Rooster Teeth Co-Founder Burnie Burns' Company Acquires Brand From Warner Bros. Discovery

© Rooster Teeth

Entertainment news source Variety reported on Wednesday that independent company Box Canyon Productions has acquired the Rooster Teeth brand (RWBY, gen:LOCK) and some remaining assets from Warner Bros. Discovery. Rooster Teeth co-founder Burnie Burns owns Box Canyon Productions.

Burns told Variety that he looks forward to bringing Rooster Teeth "back to its roots," while Mega64 co-founder Rocco Botte in a post on X (formerly Twitter) stated that he is approaching "RT The Next Generation" with the motto of "Let that freak flag fly."

Rooster Teeth had announced on March 6 that it was shutting down "due to challenges facing digital media resulting from fundamental shifts in consumer behavior and monetization across platforms, advertising, and patronage." General manager Jordan Levin had stated that Warner Bros. Discovery would explore options for its IP such as RWBY and gen:LOCK.

Variety reported on Wednesday that the announced deal does not include RWBY, nor some properties whose rights were already assigned to their creators last year. Viz Media announced in July 2024 that it had acquired the RWBY series. Viz Media owns the rights for future distribution, production, licensing, and consumer products. The company is exploring the production of new chapters in the series.

Rooster Teeth is known for the RWBY and Red vs. Blue franchises, among others. The company produced the gen:LOCK animated series, which debuted in 2019. Rooster Teeth and Polygon Pictures co-produced the Transformers: War For Cybertron animated series. The company's first series Red vs. Blue released its final season as a film in May 2024.

The RWBY: Ice Queendom television anime for the RWBY franchise premiered in Japan in July 2022. Crunchyroll streamed the series as it aired in Japan, and it also streamed an English dub.

Burnie Burns, Matt Hullum, Geoff Ramsey, Jason Saldaña, Gus Sorola, and Joel Heyman founded Rooster Teeth in April 2003. Fullscreen, part of AT&T's Otter Media, acquired Rooster Teeth in November 2014. Rooster Teeth later became a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery Global Streaming & Interactive Entertainment following AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner.