The Warner Bros group. Discovery announced on Wednesday, April 12, the launch of its new Max platform, merging HBO Max and Discovery, on May 23 in the United States, promising the very first series adapted from the Harry Potter franchise with its author J.K. Rowling as executive producer .
“The stories from each of (J.K.) Rowling’s seven Harry Potter books will become a series for a decade,” Max said in a statement, also promising a new cast. “Our priority is what’s on screen,” HBO CEO Casey Bloys warned on the sidelines of the presentation in Los Angeles, Calif., when questioned by reporters about accusations of transphobia aimed at the writer, who vigorously pushes them away.
“Max’s commitment to maintaining the integrity of my books is important to me, and I look forward to participating in this new adaptation which will achieve a level of depth and detail that only a long-running television series can.” offer,” the British novelist noted in the statement.
To salivate future subscribers, Max also promises a new Game of Thrones prequel, titled A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight, set one hundred years before the events of the original series, and which will further feed the saga. after a first prequel, House of the Dragon, in the summer of 2022.
Compete with Netflix and Disney
The new platform, where you’ll find the classics that made HBO so successful, like The Sopranos and more recently Succession, will be available at three prices, from $9.99 to $19.99 per month.
The service, which will also provide access to content from HGTV, Food Network, or Discovey Channel, wants to compete with the giants Netflix and Disney, two years after the announced merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery to form a new media giant.
Other projects are in the pipeline, including a series, The Sympathizer, based on the novel The Sympathizer by Vietnamese-American writer Viet Thanh Nguyen, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 2016, another entitled The Regime, with Kate Winslet, or a new True Detective opus with Jodie Foster.
For now, in France, HBO and the Warner Bros. Discovery are available via a “Warner Pass” marketed for 9.99 euros per month on Amazon’s Prime Video platform.
