The Streaming Wars continue, bloody and unabated. Netflix sits at the top of the mountain, daring anyone to challenge it. Disney+ has carved out a niche as "the family-friendly one." Max has had some branding problems. It started out as HBO Max, and then switched to just Max after parent company Warner Bros. merged with Discovery. What exactly is Max's brand? You have prestige HBO series like The Sopranos next to popular originals like Hacks next to 30 million series from the House Hunters and Property Brothers cinematic universes. I like the streaming service — I might use it the most of any I subscribe to — but it's an odd duck.
I'll leave it to you to decide whether this newest development helps or hurts: according to Variety, big tentpole shows that were previously going to run only on Max will now air on HBO (and will still stream on Max, of course). The branding will change, too: series like the IT prequel Welcome to Derry, the DC show Lanterns, and the upcoming Harry Potter adaptation will all be branded as HBO originals, whereas before they were Max exclusives.
“We felt like we had to delineate between an HBO show and a Max show,” executive Casey Bloys explained. “The idea of using Warner Bros. IP as a delineation for Max felt right. At least that gives you a clear lane. But as we started producing those shows, we were using the same methods, the same kind of thinking, as how we would approach HBO shows. In a lot of cases, the same talent that has worked on HBO shows.”
"What we ended up with is shows at this scope and scale that look great, and great narratives and talent we’ve worked with. The idea of the delineation kind of started to feel unnecessary. Like, why are we doing this? Let’s just call them what they are: HBO shows. For a show that feels big and cinematic, they already are going to make the assumption that it feels like an HBO show. This is just leaning into that."
This is so interesting to me, because I don't think "big and cinematic" used to be HBO's brand. HBO was known for producing challenging, boundary-pushing dramas and comedies like The Wire, Six Feet Under and Veep. And you can still see that DNA in shows like Succession, Barry and The Righteous Gemstones. But around the time Game of Thrones became a giant hit, HBO also started to embrace spectacle, albeit with a prestige edge, so we get shows like Westworld and The Gilded Age. With the Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, as well as the video game adaptation The Last of Us, HBO has embraced the era of big IP, which seems to be the future. But is that fundamentally at odds with HBO's identity as the premiere prestige TV factory? Can a show about the superhero Green Lantern be taken as seriously as True Detective?
Maybe! The talent is still there. Lanterns is being produced by Damon Lindelof, who previously made The Leftovers and Watchmen for HBO. DC Studios co-head Peter Safran even described the show as “a huge HBO-quality event” that is “very much in the vein of ‘True Detective.’”
J.K. Rowling says HBO's Harry Potter show will "live up to expectations"
HBO's challenge going forward, I think, will be trying to balance its desire to create a bigger tent using widely popular IP (mandated by folks like WBD CEO David Zaslav, I imagine) with its long-running mission statement to create the best TV possible. Godspeed.
The rebrand will start in 2025. There are a couple of 2024 shows like The Penguin and Dune: Prophecy that have already been sold as Max series; that will remain the case.
The biggest IP show on the horizon for HBO is probably its Harry Potter series, which will be overseen by HBO veterans Francesca Gardiner and Mark Mylod, who between them have worked on shows like Game of Thrones, Succession and The Last of Us. Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is an executive producer on the show, and she recently tweeted her approval. "I'm truly thrilled to announce our director and writer, both of whom I interviewed as part of the production team," she wrote. "Both have a genuine passion for , and having read Francesca's pilot script and heard Mark's vision, I'm certain the TV show will more than live up to expectations."
We don't yet know when the Harry Potter show might premiere on HBO, nor do we know if Rowling's involvement will become more of a weight than it's worth; in recent years, she's become better known for her anti-trans rhetoric than her literary output. While we work that out, I just hope that HBO can find a way to still produce groundbreaking original shows even as it warms up to our IP-driven media environment.
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