Amid reports that Warner Bros. and DC Films have decided to keep the Batman universe character’s solo project Batgirl on the back burner for a while following director Joss Whedon’s exit from the project, the news comes that Time Warner may consider selling off Warner Bros. and DC Comics if the merger deal with AT&T fails.

To recall, AT&T had agreed to purchase Time Warner, the parent company of Warner Bros. and DC Comics, for a whopping $85.4 billion dollars back in October 2016. Notably, the merger deal has not yet been finalized. Going by a new report from The Wrap (H/T Batman-News), citing information from an unidentified source close to the matter, it is likely that if the AT&T merger fails, Time Warner might go ahead with their plans of selling Warner Bros. and DC Comics separately.

“If the merger fails, an individual close to the company told TheWrap that Time Warner would likely be broken up into parts and sold separately as Warner Bros., HBO, and Turner — leaving the fate of DC Comics a bit up in the air,” the report reads.

It is to be noted that the report specifically mentioned Warner Bros., HBO, and Turner as divisions that could be sold off. DC Entertainment, which currently operates under the Warner Bros umbrella, was not named as a potential spin-off.

Interestingly, Apple had also shown interest in getting its hands on Time Warner around the same time as AT&T. So, chances are that the iPhone maker could be a potential buyer. Considering the fact that this is all speculation at this point, it would be interesting to see what will be Warner Bros. and DC’s fate in future if the AT&T deal doesn’t get materialized.

In related news, there are currently three DCEU films that have scheduled release dates including Aquaman releasing on December 21, 2018, Shazam! on April 5, 2019, and Wonder Woman 2 on November 1, 2019.

Source: The Wrap via Batman-News