HBOMax, WarnerMedia’s upcoming streaming platform, had what served as an introductory presentation today on the Warner Bros. studio lot, introducing investors and press to the upcoming service, which builds on the HBO brand. Warner executives made many announcements today, including the following:
HBOMax will officially launch in the United States in May 2020. There was some discussion about launching in Latin America and some European countries in 2021, but no set dates on international expansion.
Episodes of HBOMax original series will be released weekly, not all at once.
HBOMax landed exclusive streaming rights to SOUTH PARK. All 23 seasons of Parker and Stone’s animated satire will be available in June 2020 on HBO Max with three new seasons to follow. In addition, HBOMax will be the streaming home to Adult Swim’s Emmy award-winning animated series RICK AND MORTY in the United States.
Three new shows were announced during the presentation which are geared towards a younger audience: Announced today on the stage at the HBO Max WarnerMedia Day are three new projects in the works at the forthcoming streamer: DC SUPER HERO HIGH from Elizabeth Banks, RAP SH*T (working title) from Issa Rae and COLLEGE GIRLS (working title) from Mindy Kaling. DC SUPER HERO is a half-hour comedy series that follows a group of students experiencing the fun and drama of adolescence at a boarding school for gifted kids. RAP SH*T is a half-hour comedy series that follows a female rap group from outside of Miami trying to make it in the music industry. Finally, COLLEGE GIRLS is a 13-episode half-hour, single-camera comedy following three 18-year-old freshman roommates at Evermore College in Vermont.
In addition, uber-producer Greg Berlanti will be producing two new shows for the streaming service: STRANGE ADVENTURES and a GREEN LANTERN inspired series. “Both of these original DC properties we’ll be creating for HBO Max will be unlike anything seen on television,” said Berlanti. “An anthology series of cautionary tales set in a world where superpowers exist, and, in what promises to be our biggest DC show ever made, we will be going to space with a GREEN LANTERN television series, but I can’t reveal any more about that just yet.”
Conan O’Brien-related news includes the fact that Conan O’Brien and Team Coco will be bringing five all-new stand-up specials to the streaming platform launching in spring 2020. As part of O’Brien’s joint venture with WarnerMedia announced last year, the specials will launch exclusively on HBO Max and will feature talent handpicked by O’Brien. O’Brien will host two specials that feature short sets from multiple up-and-coming comics while also curating one-hour-long sets from three comedians. In addition to those five specials, HBO Max has purchased the rights to a one-hour special from comedian James Veitch, also produced by Team Coco.
HBOMax also announced a new serialized sci-fi series by Ridley Scott, titled RAISED BY WOLVES. “The series centers on two androids tasked with raising human children on a mysterious virgin planet. As the burgeoning colony of humans threatens to be torn apart by religious differences, the androids learn that controlling the beliefs of humans is a treacherous and difficult task.”
Gina Rodriquez will be starring in as the titular character in the film BOBBIE SUE, which is coming to HBOMax. The film “follows the story of Bobbie Sue, who after being raised among four rowdy brothers in a blue-collar neighborhood, is a scrappy, headstrong young lawyer who lands a career-making case with an upper crust law firm, only to realize she’s been hired for optics and not her expertise. But after discovering her powerful client, a lifelong idol of hers, is trying to cover up exploiting workers within her company, Bobbie decides to take both her and the law firm on, caution and etiquette be damned.”