Newly minted “Max” announces a new Harry Potter series, a new Westeros series, and a whole lot more stuff
New Harry Potter, Game Of Thrones, and The Big Bang Theory series are all headed for WB Discovery streamer Max
Aux News Harry Potter
After teasing for many months that it would change monikers, Warner Bros.’ streaming service finally bit the bullet. Not only did it officially change names to Max (dropping the “HBO” is cleaner, we guess?), the streamer also dropped a slew of project announcements. Some of these have been in the works for a while; some are brand new. The overall theme, though, is milking that established IP for all its worth, something we know David Zaslav has been eager to do. (That must be why he makes the big bucks!)
Perhaps most notably, Max officially announced its long-threatened Harry Potter television series, with controversial author J.K. Rowling on board as an executive producer. This is already being billed as a “decade-long series” which will cover one book per season. “Max’s commitment to preserving the integrity of my books is important to me, and I’m looking forward to being part of this new adaptation which will allow for a degree of depth and detail only afforded by a long form television series,” said Rowling in a statement.
Today’s announcements also included another one of those long-gestating Game Of Thrones spin-offs, A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight. Taking place a century prior to the flagship series, this show will follow “two unlikely heroes” in their adventures through Westeros: “a young, naïve but courageous knight, Ser Duncan the Tall, and his diminutive squire, Egg,” per the series’ synopsis. “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.” George R.R. Martin will write and executive produce alongside Ira Parker (House Of The Dragon).
Westeros and the Wizarding World are not the only cinematic universes expanding under Max’s watch. The streamer is also developing a new spin-off of The Big Bang Theory. No other details are available for this one, except that Chuck Lorre, who is currently in production for How To Be A Bookie, starring Sebastian Maniscalco, is developing it under his overall deal with Warner Bros. Television. (Old Sheldon, perhaps?) There’s also a mysterious new drama series being produced in The Conjuring universe, with Peter Safran already on board and James Wan in talks to executive produce.
Other established IP getting a shot in the arm from Wednesday’s Max Blast include True Detective, which finally got a teaser for the Jodie Foster-led season Night Country; the Gremlins, who return in a new animated prequel series Gremlins: Secrets Of The Mogwai; and Colin Farrell’s highly anticipated Penguin show, a crime series spin-off of Matt Reeves’ The Batman.
A handful of other trailers were also released, including for Smartless: On The Road, which follows Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes on tour with their podcast. Then there’s The Regime, a new drama about an unraveling European regime starring Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts, Guillaume Gallienne, Andrea Riseborough, Martha Plimpton, and Hugh Grant. And finally, there’s The Sympathizer, “an espionage thriller and cross-culture satire about the struggles of a half-French, half-Vietnamese communist spy during the final days of the Vietnam War and his resulting exile in the United States.” Park Chan-wook and Don McKellar are the co-showrunners for that series, which stars Hoa Xuande, Fred Nguyen Khan, Toan Le, Ky Duyen, Sandra Oh, and Robert Downey Jr., who also serves as executive producer.
This onslaught of content sends a clear message that the streamer still has Big, Prestige, and Crowd-Pleasing material, no matter what you think of the new name. You might find “Max” to be ridiculous and befuddling un-Googleable, but you can’t stop the company from re-releasing the same Harry Potter stories every 15 years until you die. Long live Max!
113 Comments
Doom Patrol sucked, we need more Chuck Lorre shows! Who can even know what’s funny and what’s not if there’s no laugh track to tell them? Not me, that’s for sure!And without Titans I have no reason to yell ‘Damnit, Dick, you still haven’t learned a single thing, have you?’ at my TV.
I’m sure you can find other reasons for dick-scolding.
I ended up in urgent care over the weekend with something called epididymitis. That led me to mostly yelling at my balls but I am pretty sure my dick had something to do with it as well.
*checks off “Nilus yells at his own testicles” from 2023 A.V. Club bingo card*
I found Doom Patrol really entertaining for the first two seasons or so… didn’t finish the last one.
The last one isn’t over yet! I think you’re talking about season 3, which was not great. Four is frustrating in that they’re still dealing with basically the same problems but it’s better than 3 at least.
Titans comes back today for the second half of its final season, and Dick has been less of a dumbass at least. Doom Patrol is going to finish up at some point…
I welcome The Hedge Knight news.
Yeah, color me cautiously optimistic for Dunc and Egg as well. They seem like easy novellas to adapt.
Perhaps, but they’re also relatively short and there’s only 3 of them. House of the Dragon was able to expand its material, but those were essentially encyclopedia entries that one could flesh out.
Remember when Martin used to say things like no adaptation of Dunk and Egg because he wanted to finish it.lolCash them checks, nothing getting done.
I fear the Big Bang Theory spin off news.
