VIZ Media has acquired RWBY from Warner Bros. Discovery, the company announced. RWBY owner Rooster Teeth, which WarnerMedia acquired in 2018 along with Crunchyroll (see “Rooster Teeth Part of Warner Media“), was shut down earlier this year after unsuccessful efforts to sell the division as a unit. Now Warners is selling off the individual Rooster Teeth properties, of which RWBY was likely the largest. Warners sold off Crunchyroll, the other major asset in that acquisition, in 2021 (see “Sony Completes Crunchyroll Acquisition“).
VIZ will now have control over production, distribution, licensing and consumer products featuring RWBY. Series showrunner and co-creator Kerry Shawcross will be involved with the next phase of RWBY, VIZ said in its announcement. No specifics were announced with regard to new RWBY content. VIZ is exploring wider distribution for the series, including home video, additional streaming platform releases, and more, and has plans for RWBY merch.
VIZ has a history with the property back to 2016, when it developed a new manga based on the series (see “VIZ Developing ‘RWBY’ Manga“). VIZ has since released multiple RWBY manga titles, along with a compendium book.
Source: ICv2
