HBO Max
As recently as yesterday, just one day before the launch of HBO Max, reports indicated that the new WarnerMedia streaming service would be without perhaps one of its greatest properties: the Harry Potter franchise.
According to reports, due to a 2015 licensing deal (which was set to run through 2025) that Warner Bros. made with NBCUniversal, HBO Max was going to have to launch without one of the studio’s most valuable and well-recognized franchises.
Lo and behold, though, when new subscribers signed onto the app this morning, there they were: all eight Harry Potter films.
https://twitter.com/ballmatthew/status/1265619083841736704
It’s obviously a massive coup for the media conglomerate, as launching a WarnerMedia streaming service without Harry Potter would be like the Walt Disney Company launching Disney+ without the Iron Man franchise.
That’s not to say HBO Max isn’t without its big misses, though, as reports indicate that The Dark Knight trilogy and all of the Superman movies have yet to hit the streamer. It’s understandably, as it will take some time for the studio to retain the rights to the content they previously dealt out.
WarnerMedia is clearly all-in on HBO Max, as the announcement of the Snyder Cut of Justice League being released on the service is perhaps one of the biggest entertainment stories of the year thus far. With various DC Comics-based series currently in development — such as Green Lantern and a Justice League Dark project — it seems like it’s only a matter of time until some sort of Harry Potter project is greenlit for the up-and-coming streaming service. HBO Max has already got the comic book nerds (like myself) locked in, now they need the wizard nerds.
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Eric is a New York City-based writer who still isn’t quite sure how he’s allowed to have this much fun for a living and will tell anyone who listens that Gotham City is canonically in New Jersey. Follow him on Twitter @eric_ital for movie and soccer takes or contact him eric@brobible.com