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RWBY isn't dead, as Warner Bros. Discovery sells it off to VIZ Media

Nothing is set in stone, but at least there is hope

RWBY screenshot — Image credit: Viz Media

News by Trent Cannon, Senior Contributing writer

Published on Mon Jul 08 2024

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One of the most shocking stories of this year was Rooster Teeth shutting down. The animation studio seemingly had a reliable hit on its hands with RWBY, but it clearly wasn’t enough to keep the lights on for them. The fate of the popular anime series has been in question for several months now – until Viz Media announced that they had acquired the rights to RWBY and were exploring the possibility of starting up production again.

The announcement came during Viz Media’s panel at Anime Expo 2024. It is a home that makes sense for RWBY, as Viz has been publishing the manga adaptation of the anime since 2017. It opens the door to more physical media runs of the series as well as it continuing to stream on Crunchyroll once the current licensing agreement ends.

Viz was cagey during the panel about whether they would produce more RWBY episodes or films, though they certainly seemed positive about the idea. With the collapse of Rooster Teeth in March this year, this is the first glimmer of hope that RWBY fans have had that the story might eventually continue. However, it would be a massive undertaking to restart work on the series – most of the production crew will have found other roles and will be working on other projects. Plus, we don’t know how many assets Rooster Teeth saved – Viz may have to recreate the entire series from scratch, which would be a costly process.

Rooster Teeth shut down earlier this year after, as its general manager Jordan Levin stated, the company failed to adapt to “challenges facing digital media resulting from fundamental shifts in consumer behavior and monetization across platforms.” All that was left for their parent company Warner Bros. Discovery to do was sell off the rights to their original series to the highest bidder.

Here's our guide to every anime coming to Crunchyroll, Netflix and other streaming platforms during the Summer 2024 anime season.