Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large To paraphrase a long-running network slogan, “It’s Not Max. It’s HBO.” HBO and Max content CEO Casey Bloys is changing the delineation between what an “HBO show” and a “Max show” is, moving most of Max’s upcoming big-budget, tentpole Warner Bros.
IP projects to under the HBO umbrella. That means the upcoming “Harry Potter” TV show, as well as the “It” prequel series “Welcome to Derry” and the just-announced Green Lantern adaptation “Lanterns” — in other words, major DC franchise and other big-budget titles — will all now be branded as HBO originals.
This is a switch from the most recent decision to place all series based on Warner Bros. IP in the Max bucket, which was first established when Bloys added oversight of Max in 2020. “We felt like we had to delineate between an HBO show and a Max show,” Bloys said of that initial distinction. “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.
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