Coyote vs. ACME started as a joke — a mock legal filing by Ian Frazier in a 1990 New Yorker piece , imagining Wile E. Coyote suing ACME for decades of faulty gadgets. James Gunn pitched a film version to Warner Bros. in 2015; it was greenlit in 2018 and shot in 2022 under director Dave Green, with Will Forte, John Cena, and Lana Condor leading a live-action/animation hybrid cast. Then came the twist nobody wanted: in November 2023, Warner Bros. Discovery shelved the finished film for a tax write-off , part of CEO David Zaslav's broader retreat from HBO Max originals (the same fate that hit 'Batgirl'). Fan and industry backlash was immediate, and Warner briefly floated selling the film at a steep $75–80 million asking price. It sat in limbo until March 2025, when Ketchup Entertainment (fresh off releasing 'The Day the Earth Blew Up') bought it for roughly $50 million. The film finally premiered at San Diego Comic-Con on July 25, 2026, complete with an...