Sony in talks to buy Star Trek and Top Gun film company Paramount claims report

Halo season 2 still — Sony might soon own the Halo TV series (Picture: Paramount)

In what could be a significant boon to its IP in video games and beyond, Sony is apparently considering a buyout of Paramount Pictures.

The likes of Mission: Impossible and SpongeBob SquarePants could become property of Sony, if a reported bid comes to fruition.

Sony Pictures Entertainment, who acquired anime streaming service Crunchyroll back in 2021, is believed to be in talks with investment firm Apollo Global about making a deal to buy Paramount Pictures. The movie and television production company owns the likes of Nickelodeon, MTV, and CBS.

For Sony’s film and television division, the biggest draw might be Paramount+ as Sony doesn’t have its own dedicated streaming service. As for what it could mean for video games though, it might put the likes of Star Trek and Mission: Impossible as contenders for significant gaming adaptations.

According to The New York Times and The Hollywood Reporter, the joint bid from Sony and Apollo hasn’t been officially proposed yet.

Apollo previously offered to buy Paramount for $26 billion, but this was reportedly dismissed under concerns about Apollo’s financing. A joint venture with Sony therefore, would go some way to alleviating those concerns.

The potential bid comes as Paramount conducts exclusive negotiations with Skydance Media, but this deal is said to have received ‘significant investor pushback’.

While details of the potential bid from Sony are unknown (and it might not even happen), it’s intriguing to think about what it could lead to – aside from weird turns like Sony controlling the Halo TV series and Sonic The Hedgehog movies.

Other Paramount properties include Top Gun, Transformers, and The Godfather, with the latter two having been adapted into various games in the past. Although Transformers is essentially a licensed product, owned by Hasbro.

A third Sonic The Hedgehog movie, meanwhile, is in the works and is set to be released in December. This comes after the spin-off miniseries Knuckles, featuring the voice of Idris Elba, which is set to arrive on Paramount+ on April 26.