What’s Going On With HBO Max? Why ‘And Just Like That’ and ‘Gossip Girl’ Could Be in Danger

usmagazine.com:

HBO Max is undergoing some changes after its parent company merged with Discovery — and some fans are worried about the fate of their favorite shows.In April 2022, WarnerMedia (which owns HBO Max) merged with Discovery (which owns Discovery+), creating a new company called Warner Bros.

Discovery. Observers immediately began to wonder if executives planned to combine the two streaming services or offer a bundled package as Disney does with Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN+.One month before the merger was finalized, Discovery’s chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels confirmed that the company eventually plans to combine HBO Max and Discovery+, though he didn’t offer a timeline for when that would happen.As changes started popping up on HBO Max in August 2022, however, subscribers started questioning what might happen to Max Originals shows and movies as the two streaming services began sharing content.

Max Originals — which include the Sex and the City spinoff And Just Like That as well as the Gossip Girl revival, Hacks and Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin — appear only on the streaming service and do not air on HBO’s cable channel.Rumors continued flying after Warner Bros.

axed Batgirl, a feature film adaptation of the comic set to star Leslie Grace. The movie was greenlit in 2021 and was originally meant to premiere exclusively on HBO Max, but in August 2022, the studio announced that it was shelving the movie indefinitely, meaning it won’t premiere on streaming or in theaters. (Batgirl had already finished principal photography and was in the middle of post-production.)At the same time, Warner Bros.