Dunk and Egg was the only potential spin-off being bandied about post-GOT finale that made sense to me. I know HotD is supposed to be pretty good—haven’t caught it yet—but Dunk and Egg always struck me as a nice self-contained story with still a lot of detail to be filled in. Maybe they’ll even finally tell us what happened at Summerhall.
The Dunk and Egg stories are pretty compact set up / punchline tales that really don’t need expanding. Maybe a three 90 minute episode season ala Sherlock?
Yeah, not the biggest fan of more GOT right now, but this is probably the best use of the IP if you’re going to do something.
I preferred GoT spinoffs from works that aren’t incomplete…sigh.
Even as someone that didn’t like the movies because they were missing some of the meat of the novels, does anyone really want a retread of the Harry Potter books as a TV show again? Weren’t those movies (that admittedly disappointed me somewhat) “enough”?
Sad that True Detective won’t arrive until after my subscription ends in June, but it seems like maybe I’ll be able to catch it on Tubi someday.
So, a whole bunch of reboots, sequels and spinoffs. Got it.
Wedding after Wedding after Wedding
That’s pop culture in 2023, bay-bee!
Rowling’s shitty personal views aside, a whole season per book seems excessive for at least the first like four books or so. Are they gonna spend the first half of each season exploring the Dursey’s child abuse in great detail or something? Entire episodes dedicated to a Quittich match? Though I guess if they can turn like forty pages of historical synopsis into an eight episode season for House of the Dragon they’ll find a way.Sucks for whoever gets cast in that show having to fill the shoes of the movie cast. That’s a lot of pressure, especially for the young people playing the main trio.
yeah i really pity whoever has to adapt the first 2 books into 10 hours of television apiece. not just the kids – at least they’re alive. replacing robbie coltraine or alan rickman is gonna be really hard.and yeah, i imagine it’ll be like 3 episodes before we even get to hogwarts.
They should just do shorter seasons for the first few – six to seven episodes is probably right for first two books.
If they try to force it to like 10 episodes, then yeah.But with House of Dragons S2 being 8 episodes, Last of Us S1 was 9, maybe they’ll adapt the number of episodes to the material. The first few books probably don’t need to be more than 6 or 7 episodes each. And they probably should film the first two back to back so the kids don’t sprout.
TLoU’s plan was 10 though, it’s only really 9 episodes because they’ve edited the first two into one, since they ended up not liking the way Ellie was introduced and felt they needed to establish her as the second protagonist earlier.
Alan Rickman alone is reason not to try and redo HP. No one can top that performance (for me).
Those original Harry Potter movies got really lucky with a young cast that ended up really turning into some good actors. They are tempting fate hoping to do that again
I always thought Chris Colombus is very underrated as a filmmaker, and one of his qualities has been this one in particular.
The first couple of Potter movies adapt practically everything from the books and feel mighty bloated at 2 hours apiece. I can’t imagine what quintupling that runtime would accomplish.
Yeah, I can only assume they’ll fill in a ton of blanks with random side-quest moments or vignettes about different characters. The core plot of Sorcerer’s Stone is charitably 4 episodes. Even if it’s an 8 episode season, you’re talking about 50% filler.Can’t wait for an episode about, like, how Malfoy’s Christmas went? Do like The Last of Us, throw in an entire episode about Firenze and a beautifully tragic gay romance he experiences.
depends. If they are 8 episode seasons that is not a lot of time to really flesh out everything in thee books. Maybe the first, but not much after that.
An entire multi episode story arch with SPEW coming right up!
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The answer to your question is “nobody knows.” Because absolutely no artistic or creative considerations were involved in this decision.
If there’s anything I’ve learned from comics, it is that you can infinitely carve off pieces of a continuity and expand them into a a full series. Some of them are great*, some of them are middling, some of them are just completely pointless.* The series that arguably kicked off the trend—Frank Miller’s Batman:Year One–is pretty good, but the lesson learned seems to be “We need a new Batman story for Q4…oh, hey, have we explored the story of the bat that crashed through Bruce Wayne’s window, providing the inspiration for his costumed alias? Is there something there?”
Ironically, everyone is putting woketards shitty personal views aside!
“’HBO’ has bee synonymous with quality programming for over 30 years. Just that association makes viewers much more likely to tune in.”“We should drop it. Change it to something super-generic that’s associated with a lesser cable-movie channel.”
Yeah almost nobody remembers that it’s nickname is ‘Skinemax’ and it’s most well known for soft core porn. Definitely better to use that name than generic bullshit that nobody knows about like ‘HGYO’ or whatever those letters are…’MGM’? See, I can’t even remember them.
I remember back when HBO stood for Hots & Beastmaster Only
Asking someone, “Do you want to watch Max tonight?” sounds like you’re asking them to take your dog for the evening.
