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DOJ Approves $111B Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger
- The DOJ has approved the merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. without asking for any major concessions.
- Paramount and the DOJ claim this is a pro-competitive action, but state AGs are considering an antitrust lawsuit.
- Consumers deserve a competetive market and for their media not to be in the hands of only a few.
In wild news, the massive merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. has been approved by the DOJ without any concessions necessary to gain this regulatory approval. Although it seemed like the Netflix bid to acquire Warner Bros. has been well and truly dead, it comes as a massive shock that no major amendments were required of the proposed (nearly) $111 billion purchase. This merger creates, in essence, a super-powered studio. And while Paramount views the deal as pro-competitive—to those in the entertainment industry, it seems like a massive shifting of power. In sum, this deal allows Paramount to acquire the Warner Bros. movie studio, CNN, HBO, and other Warner Bros. Discovery properties.
Paramount/Warner Bros. DiscoveryA Paramount spokesperson shared the following with Deadline about the Warner Bros. acquistion, “We are grateful for the Department of Justice’s thorough review of this transaction, as well as the work of the other agencies that have completed their reviews and provided clearance to date. This deal is pro-competitive, resulting in a stronger company better positioned to compete against dominant technology platforms in an industry increasingly defined by intense competition for audiences, talent, technology, and investment. We remain focused on completing the transaction as soon as possible and delivering its benefits to consumers, creators, and the entertainment industry as a whole.”
The DOJ noted that the merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. “is not likely to result in harm to competition or American consumers, including with respect to: (1) streaming video on demand (“SVOD”); (2) linear television; and (3) studio development, production, or distribution of films for theatrical release.”
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Instagram and YouTube to Pay $3 Million in Social Media Addiction TrialMeanwhile, state attorneys general in California, New York, and other states are considering an antitrust lawsuit, but whether that would be enough to slow or end the deal is unclear.
In all, it’s hard to know what the best options for consumers, the people who matter most to us at Nerdist, might be. But ultimately, the continued consolidation of our networks, studios, and news channels into the hands of only a few remains alarming. We want our media to reflect many voices and perspectives, not be streamlined to the will of just a handful. We’ll see what comes of this union between Paramount and Warner Bros.
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What You Need to Remember for HOUSE OF THE DRAGON Season 3
- Before House of the Dragon season 3 returns to HBO, here’s everything you need to remember about the Dance of the Dragons.
It’s been a hot dragon flame minute since we last saw Rhaenyra’s forces clash with her half-brother Aegon’s on House of the Dragon. What’s the current state of the Targaryen civil war on the Game of Thrones prequel? How did both sides end up spreading fire and blood across the Realm in the first place? And what awaits both factions when the series returns? Here’s everything you need to remember before House of the Dragon season three.
HBOThe Dance of the Dragon, the Targaryen civil war at the heart of the show, takes place around 130 years after Aegon conquered Westeros. That’s about 90 years before A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and 170 years before Game of Thrones. Each side of the family is vying for the Iron Throne following the death of King Viserys.
If you need a complete refresher of what led to this violent war of succession in the first place, we already have you covered. Check out these pieces from our past coverage:
- What You Need to Remember for House of the Dragon Season 2
- Every Major Character Death From House of the Dragon Season 1
- Who Are House of the Dragon‘s 17 Dragons?
- House of the Dragonn Houses That Didn’t Appear on Game of Thrones
In season two, Rhaenyra’s side found itself stuck in place. For Rhaenyra, that meant being mostly confined to Dragonstone. She had very little support there among the men of her small council. They also refused to let her fight, since Rhaenyra’s death would likely mean they all lost their heads. Without her, their faction would have a very weak claim since everyone knows—even if they won’t say it lest Daemon cut off their head—that her son and heir Jacaerys “Jace” is bastard born. (As is Prince Joffrey, her other surviving son she had with the late Harwin Strong. Rhaenyra also has two boys with Daemon, her own Aegon and his younger brother Viserys.)
HBOUltimately, Rhaenyra turned to her new unlikely adviser, Mysaria. The White Worm concocted a plan to turn the people of King’s Landing against King Aegon and his side of the family to set the stage for Rhaenyra’s planned return to the capital city. The two also shared an unscripted kiss, in case the Queen’s reliance on Daemon’s former paramour wasn’t complicated enough.
