Viz Media announced during its panel at Anime Expo on Friday that it has acquired the RWBY series after Rooster Teeth shut down. Viz Media now holds the rights to distribution, production, licensing, and future consumer products related to the series. The company is also working on producing new chapters in the series.
Viz Media previously published manga for the RWBY series, including the web anime adaptation by Shirow Miwa in Shueisha's Ultra Jump magazine from November 2015 to February 2017.
Viz Media published the manga in the English version of Weekly Shonen Jump magazine starting in October 2017 and also released it in print. Additionally, Viz Media published Bunta Kinami's RWBY: The Official Manga, which Kinami launched in Shonen Jump+ in December 2018 and ended in June 2020. Viz Media also published the RWBY manga anthology.
Rooster Teeth Closes After 21 Years; The Future of RWBY and Gen:Lock Uncertain
The original web cartoon RWBY, created by the late Monty Oum, follows four girls with unique weapons and powers who are trained to hunt down supernatural “Grimm Creatures.”
Rooster Teeth has produced nine volumes and 117 episodes, with the ninth airing from February 2023 to March 30, 2023. The television anime RWBY: Shaft's Ice Queendom premiered in Japan in July 2022. Crunchyroll streamed the series as it aired in Japan and also provided an English dub.
Rooster Teeth, best known for RWBY and gen:LOCK, revealed in March through a memo from CEO Jordan Levin to employees that, after 21 years, the company would be shutting down due to challenges in digital media arising from fundamental changes in consumer behavior and monetization across platforms, advertising, and patrons.
At the time, Rooster Teeth's parent company Warner Bros. Discovery announced that it would be exploring options for its IP, including RWBY and gen:LOCK.