Warner Bros. Discovery's HBO Max Is Officially Becoming 'Max' In May
Get details on pricing and programming on the newly christened "One to Watch"
On Day 370 of the existence of Warner Bros. Discovery, the company held a press presentation to finally unveil their rebrand of HBO Max. It would have been a full merger of HBO Max and Discovery+, as originally announced in August. However, Discovery+ was announced to remain standalone in February, with the integration of its content continuing and being a major part of the rebrand.
Held at 1 PM Eastern, CEO Zaslav kicked it off by revealing the name to be simply “Max”, and that updates on the service’s live sports and news content will come “in a few months”. WBD’s streaming chief JB Perrette was the one to reveal the launch date, and that will be May 23. Rebrand launch day titles announced include the arrival of Shazam! Fury of the Gods and the long-awaited animated series Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai.
Perrette then tried to reassure that kids and family content would be a priority, despite being the same group of executives to remove dozens of series in the department in August, including Infinity Train, Summer Camp Island, Mao Mao, Mighty Magiswords, OK KO!, Uncle Grandpa and Victor and Valentino and withdrawing from live-action family series by canceling series like Head of the Class and The Gordita Chronicles. While the live-action series have been part of what’s licensed to Tubi and Roku, the animated series have yet to resurface. They did say the “kids characters, animation, and brands” didn’t meet their true potential on HBO Max and that Max will “better curate it”. This included introducing a kids’ profile option.
As for why they’re dropping HBO from the HBO Max name, it’s allegedly to keep the prestige. To not have to bear the burden of the full range of content under its wing to its name. HBO is HBO so they say. HBO and Max CEO Casey Bloys then commenced unveiling the first look at the The Batman spinoff The Penguin starring Colin Farrell as. It also stars Cristin Milioti and Shohreh Agdashloo among others, with recurrers including Theo Rossi, Michael Zegen, James Madio, and Scott Cohen.
A new The Big Bang Theory series was announced while hyping creator Chuck Lorre’s other upcoming Max original comedy series How to Be a Bookie, as was a series based on The Conjuring films with involvement from James Wan and now-DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran. There was some lip service to the new DC Universe he and James Gunn are crafting, but being only two months from the reveal of that slate, there wasn’t anything to really update on A docuseries about Shaun White’s final competition heading into retirement, titled The Last Run. and one featuring the SmartLess podcast tour will also be on Max. Robert Downey Jr. not only has a docuseries for his eco-friendly cars, but his series The Sympathizer coming next year was also showcased, where he plays a master spy of disguise. New footage of The Flash film played during an emphasis on theatrical releases.
U.S. networks chief Kathleen Finch put emphasis on linear airings for the currently-running and upcoming shows coming from their portfolio of linear networks, making sure to first air there and then coming to Max. She then goes into reality originals from the likes of Magnolia, HGTV and TLC, even some Discovery. Rick and Morty: The Anime, which got its first look here was going to be recorded using Japanese voices like the shorts that inspired it was never going to have the recently-fired Justin Roiland. Tiny Toons Looniversity has a fall release window. And the one new kids and family project announced, coming to Max and Cartoon Network, is an animated Peter & the Wolf adaptation with music and narration by Gavin Friday and artwork based on illustrations by Bono. Yes really. Bloys then showcased the trailers for the previously mentioned The Sympathizer, as well as the limited series The Regime starring Kate Winslet, and True Detective: Night Country.
Perette returned to the stage to talk user interface and pricing. While the ad-supported and ad-free tiers’ prices are unchanged, some features have been lost to a higher tier. Here’s the rundown:
Max Ad-Lite ($9.99/month or $99.99/year) allows two concurrent streams, 1080p HD resolution, no offline downloads, 5.1 surround sound quality
Max Ad Free ($15.99/month or $149.99/year) allows two concurrent streams, 1080p HD, up to 30 offline downloads, 5.1 surround sound quality
Max Ultimate Ad Free ($19.99/month or $199.99/year) allows four concurrent streams, up to 4K Ultra HD resolution, 100 offline downloads, Dolby Atmos sound quality
The Max Ultimate tier’s catalog of content available in 4K UHD is expansive and includes the Dark Knight Trilogy, The Last of Us, and franchises such as Game of Thrones and The Lord of The Rings. In addition, all Warner Bros. movies released this year and in the future will also be available in 4K UHD when they arrive on Max following their theatrical windows. Speaking of Game of Thrones, the service has ordered another spinoff, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight. Based on the Dunk and Egg novellas The series will be written and executive-produced by Martin and Ira Parker. Ryan Condal, House of the Dragon‘s current showrunner, and Vince Gerardis also will be EPs. The logline reads “A century before the events of Game of Thrones, two unlikely heroes wandered Westeros: A young, naive but courageous knight, Ser Duncan the Tall”, the aforementioned Dunk “and his diminutive squire, Egg. Set when the Targaryen line still holds the Iron Throne and the memory of the last dragon has not yet passed from living memory, great adventures await these improbable and incomparable friends.”
If one were to guess, the lack of Cartoon Network and Adult Swim-sourced series for the service are being held for the Upfronts presentation next month. Oh, and the market responded by dropping shares by 6%, so these boasts were not well responded to. Zas, you’re gonna be in hot water.