Meanwhile Rhaenyra and her son Jace came up with a plan to find more dragonriders after the death of Princess Rhaenys. Rhaenyra put out word that anyone with Valyrian blood could try to claim a dragon. During “The Red Sowing,” many died, but Targaryen bastards Hugh Hammer and Ulf the White each claimed a large dragon and joined Rhaenyra’s side. Hugh is the grandson of King Jaehaerys, who ruled before Viserys. He rides Vermithor, second largest dragon in the world only behind Aemond’s Vhagar. Ulf is believed to be the bastard brother of Viserys and Daemon. He mounted Silverwing.
Rhaenyra also found a third dragon rider when her not-actually-dead husband Laenor’s dragon Seasmoke claimed Addam of Hull. (Yes, the dragon claimed the rider, a piece of dragonlore the show created.) Addam himself is of Valyrian stock as the bastard son of Ser Corlys Velaryon. As is Addam’s brother, the great seaman Alyn of Hull. Neither Addam nor Alyn have a good relationship with their absentee father, but Corlys did recruit a standoffish Alyn into his service during season two.
HBOCorlys was ready to quit the war after the death of his wife Rhaenys, but instead he accepted the position as Hand of the Queen after his granddaughter Baela pushed him to keep fighting. Baela also rejected his offer to become heir to Driftmark, seat of House Velaryon. She said as a dragonrider (of Moondancer) she is made of fire and blood. He needs some of salt and sea to take the mantle of House Velaryon.
Baela does not have a good or close relationship with her father, Prince Daemon. It only got worse after the death of her mother Laena, who was Daemon’s second wife. (Rhaenyra is his third.) Baela is betrothed to Jace and an important part of Rhaenyra’s fighting force.
Baela’s sister Rhaena has never been able to claim a dragon and was shipped off to the Vale under the protection of Lady Jeyne Arryn. But rather then be sent off to Pentos, Rhaena ran off to chase after a wild dangerous dragon named Sheepstealer. She ended season two cold and alone in the mountains of the Vale at the end of season two.
HBOAfter a huge blowout with Rhaenyra on Dragonstone, Daemon went off to rally the lords of the Riverlands. A paranoid Daemon claimed Harrenhal from a compliant Ser Simon Strong. But the Prince then upset the rest of the lords when he allowed Willem Blackwood to commit war crimes against his family’s ancient foe, House Bracken. Daemon also suffered from terrible nightmares inside the haunted Harrenhal. There he also met possible-witch Alys Rivers. She seemed to know about events, past, present, and future she shouldn’t have been able to. With her help (and by beheading Willem), Daemon eventually gained the Riverlands support for Rhaenyra.
Alys also led Daemon to the sacred weirwood tree where he saw a vision. It included the Three-Eyed Raven, Daenerys Targaryen, and the White Walkers. Once he learned about Aegon the Conqueror’s Song of Ice and Fire, he gave up his own ambitions to rule and fully and finally supported his wife’s claim. The duo rejoined with renewed focus and energy in the season two finale.
Things on the other side of the war are somehow even more complicated.
An overmatched, unprepared King Aegon reacted to the brutal death of his son and heir by the assassins Cheese and Blood with foolish rage. He ordered the death of every ratcatcher in King’s Landing. His heinous crime completely wasted all of the work his grandfather, Otto Hightower, did in using the child’s death as a way to earn goodwill from the Realm, which blamed Rhaenyra for Daemon’s vengeance.
HBOAegon made things worse when he ultimately fired Otto Hightower as Hand of the King. He then gave the title to Ser Criston Cole, who almost as quickly began working with Aemond to win the war without Aegon’s input. The two hatched a plan that knocked out one of Rhaenyra’s best dragonriders, but at a huge cost.
Rhaenys and her dragon Meleys died during Ser Criston Cole and Prince Aemond’s surprise attack on Rook’s Roost. But when Aegon, eager to prove his worth to everyone, including his mother, arrived at the battle, his brother tried to kill him. Aemond wants to rule instead. Half of Aegon’s body suffered severe burns, but he barely survived thanks to Grand Maester Orwyle’s care. Larys Strong the Clubfoot then tried bonding with the injured Aegon by talking about how others would now view the King the way they view Larys. Ultimately Larys helped sneak Aegon out of King’s Landing to keep him safe from his brother Aemond.
HBOCriston Cole continued his attacks against Rhaenyra’s supporters with the help of Alicent’s brother, Gwayne Hightower. However, he lost hope after seeing what Aemond did at Rook’s Roost. Cole seems certain they will all burn in dragonflame.
Otto Hightower went missing after being relieved as Hand. Aemond ordered Larys Strong to find his grandfather when he become Prince Regent following his brother’s injuries. No one could find the missing Otto, but we saw him locked away in a dark dungeon during season two’s final moments.
