J.J. Abrams to Downsize Bad Robot, Production Company to Move From L.A. to New York

Big changes are underway at Bad Robot. Details are still coming together, but sources say J.J. Abrams is beginning to downsize the production banner.

via: Deadline

J.J. Abrams is reducing the footprint of his production company Bad Robot. Word of the restructuring quickly spread around Hollywood Thursday despite the day being a major Jewish holiday, Passover.

The company is closing its Los Angeles office. It is expected to open an operation in New York, working with a smaller in-house team and outside producers. It is unclear yet which of Bad Robot’s current executives will be leaving, discussions are currently underway.

As Bad Robot slims down, the company will remain under its first-look film and TV deal at Warner Bros., which goes through the end of the year. By then, the company will have been at Warner Bros. Television for 20 years.

The downsizing reflects the change in the financials of Bad Robot’s Warner Bros. deal, which went from a rich overall agreement to a more modest first-look pact at the last renewal announced in December 2024.

The slimdown also comes amid a television industry contraction post-Peak TV that has reduced the overall volume of scripted series.

The company has on the air Presumed Innocent, Apple TV’s breakout hit which is returning for a second season, and animated series Batman: Caped Crusader for Prime Video. Bad Robot recently produced the 2025 HBO Max drama Duster, which was canceled after one season. Amid the shrinking TV marketplace, Bad Robot pivoted to docuseries over the past few years.

On the feature side, Bad Robot has two high-profile upcoming films: science fantasy The Great Beyond, written and directed by Abrams and starring Glen Powell, Jenna Ortega, Emma Mackey and Sophie Okonedo, and David Robert Mitchell’s sci-fi thriller The End of Oak Street, starring Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor.

Coming in 2028 is the animated Oh, The Places You’ll Go!. Projects in development include Hot Wheels, The Pinkerton, Billy Summers and Them! and the animated Emily the Strange at Warner Bros. as well as Untitled Yamazaki at Sony.

Abrams launched Bad Robot with Bryan Burk in May 1999 when Abrams’ first series as a creator, the WB’s Felicity, was wrapping its first season. He went on to create ABC’s Alias and co-create ABC’s Lost and Fox’s Fringe, NBC’s Undercover and, most recently Duster.

In features, Bad Robot has been a producer on three big franchises for which Abrams has directed installments, Paramount’s Star Trek and Mission Impossible and Disney’s Star Wars.