Open Channel: Which HBO Max Genre Series or Movie Needs Saving?

PublishedAugust 4, 2022

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Blackbeard from Our Flag Means Death, Bugs Bunny, Lady Jessica from Dune, and Harley Quinn — Screenshot: Warner Bros./HBO Max

The Warner Bros. and Discovery merger shake up continues, with increasing speculation over the fate of HBO Max and its original content. While DC Universe’s Batman spin-off The Penguin and Suicide Squad spin-off Peacemaker seem to be safe (for now, at least, per James Gunn’s “calm down” tweet and Colin Farrell’s recent Penguin enthusiasm), we can’t help but be a bit concerned about some of our other favorites—not to mention some in-development projects in the various genre franchises under the Warner Bros. shield. Will they make the cut?

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In today’s earnings call, the president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, David Zaslav, re-affirmed his stance on “embracing theatrical.” The surprising cancellation of the nearly-completed Batgirl movie looks to be casualty of what he called “ aggressive steps to course-correct the previous strategy,” and during a Q&A portion he gave a bit more insight as to why Batgirl and other direct-to-consumer (DTC) films didn’t make the cut. “We have a team in place who’s going to build a 10-year plan for DC. Expensive DTC movies are no comparison to when you launch a film in theaters. We have done a reset. The objective is to grow the DC brand and characters and to protect them.” Zaslav likened the studio’s strategy of tackling the DC franchises to how Alan Horn, Bob Iger, and Kevin Feige built the Marvel Cinematic Universe—in regards to planning, at least, but not necessarily taking the same approach with storytelling.

Here are some titles we may not know the fate of until the end of the year and into 2023 when HBO Max and Discovery+ merge into one service. What we wanna know is: if worst comes to worst, which one would you want to save? This list is by no means every genre series or movie HBO Max was either rumored or confirmed to have in the works—though frankly it’s not looking good for that Supergirl film—so if there’s one not listed that you were dying to see, let us know that too.