Why no Game of Thrones spinoff will be exclusive to HBO Max

HBO Max has been making some weird moves of late, ever since David Zaslav took over the CEO of the newly formed Warner Bros. Discovery company. He’s been cancelling shows, downsizing departments and generally deemphasizing streaming. So where does that leave his company’s streaming service?

Well, things are still moving forward, although head of originals Sarah Aubrey is probably feeling a little more stressed of late. She talked to Variety about the state of the HBO Max, which received a boost lately thanks to the Game of Thrones spinoff House of the Dragon.

Subscribers could stream House of the Dragon on HBO Max, but it also aired like normal on HBO, something that helped it beat rival fantasy show The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power in a ratings war. HBO is actually developing a number of Game of Thrones spinoffs, and should they make it to air, don’t expect any of them to be exclusive to HBO Max. Speaking to Variety, Aubrey explained why that wouldn’t happen:

"They’re the experts in that field. You learn a lot making a show and you learn a lot in the trenches with filmmakers. You create a bond and a trust with that entire creative team. So it doesn’t really make sense when you are growing something together. We wouldn’t say suddenly, ‘OK, James Gunn is now going to go work with their team on another version of the ‘Peacemaker’ Universe or the ‘Suicide Squad’ Universe.’ Much of that is just about personal relationships that you build, because that’s when you really have success. So that’s what we really build new shows off is that relationship. There wouldn’t be shifting around."

So far as I can tell, Aubrey is saying that the decision-makers at HBO proper want the Game of Thrones spinoffs — however many there end up being — to be available over ordinary HBO, and that HBO Max wants to be respectful of their wishes. Given how much of a success House of the Dragon has been so far, I think that’s a good strategy.

The Penguin show will be set after The Batman but before the upcoming sequel movie

However, there are big upcoming shows that will be exclusive to HBO Max, including a few series based on DC Comics. For an instance, there’s an upcoming Green Lantern series that will focus on the hero John Stewart. “We remain very excited by the opportunity to make a big four-quadrant space opera with Greg [Berlanti] and Sarah for HBO Max,” Aubrey said.

A bit closer in time, there’s a spinoff of The Batman movie all about Colin Farrell’s take on the Penguin. It’s called…The Penguin, and Aubrey was happy to share some details about it. “‘Penguin’ will sit immediately after the end of ‘The Batman’ and temporally before the events of the second movie,” she said. “The show will come out in between the two movies. Now beyond that, it’s fun for the audience to know that it will be a bridge between the two, but the actual release date, I’m not at liberty to say.”

"The goal of this is to show what Oz’s life is like and that’s very much in the streets of Gotham, trying to get up and over as only the Penguin can. As a hustler and a strategist with his own ambitions. It is a great example of having the time over eight episodes to tell a longer-arc character story with a lot of delicious twists and turns and new characters. It’s very much going to be about Gotham at that street level, because he’s not flying around like Batman does. We are all embracing that as a very specific experience for audiences to have."

HBO Max does not have a Harry Potter series in active development “right now”

And then there’s Harry Potter, which is both the biggest jewel in the studio’s IP crown and a stone around its neck; before the middling returns on the Fantastic Beast series and author J.K. Rowling becoming a lightning rod for controversy, it’s tricky being in the Harry Potter business these days.

It’s unclear what Warner Bros. Discovery might do with the Harry Potter universe next. Might they go beyond airing reunion specials featuring the cast from the movies make some kind of TV original show? “There’s nothing like a ‘Harry Potter’ fan, in terms of their endless appetite for storytelling and new ways of interacting with these characters,” Aubrey said. “So whether it’s the reunion or live events or games, we’re very much in the business of creating new content for those fans and thinking what to do next. We don’t have a series in active development right now. But we are very much in that business, because fans are just clamoring for more storytelling.”

There are other big series coming down the pike, including Dune: The Sisterhood and It: Welcome to Derry. Will all of this be enough to turn HBO Max into a streaming powerhouse to rival the likes of Netflix and Disney+? The streaming wars continue.

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