HBOAemond also tried to recruit his sweet innocent sister, Aegon’s sister-wife Queen Helaena, to join the war efforts with her dragon Dreamfyre. She refused. Season two also revealed Helaena has prophetic visions, possibly because she is a “dreamer” like others throughout House Targaryen’s history. Her visions spoke of doom for Aemond, just as Alys told Daemon the first time she spoke to him that Daemon will one day die at Harrenhal.
The Prince Regent sent small council member Tyland Lannister to Essos to recruit the Triarchy fleet to Aegon’s side. Daemon and Ser Corlys spent many years fighting the Triarchy over the Stepstones, an important archipelago in the Narrow Sea. There, Tyland met with commander Sharako Lohar, a flashy male-presenting warrior played by trans actress Abigail Thorn, who ultimately agreed to fight for Aegon. Tyland was returning with Lohar and the Triarchy to take on Rhaenyra’s fleet led by Corlys and his first commander, Alyn of Hull.
HBOTyland’s older identical twin brother Jason is also leading his own force for Aegon in the West. Lord Ormund Hightower, with Alicent’s never-seen son Daeron, is also marching from Oldtown. But Rhaenyra also has her own allies headed towards war. Lord Cregan Stark is sending old grizzled warriors to honor his oaths as he prepares his people for winter. They crossed to the south via the Twins Jace secured House Freys support earlier in season two.
What no one knows, though, is that Alicent has already agreed to let Rhaenyra win. The two met in secret in King’s Landing during season two. There Alicent realized she misunderstood her dying husband when the King was speaking about the Song of Ice and Fire. Once she realized Viserys never wanted Aegon to rule, that he was talking about why Rhaenyra must protect the Realm from the dead, Alicent became disillusioned with her life of service, which somehow led to her being Larys’ personal foot fetish and Criston Cole’s paramour.
In the season two finale, Alicent snuck off to Dragonstone to meet with Rhaenyra. In exchange for Alicent and Helaena’s safety and a chance at a quiet peaceful life, Alicent will open up the gates to King’s Landing and her own son Aegon’s head. Alicent also knows this will certainly mean the death of Aemond, too.
Rhaenyra plans to accept the offer, but will anyone else? We’ll find out when season three begins. And until it does read more of our coverage from season two to get caught up.
- Every Major Character Death in House of the Dragon Season Two
- Every Major New Character on House of the Dragon
- The Most Brutal, Shocking, and Gross Moments of House of the Dragon Season 2
Ollie Upton/HBOOh yeah, and George R.R. Martin is so upset with the series’ changes and his (now non-existent) relationship with showrunner Ryan Condal that the author publicly scorched both with a blistering screed.
Will Condal and Martin meet under a banner of peace before the show ends? There’s not much time left for that to happen. The last thing to remember about House of the Dragon season three is that it’s the show’s penultimate outing. It will end with season four.
HBOBut before it says goodbye….
Fire and blood is returning to HBO. Now you’re ready for it.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.
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What No DOCTOR WHO and No STAR TREK Means For Sci-Fi
- Both Doctor Who and Star Trek off the air for the first time in 60 years
- What does that mean for science fiction?
If the sci-fi world sounds empty to you right now, echoey and cavernous, there’s a reason for that. We now live at an unprecedented time (and space). Earlier this year, all Star Trek series ceased production with no movies in the immediate future. This week, we learned that the BBC put Doctor Who on blocks with no production until, per sources, at least 2028. This one-two punch to fans bestows 2026 with a dubious honor: it is now the first year without a Doctor Who or Star Trek thing in production since 1963. That’s 63 years, people.
Paramount+/Disney+Doctor Who premiered November 23, 1963. It was on the air for 26 seasons before its extended hiatus (e.g. the BBC quietly canceled it) on December 9, 1989. After a single TV movie in 1996 and another long break, it returned March 26, 2005. It then went on for 20 full years.
Star Trek debuted initially on September 8, 1966. After 79 episodes, it went off the air in June of 1969. After a super underrated animated series from 1973 to 1974, the franchise turned to movies, making six from 1979 to 1991. In the meantime, Star Trek: The Next Generation began its seven-year run in September 1987. That started an extended period of overlapping TV series production. TNG went on from ’89 to ’94. Deep Space Nine went from 1993 to 1999; Voyager from ’95 to ’01; and Enterprise from 2001 to 2005. Then, beginning with Star Trek: Discovery in 2017, the Paramount+-era had many different series all going on at once. The final two seasons of Strange New Worlds are yet to air, but their production wrapped.
