The moment has come for HBO Max and Discovery Plus to become one in a new super streaming service known as “Max.” Warner Bros. Discovery said the new service would be open to the public on May 23, 2023.
The $43 billion Warner Media-Discovery deal was completed a little more than a year ago, and 2023 also marks the 100th anniversary of Warner Bros.
“This is a real moment for us. This is our time. This is our chance, and everything is possible,” Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav said in his introductory remarks.
“I feel like, for our company, this is our rendezvous with destiny,” he continued.
The President and Chief Executive Officer of Global Streaming and Games for Warner Bros. Discovery, JB Perrette, stated that the purpose of combining Discovery and Warner content into a single service is to differentiate themselves “in a sea of streaming services” that are competing for customers in the market.
With this unveiling, the media conglomerate revealed several news series that are in the pipeline to be released in “Max.”
Here is a list that SEA Wave has put together for you so you don’t have to!
Harry Potter TV Series
A teaser poster for the Harry Potter series released by Warner Bros. Discovery
A Harry Potter series was also confirmed during the launch, with a retelling of the pop culture classic. Its author, J.K. Rowling is reportedly heavily involved in the production as its creative lead. The series also promises a faithful series across seven seasons, with each season covering one book.
Check our SEA Wave story for this entitled “Wands Up! ‘Harry Potter’ Might Get A TV Series on HBO Max”
A new Game of Thrones spin-off
After the groundbreaking success of the first Game of Thrones spin-off, “House of the Dragon”, the media provider is ready to take the fans back to Westeros, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight”, based on George R.R. Martin’s Dunk & Egg fantasy novellas.
The series will take place a century before the events of Game of Thrones, focusing on the journey of two knights, Sir Duncan the Tall and his squire, Egg.
Here’s the official logline: A century before the events of Game of Thrones, two unlikely heroes wandered Westeros… a young, naïve but courageous knight, Ser Duncan the Tall, and his diminutive squire, Egg. Set in an age when the Targaryen line still holds the Iron Throne and the memory of the last dragon has not yet passed from living memory, great destinies, powerful foes, and dangerous exploits all await these improbable and incomparable friends.
DC’s The Penguin
Set in the same continuity as the latest Batman film directed by Matt Reeves. For context, the Batman in that film was played by Robert Pattinson, not the maybe-still-around Batman played by Ben Affleck in the Snyder universe, nor the very recent Batman played by Christopher Nolan.
The Penguin is going to follow the titular man, who is known outside of his penguin-sona as Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot, or, as the press release announcing this show referred to him, Oz.
Oz is a member of the mafia and a lieutenant of Carmine Falcone, the head of the organized crime family. In this iteration of The Batman, Falcone is also the father of Selina Kyle, also known as Zoe Kravitz’s Catwoman.
According to Deadline, the show will focus on both Sofia and Oz, who are engaged in a struggle for leadership of the Gotham City government.
The Sympathizer
Top-billed by Robert Downey Jr., The Sympathizer, based on Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, appears to be our next major spy film binge.
It’s a historic adaptation of a well-known Vietnamese piece, and it marks Park Chan-wook’s return to television five years after his great AMC miniseries The Little Drummer Girl in 2018.
Taking a cue from its dizzying source material — which gleefully hops from genre to genre with a dizzyingly recursive narrative about an anonymous North Vietnamese spy embedded in the South Vietnamese army who expatriates to the United States for, among other things, a farcical film production — The Sympathizer’s trailer is delightfully perplexing.
The Sympathizer is set to be released on HBO and Max in 2024.
The Regime
The Regime, a limited series slated to begin in 2024, will continue HBO and Kate Winslet’s fruitful creative partnership.
Formerly known as The Palace, the series from Succession writer and executive producer Will Tracy, follows a year inside the palace of a “modern European regime” as it begins to fall apart.
Winslet has previously appeared in HBO’s “Mare of Easttown,” as well as “Mildred Pierce.” Her other current HBO project is the upcoming limited series “The Trust,” which is based on Hernan Diaz’s novel of the same name.
Apart from these, it was also teased that a Big Bang Theory spin-off is in the works and a “fresh take” on The Conjuring film.
For the time being, Warner Bros. Discovery’s ambition is far more modest: by 2025, the company hopes to achieve 130 million subscribers across HBO, Discovery Plus, and what will now be known as Max. The three services presently have approximately 96.1 million global users, including the 1.1 million added in the fourth quarter of 2022, which is a far cry from Netflix’s total of approximately 230 million subscribers.
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