Warner Bros. Discovery is placing a number of the “premium” again into its premium cable outlet, HBO.
In a branding technique shift, a number of tentpole sequence that had been introduced as authentic exhibits for streamer Max — together with the in-development Harry Potter sequence and It prequel Welcome to Derry — will develop into HBO originals as a substitute. The just-ordered Lanterns, based mostly on DC Comics’ Inexperienced Lantern, was additionally first developed for Max however will now originate on HBO.
These sequence will after all nonetheless stream on Max, as all HBO exhibits do. However the determination to carry the high-visibility, high-budget exhibits beneath the HBO umbrella represents a change in strategy to how the 2 shops, each headed by Casey Bloys, differentiate their programming.
When Bloys took cost of what was then HBO Max in 2020, the streamer was to be the house of all sequence based mostly on pre-existing IP from Warner Bros. (along with exhibits like Hacks and the Intercourse and the Metropolis sequel And Simply Like That). As just lately as January, he instructed The Hollywood Reporter that “Sarah Aubrey [head of original programming at Max] and her group are attempting to focus extra on utilizing the Warner Bros. IP to do huge tentpole exhibits.”
Now, these big-budget exhibits will carry the identical HBO originals banner as Home of the Dragon and The Final of Us. The change in branding will occur subsequent yr, which means 2024 Max releases like The Penguin and Dune: Prophecy will nonetheless be Max originals. (Additional blurring the traces, exhibits from each shops are grouped collectively as “HBO/Max” sequence for awards consideration.)
As for Max, its slate of originals contains comedies Hacks, And Simply Like That, The Intercourse Lives of School Women and Bookie, DC sequence Peacemaker and forthcoming dramas The Pitt and Duster.