“Max and chill?”“I’m calling the police.”
i always thought the bbc were gonna be the ones to do the overlong potter tv adaptation. it’s kind of interesting to be old enough to see something be a brand new phenom, adapted into something, side-sequeled and then re-adapted. also been interesting watching rowling go from the hero single mother who wrote the book in coffee shops to a bigot.so there’s no way they’re gonna make another fantastic beasts, right?
Disney technically beating them to the punch with Percy Jackson, no?Also, Full Metal Alchemist/Brotherhood maybe counts?
none of that stuff was on my radar, but i suppose hunger games counts too. and i’m sure twilight and 50 shades will join them shortly.
His Dark Materials too.
I’d say FMA is more one series before they finished the manga, and one series after.
It’s weird to see things that I was too old for in the first place being rebooted for a new generation.
She wanted 5 movies and a timeline of events up to 1945. Boy did we miss a bullet.
I mean, the whole reason they’re going back to the original story is because Fantastic Beasts lost a ton of money.
WB wanted to turn Potter into their own Star Wars with prequels and spinoffs for every last character, but it turns out the backstory of the Potter universe is actually really boring and stupid so they’re just gonna redo the one story that people actually like.
What’s truly baffling is the decision to use the “Fantastic Beasts” franchise as a trojan horse for the Dumbledore/Grindelwald backstory stuff. Why did they think they needed to trick audiences into watching a Dumbledore prequel? Why did they think a random in-universe textbook/out-universe charity novella would be a sufficient enticement?
It’s even more interesting watching woketards think their opinion of Rowling has any bearing in the real world
How much do you want to bet they paid some marketing consultant to come up with a fucking name like “Max.”
Don’t forget focus groups. Many, many focus groups
It just seems so strange that they decided that the part of the name to jettison was the area of the company that seem to have an uncanny knack for producing the most visibly noteworthy shows. In just the last few months, we’ve gone from talking about The Last of Us non-stop to doing the same with Succession, and will likely continue the trend when Barry’s last season arrives.
I feel like Marty DiBergi asking about the volume knobs. Why don’t they just call it HBO and make it bigger and have it all be better?
“But these go to MAX volume.”
“The review you had on Velma, which was merely a two-word review, it just said ‘Shitty-Doo.’”
I’m a regular HBO consumer. I have no idea what is HBO, what is HBO Max and what is other, if any. I click on the icon that says “HBO Max” and let er’ rip. If it was changed from HBO or HBO Max or whatever to just “Max” it would be a little jarring but ultimately I’d get over it. It seems bizarre to drop the HBO brand though since it’s iconic in my opinion.
Millions of dollars and that was the best idea….
Look, it was either this consultant, or the one that told every other company to just add a plus to their name.
This idiotic name, plus the price hikes, plus them dropping some old HBO content its like they’re actively trying to shake me
Still waiting to hear them come around and just put Westworld back on.
You will be waiting a long time. Westworld, sadly, never had the ratings out clout to justify its cost. We are lucky we got as many seasons as we did
No thanks. That died a season or two later than it should have.
I really liked the look of Westworld, and there’s absolutely no way to argue that it wasn’t well-done, but I was over it after the first season. It felt like every episode ended with the show runner yelling, “Hah! Bet you didn’t see that twist coming! I just totally blew your mind, didn’t I?”
This whole HBO Max –> MAX thing Zaslav has going kinda already seems like a very low-stakes Westworld kind of experiment. Just churn that existing IP and put new skin on it and give the guests what they already like. Wizards! Dragons! Violence!
Odd to hear the same soundtrack with a reboot type show. Of course it’s iconic at this point and anything else would probably have millennials rioting.
Before “reboot” was ever used to describe a TV show, the series versions of “The Odd Couple” and “M*A*S*H” reused opening theme music from the films.
Perhaps most notably, Max officially announced its long-threatened Harry Potter television series, with controversial author J.K. Rowling on board as an executive producer. This is already being billed as a “decade-long series” which will cover one book per season. “Max’s commitment to preserving the integrity of my books is important to me, and I’m looking forward to being part of this new adaptation which will allow for a degree of depth and detail only afforded by a long form television series,” said Rowling in a statement.Eh, Rowling probably just wants a second shot with a new cast who won’t grow into a pack of ungrateful anti-TERFs.
Good luck, zoomers are broadly speaking more likely to be pro trans.
Oh, I know. I just know it eats her up inside that the younger cast refuses to sanction her bigotry. Remember a while back when she basically said that the woke mob is preventing Watson and Radcliffe and the rest from endorsing her very true and very smart views?
Shes Anita Bryant for a new generation. Hopefully she lives long enough to be a decrepit has been with LGBTQ family members that don’t want anything to do with her.
Yeah! The youths will bring the revolution!
Instead she’ll get a new cast who hate her views from the get-go and are just in it for a paycheck.
Trans rights are overwhelmingly popular with young people, so if Rowling wants a cast who all agree with her she’s going to need to hold casting calls exclusively at Trump rallies and Klan meetings.
