donation campaign that collected over $400,000, 580% of its original goal. And while Infinity Train fans have still been left in the dark, the series shot to the top of iTunes’ best selling series list within hours of being removed from HBO Max, meaning that even when all seemed lost, fans will still have a way to watch their beloved show. 

In other unflattering news, the newly merged Warner Bros. Discovery is being sued by an Illinois shareholder after the company allegedly lied about the number of HBO Max subscribers by as many as 10 million accounts. If true, this could result in some major legal backlash for Warner Bros. Discovery. 

While Cartoon Network and Adult Swim themselves have not been killed off by any means, it is important to recognize the serious issues that take place behind the scenes in the media industry and focus on ways to support the creators. The more pushback those who grew up with Cartoon Network and Adult Swim (or those who still watch them now) give, the more they can pressure these companies into letting creators produce their own art or premiere through their network.

DISCLAIMER: The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed by the various authors in this paper do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of Kamiak High School or The Gauntlet.