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Warner Bros. Discovery has started fixing the controversial “creator” credits section on its recently relaunched Max streaming platform, over a month following the company apologizing for snubbing the talent behind films and TV shows. According to Deadline, the entertainment giant began revising the credit sections across its various platforms earlier this week — which currently lump together writers, directors, producers, and more as nondescript “creators.”
“This is a credits violation for starters,” Meredith Stiehm, president of Writers Guild of America West, said last month. “But worse, it is disrespectful and insulting to the artists that make the films and TV shows that make their corporation billions.”
The updated credit sections lay out familiar categories that allow each title’s creators to be properly credited for their work. Some of these can already be seen on the updated credits for Succession. Deadline says the sections will include Created By, Director(s), Writers, Producers, Developed By, and Based on Source Material where applicable. The rollout is expected to take up to two weeks to complete.
A couple of days after issuing its apology in May, Warner Bros Discovery warned that fixing the credits across its platform “could take weeks,” because it needed time for the data to be transferred, checked, and finalized. “It is not as simple as pressing a button,” said one studio insider to Deadline. Warner Bros Discovery claims that a “technical oversight” during the transition from HBO Max to the new Max streaming platform was to blame for causing the issue.
Intentional or not, the timing of this situation has painted a sizable target on the studio. Various strikes and union activity from groups like the Writers Guild of America. Screen Actors Guild, and Directors Guild have taken place in recent weeks as professionals within the industry fight to ensure they’re fairly compensated, credited, and protected against being replaced with AI. Understandably, they didn’t appreciate the snub.
“Warner Bros. Discovery’s unilateral move, without notice or consultation, to collapse directors, writers, producers, and others into a generic category of ‘creators’ in their new Max rollout while we are in negotiations with them is a grave insult to our members and our union,” said DGA President Lesli Linka Glatter in response to the new Max credits. “This devaluation of the individual contributions of artists is a disturbing trend and the DGA will not stand for it.”
Disclosure: The Verge’s editorial staff is also unionized with the Writers Guild of America, East.