Maybe at one of the rallies she’ll run into Liebkartoffel
I kind of assumed with my usage of the word “TERF” would make it obvious—TERFs hate being called TERFs—but I am opposed to Rowling’s transphobia.
Apologies. Those types often don’t realize what the terminology actually means. Kind of like how they use “woke” as a derogatory term.
The youths are so woke especially if you’ve never left your mom’s basement. Dont forget blacks! They love trans too!
Well, I see George Martin’s found another reason to put off The Winds of Winter.
At this point I think irritating his fans is all the reason he needs.
He still has fans?
George R.R. Martin will write and executive produce alongside Ira Parker
I doubt GRRM will be writing any of it. He hasn’t written any episodes of House of the Dragon, or any teleplays since season 4 of House of the Dragon. The things he produces can only get made because they don’t depend on him writing more.
I admire your faith in him, but I don’t think he’ll be alive when season 4 comes out.
You said House of the Dragon twice.
Doh! House of the Dragon of course hasn’t had 4 seasons, I meant to say Game of Thrones.
I wonder if they’re going to adapt The Cursed Child eventually.
I remember at one point thinking about how I was going to get enough money to see the show on Broadway. Cut to now, where it’s been playing for a few years, and I still haven’t bothered.
Have they done a touring version yet?
It looks like it played in San Francisco last year. I don’t see any info on a more vigorous multi city tour like big musicals get.
I flipped through the script it a bookstore once.It was bad. Really, really bad.
“and his diminutive squire, Egg”?
No, him:
Also, Netflix will be changing its name to Qwikster.
Doesn’t bode much for the creativity or necessity of a reboot when it uses the same logo and music as the first adaptation.
Having said that, I hope they do re-imagine some things and make the TV show visually distinct. And I’m guessing that we’ll get added story to make the first few books justify a full season each.
HBO CEO of Tits.(God, I feel so old making such an ancient AVC joke)
wtf is starz max lol
I mean, the site is now slideshows and pop up ads so already a retro vibe happening.
Hey there’s still like 5 of us here. Joke on.
Not only did it officially change names to Max (dropping the “HBO” is cleaner, we guess?)Cleaner, as in “we don’t have to include the regular HBO shows anymore.”
Im sorry but this cannot stand, I refuse to accept more garbage from a terrible human being. More Big Bang Theory content from Chuck Lorrie? Abandon all hope!
And WB’s stock dropped 6% today upon the announcement.Seems WB’s strategy of “cancel everything original and regurgitate old IP over and over again forever” isn’t as exciting as they think it is.Speaking of percentage drops, in case you’re wondering why they’re finally remaking Harry Potter, here’s why.
But I was very strongly assured Rowling’s finances were completely separate from all Potterverse media production of the past decade! How could this be?!
Well if it ain’t broke, let’s break the shit out of it.
The only things really coming up on “Max” that I have any interest in are things we already knew about— Peacemaker season 2, and both the Venture Bros. and Metalocalypse movies.
I’m done with HP after JKR ruined it with her TERF bullshit. I think I’m just going to read fantasy books by queer and queer-friendly authors instead.
Dammit, I loved the purple gradient. I was hoping they weren’t going to change that.
Coming to Max, it’s ‘Dead Sheldon’! Watch your favourite Big Bang Theory nerd navigate his new existence in Hell even as he steadfastly refuses to believe in an afterlife!”
MAX might just be the perfect home for a documentary series about The AV Club’s favorite band…. THE SPR3!
Max officially announced its long-threatened Harry Potter , with controversial author J.K. Rowling on board as an executive producer.
You know what would be hilarious and also horrible? The likes of Gina Carano, Kevin Sorbo, or James Woods, cast on this (Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome your new Professors McGonagall, Snape, and Dumbledore!)… And somehow we keep hearding about how poor and brave J. K. Rowling is being cancelled and silenced by the radical left and trans-rights activists… If only I could get cancelled as Rowling or Chapelle… Today’s announcements also included another one of those long-gestating Game Of Thrones spin-offs, A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight.
At this point G. R. R. isn’t even pretending anymore. We will never see TWoW…
All this IP shit is depressing, but god damn am I excited about a spy show with Park Chan Wook as a show runner about a Vietnamese double agent at the end of the Vietnam war. That trailer looks incredible.
What is this hell? Seriously, AV 2023 is The Onion early 2000’s. This is literally pablum.
Egg and Dunk. Three cheers for that.Harry Potter is done, we have a definitive movie series and don’t need a verbatim retelling of the books. Has any fan not seen all the movies?
Why are they so hot to drop HBO, a brand with decades of prestige? It seems strange, almost like insane egos are at play.As far as the programming goes, sorry J.K., bullies don’t get a penny from me and you are now a bully.