Marvel Star Fires Back at Paramount After Company Calls His Merger Attack ‘Antisemitic’: ‘Appalling and Fundamentally Dishonest’

Screenshot via Marvel/Disney

Marvel actor Mark Ruffalo fired back at Paramount after a spokesperson called his criticism of the company’s pending merger with Warner Bros. “antisemitic.”

Ruffalo, best known for playing Bruce Banner/The Hulk in Disney’s MCU series, took to X on Saturday and posted a lengthy statement calling Paramount’s framing of his criticism “appalling and fundamentally dishonest.”

Ruffalo has taken issue with Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison and his father Larry Ellison and argued the amount of control the merger would give them would be dangerous and potentially lead to “foreign money” influencing “editorial decisions.”

The actor wrote:

The accusation that I am antisemitic is appalling and fundamentally dishonest. Criticizing the actions of the Israeli prime minister, a military technology contract, or the executives who supply it is not the same as criticizing Jewish people. This critical and necessary dialogue is then dishonestly framed as being anti-Israel. To be clear, my views come from my own political convictions and should never be interpreted as hostility toward Jewish people, for whom I have deep love and respect. Everything I know about acting, activism, and humanism has been profoundly shaped by the Jewish friends, colleagues, and loved ones who have been integral and family throughout every point of my life.

This merger has real consequences for real people, and for the entire country. Scrutinizing the Ellisons, including Oracle’s business built on data, surveillance technology and government contracts, and the serious threat to editorial freedom and the loss of a livelihood for thousands of families, is fair and necessary. The $111 billion deal would hand one family control over CNN, HBO and Warner Bros., backed in part by foreign money whose influence on editorial decisions has never been fully explained to the public.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have called for serious national security review, and regulators still haven’t given the public a real answer. Until they do, the merger shouldn’t move forward. Now is the time to dive boldly into all these issues, not step back or concede.

A spokesperson for Paramount called out Ruffalo’s initial criticism of the merger by accusing him of pushing “antisemitic tropes.”

In the initial criticism, Ruffalo called Larry Ellison a “classic oligarch” and warned about his connection to Oracle and the technology the company has given to the Israeli military.

Ruffalo is a vocal Democrat and critic of Israel’s government and actions in Gaza since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.

Ruffalo posted in an expired story on Instagram a video of former Oracle CEO Safra Catz discussing “profoundly scary technology at Oracle.”

“This is the company that Larry Ellison is using to fund his son David’s Warner Bros acquisition,” the actor wrote. “These ‘really profoundly scary technologies’ will most likely be merged into one of the largest media conglomerates in the world and one day used on you.”

The spokesperson for Paramount said that the company is “troubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute. Words like ‘genocide’ and ‘apartheid,’ applied to a corporate transaction, aren’t just wrong — they’re a bridge too far, and they cheapen the very real suffering those words are meant to describe. This doesn’t deserve a response in kind — and to be clear, we don’t tolerate prejudice of any kind, against anyone.”

The New York Times and others reported on Saturday that Paramount executives are set to hold preliminary talks with representatives for the California Attorney General’s office in the hopes of settling a lawsuit from the state which has blocked the $111 billion merger between Paramount and Warner Bros.

Reps for the state and Paramount are reportedly set to meet on Monday.

A dozen Democratic attorneys general filed the lawsuit, claiming the merger will “lead to higher prices, lower quality and less content for film and TV, harming movie theaters, basic cable distributors, and ultimately audiences on every sofa and movie theater seat in the U.S.”

Critics have taken issue with the merger as Larry Ellison is a close ally of President Donald Trump, and his son and Paramount are fresh off of a 2025 $8 billion merger with Skydance.

Warner Bros. would give the company control of CNN and other entities.

The merger between Warner Bros. and Paramount received the green light from the Department of Justice, but Paramount has agreed to hold off closing until 2027 amid the lawsuit and a judge blocking the merge.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!