Sam Register to Depart as President of Warner Bros. Animation, Cartoon Network Studios and Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe

Sam Register, President of Warner Bros. Animation, Cartoon Network Studios and Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe, is departing the company after roughly three decades in the same organization, according to an announcement Warner Bros. Television Group shared internally and reported by Deadline on August 25, 2026.

Deadline reported that the internal message was sent by Channing Dungey, Chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. Television Group and U.S. Networks. The announcement described Register’s tenure and said the company would mark the change following his long run leading its animation studios across multiple brands and production units.

Register’s responsibilities, as outlined in the announcement, cover leadership of Warner Bros. Animation, Cartoon Network Studios, and Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe. Together, those units oversee a significant portion of the company’s scripted and animated development and production footprint across domestic and international operations, including work that is distributed under multiple Warner Bros. and Cartoon Network brand umbrellas.

Deadline’s report characterized the announcement as bittersweet, noting that Dungey told staff that the departure would come with “mixed emotions.” The message credited Register’s role in the studio system he led, and it reflects that his departure will shift day-to-day leadership responsibilities for animation production management inside Warner Bros. Television Group.

The reported update does not specify an exact departure date or a named successor in the portion of the report available for this coverage. As a result, it remains unclear when Register’s formal responsibilities will end, whether the company will temporarily reassign oversight, or when a replacement will be announced publicly for the president-level roles spanning multiple studios.

For employees and collaborators, the change could affect studio management structures that handle development pipelines, production schedules, and creative planning. In large animation groups, these president-level roles often coordinate cross-studio priorities and set expectations for how the company develops projects for network and streaming distribution, as well as how production resources are allocated.

Warner Bros. Television Group’s animation leadership transition follows a period in which major studio systems have continued to refine internal structures for content development and production. With Register’s planned exit after decades of oversight, the company will likely need to confirm the reporting lines for the affected studio units and clarify how creative and business decisions will be managed going forward.

Deadline’s reporting indicates that Register’s departure has been communicated internally and that the news is now public. The next steps for the company, as with similar executive transitions at major media enterprises, will be the formalization of new leadership assignments and any schedule impacts for projects under the studios he oversaw.