MGM+ Stalks Year-Round Original Series As Epix Rebrand Roars Into Sight
deadline.comMichael Wright is hoping to breathe new life into the lion with the launch of MGM+. He is leading the charge to rebrand Epix on January 15 with significant backing from new owner Amazon and a mandate to order more original series so that it can have a slate of new shows on air every week of the year.
This will include some existing favorites such as Godfather of Harlem, starring Forest Whittaker, and sci-fi horror series From, as well as some new series such as Hotel Cocaine from Narcos’ Chris Brancato and a follow-up to Julian Fellowes’ Belgravia, as well as potentially new seasons of shows such as Condor and Chapelwaite.
Not to mention a move into the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Silk: Spider Society. Wright struck a new deal in November to become Head of MGM+, eschewing his previous double role as he was also President of MGM Scripted Television, with the studio side of the job going to Lindsay Sloane.
He told Deadline that the rebranding effort started three years ago, long before MGM was a twinkle in Amazon’s servers. He said that the service, which is both a linear network and streaming destination, needed to distinguish itself as the world of peak TV continued to grow. “If you’re not Netflix or Amazon, not so big that you can’t be all things to people, the path to success in this business for the rest of us is to identify the customer market, and say ‘that’s my core audience’.
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