Something is happening at Warner Bros. The company recently merged with Discovery Inc. and, under the new leadership of David Zaslav, currently undergoing internal restructuring which is said to result in many layoffs and canceled projectswith the new goal of reorienting the studio towards cinema after a few years of streaming with HBO Max.
The first hit was’ Batgirl, whose cancellation took everyone by surprise last Tuesday, August 2, especially considering that the firm had spent $ 90 million on it and was well under way. And even the sequel to ‘Scooby!’, Which would have been released directly on HBO Max, will not be released, despite being nearly finished.
It became clear that for Zaslav, HBO Max is not a priority as well Warner is rumored to stop producing original content for the platform, renaming the titles that survive under the umbrella of the classic HBO. Changes to HBO Max itself are already underway that could signal major changes in the near future. In particular, six Warner films cataloged as Max Original have disappeared from the platform.
The films allegedly secretly deleted by Warner are “The Witches”, the recent adaptation of Roald Dhal’s book directed by Anne Hathaway, “Moonshot”, “Superintelligence”, “Pickled in Time”, “The Kings of Baltimore” and, interestingly , another Hathaway-starring title, ‘Confined’. All were exclusive to the Warner Bros. streaming service, but are currently in limbo. Also in Spain they are not available on the platform. Removing (and in many cases re-adding) titles from the catalog is standard practice for streaming services for a variety of reasons, but given the circumstances surrounding the Warner Discovery restructuring, it could indicate an uncertain future for HBO Max.
But that is not all. In addition to the cancellation of “Batgirl” and the sequel to “Scooby!” and also the disappearance of the Max Originals The “House Party” remake has been removed from Warner’s release schedule. The film, produced by LeBron James and Maverick Carter, would premiere this summer on HBO Max, but was also canceled.
The movie “Supergirl” is also in danger
Understandably, given this whole situation, There is a lot of uncertainty about several previously announced DC projects that are now in the balance.. Confirming the decision to focus again on cinemas, it has just been announced that the sequel to “Joker” with Joaquin Phoenix will be released in theaters in October 2024. On the other hand, James Gunn has reassured fans of “The Peacemaker” by ensuring that the series starring John Cena is not in danger.
However, it seems that the movie ‘Supergirl’, starring Sasha Calle, could suffer the same fate as ‘Batgirl’, since according to Rolling Stone sources, she would be the next to fall. Calle’s casting was announced in February 2021 and the actress would appear for the first time in the DC Extended Universe in “The Flash”, which also included the return of Michael Keaton as Batman and for whom she had already recorded the his scenes last year. . However, the future of that film is not clear either, due, among other things, to the continuing controversy in which its protagonist, Ezra Miller, has been involved.
Source: E Cartelera