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DOCTOR WHO’s Billie Piper Stunt Was Never Going to Pay OffThe ’80s and ’90s Star Trek TV shows almost exactly filled in the period when Doctor Who was off the air. In fact, the revived Who began only two months before Enterprise ended. These are perennial science fiction properties that for the first time since before they started are both in a holding pattern.
I have full faith both Star Trek and Doctor Who will return at some point, be it 2028 or later. But to realize we have neither creating new stories in the present day is weirdly devastating. Now all we have is Star Wars of the big three…and, let’s just say we need more than that.
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.
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Daniel Hart Talks Crafting Lestat’s Magnus in THE VAMPIRE LESTAT’s ‘Your Biggest Fan’ Song
- The Vampire Lestat composer Daniel Hart broke down “Your Biggest Fan,” Lestat’s intense songs about his maker, Magnus.
The songs created by Daniel Hart for The Vampire Lestat are nothing short of masterpieces. But one song in particular has truly stunned fans: the intense “love song” “Your Biggest Fan.” “Your Biggest Fan” functions as Lestat’s reckoning with his maker, Magnus, who forced vampirism onto him without his consent, desire, or full understanding. But, in truth, Lestat did not actually know Magnus. In Anne Rice’s The Vampire Lestat, we learn that Magnus stalked Lestat from afar before kidnapping him and turning him into a vampire. But once that was done, Magnus immediatly threw himself into the fire, leaving Lestat on his own in his new state. So ultimately, “Your Biggest Fan” reveals more about Lestat himself and his state of mind about his kidnapping and turning than anything else. Addressing this powerful song, Daniel Hart spoke to Nerdist about the process of crafting “Your Biggest Fan” for The Vampire Lestat. (As a note, please proceed with caution as you read, this response touches on darker themes.)
Hart shares about Lestat, Magnus, and “Your Biggest Fan.”:
I wrote the song pretty early on in the writer’s room process. In the writer’s room, I was going back and forth between the table where all the writers were sitting, outlining plots, discussing characters, thinking about what would happen from episode to episode in season three. And I went back and forth between the writer’s room table and then a little makeshift studio, a musical studio that I had set up in the same house where the writer’s room was based. And I would sit at the table, and we would talk and talk and talk and then someone would say something that would give me an idea, and I would go off and work on a song for a little bit, and I would come back to the table when I had gotten enough of an idea down that it wouldn’t be forgotten or lost.
I don’t remember exactly what it was about Magnus and Lestat that made me make the choices I made with “Your Biggest Fan,” but it was certainly after rereading that passage in the book of Lestat’s transformation multiple times and it just felt like there was so much meat on the bone.
And we were already talking in the writer’s room at that point about telling the story in different ways. What were the ways that we wanted to approach the characters that we either hadn’t done before in seasons one or two, or that were ways that were different from the book, or different than stuff that we had already seen in other television shows?
So I don’t know why it occurred to me, probably because deep down I am very dark and twisted, but I thought, well, if he’s going to write a song about his transformation, then he should write it from the point of view of the person who transformed him. And since it was basically abduction and then abuse, and a rape of sorts, then that would be Lestat’s experience of it.
But the person who did those things, as can often be the case in real life, the person who is the tormentor, the predator, the abuser, doesn’t view themselves that way. And for Magnus, I don’t think he viewed himself that way at all, and either because he himself was so dark and twisted or because by that point in his own life, he had just basically lost his mind. So I thought, yeah, he wouldn’t think of himself as doing something terrible at all. He wasn’t torturing people. He was loving them. So I thought, oh, it’s a love song. Obviously, it’s a love song. So then I started writing a love song about abducting someone and then torturing them, and then it became the thing that it is.
But, [of course, the song] is really about Lestat’s version of what he thinks Magnus thought was happening. Since he barely knew him. The guy transformed him and then threw himself into a fire, and that was that.
AMCIf this breakdown of “Your Biggest Fan,” isn’t enough to convince you that this series is tackling some incredibly complicated themes in truly deft ways, unlike anything you’ve ever seen on television before, then I don’t know what would be. All I know is that “Your Biggest Fan” is even more devestating in-situ when it finally comes around in The Vampire Lestat. And considering that Lestat is putting himself in Magnus’ shoes makes it even worse. Get yourself ready and get those tissues ready.
The Vampire Lestat airs at 9 pm ET/PT on AMC and AMC+. You can also read The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice today as you wait for the next episode of the series to air.
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