Sam Register On How Webtoon Partnership Will Fuel Warner Bros. Animation’s Push For YA Streaming Hits
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- Warner Bros. Animation President Sam Register said partnering with Webtoon Entertainment will fuel the studio's push into streamer-friendly YA animation, citing Webtoon's global audience as an "engine of stories and characters" beyond its DC, Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, and Scooby-Doo libraries.
- The two companies announced four new co-developed animated projects: The Wolf & Red Riding Hood, Vampire Family, Sable Curse, and Snow and Briar (And The Mirror of Seven Sins), building on a slate they began working up together last year.
- Register said Warner Bros. Animation has something in development or production with all major platforms and selected Webtoon properties aimed at the YA demo rather than only the platform's biggest hits.
- Webtoon Entertainment CFO David J. Lee said Webtoon plans to mine its readership data more proactively as a "strategic content" partner, leaning on its scale in web comics and web novels as a pipeline for animation.
- Register framed the tie-up as part of a broader distribution shift, noting streamers buy for global audiences from day one and don't rely on ad revenue the way Cartoon Network, Disney Channel, and Nickelodeon did in his earlier career.
- Warner Bros. is already operating in the YA space with Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake, My Adventures with Superman, and the upcoming My Adventures with Green Lantern, shows Register cited as proof the studio understands what streamers want from the demo.
Why it matters: The deal gives Warner Bros. Animation a steady external IP pipeline at a moment when streamers — not ad-supported kids' cable channels — are setting the YA agenda, and it positions Webtoon as a data-backed supplier to one of the few legacy studios with global animation infrastructure.
