More Originals Removed from HBOMax – Including ‘Westworld’, ‘The Nevers’
The financially motivated purge of the catalog of originals on HBOMax continues. Are they going to leave anything for us to watch?
So why is all of this happening in the first place? Discovery, Inc. (as in the Discovery Channel from the before times of cable) bought WarnerMedia in 2021, so now we have Warner Bros. Discovery. The honeymoon period of the new company ended this summer, and the company is under new leadership – CEO David Zaslav.
It’s not the stuff dreams are made of. At all. Over the last several months, we’ve gotten cancellations, date changes, hirings/firings, (stupid) name changes, and counterintuitive IP deals. It’s been a bit heart-wrenching to watch a media company be torn down as if it’s just another spreadsheet to be balanced, with no care for the stories or characters it owns. You can’t run a successful creative enterprise by just looking at the bottom line. Anyway…
New HBOMax Cancellations
Since the company has started restructuring, they’ve canceled multiple projects and removed over 40 titles from HBOMax, including originals. Batgirl and a Scoob sequel were shelved when they were nearly done, reportedly for tax breaks. Many of these titles were never made available on physical media, so the only way to access them is to pirate them.
I’m sorry to say it’s not stopping. The latest to meet the ax, according to Deadline: Westworld, The Nevers, Minx, and Love Life. The latter two had approval for a second season rescinded – Minx was wrapping up filming their second season when the news broke.
A removal date hasn’t been provided, so if you’re behind or want to rewatch any of those shows, you need to do it now. I’ll keep an eye out for more as they keep hacking away at shows. They likely need more bandwidth for more seasons of 90-Day Fiancee when they merge Discovery and HBOMax into one service. Maybe they should cancel all future Game of Thrones related projects and remove The Wire next – that’ll save some money.
“Warner Bros. Discovery’s unmatched depth and breadth of content provide us the opportunity to offer something for everyone. Providing consumers with a range of entertainment options will maximize our reach and financial returns.” – Gunnar Wiedenfels, CFO
Sure, dude.
