HBO and HBO Max chief Casey Bloys unveiled what’s next for the brand Thursday at a press preview event at the company’s Hudson Yards headquarters in New York. The event coincidentally took place on the same day that HBO’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, was scheduled to receive bids to sell its assets.
After making an initial joke about announcing who would buy WBD, Bloys later returned to the topic with a flatly “No, I’m not” when asked if he was worried about his job or the HBO brand.
“And I’ll tell you what I told the team,” Bloys continued. “I said this in a town hall a few weeks ago: The only thing you can do in this process, and the best thing you can do, is focus on your job. That’s what we do, which is make the most impactful show in any genre. All you can really think about is theoretical stuff, and that’s kind of a waste of energy. Because what happens to me? ‘Cause I don’t know, you just don’t know. Maybe you know what’s going to happen, but we don’t know what’s going to happen.’So I haven’t spent a lot of time working it out, and even if we do, it’s not something we really have to think about, we’re proud of our track record at HBO and HBO Max. We approach this process with a generous heart, much of which is out of our control. ”
During the presentation, Bloys played footage from several upcoming series, but no footage yet from HBO’s “Harry Potter” television series (though some images have been released). Bloys confirmed that the writers of the show, which is based on J.K. Rowling’s best-selling novel series, are currently working on the script for season two, with season one currently filming in the UK.
“Obviously they’re still filming Season 1. They’re writing Season 2, so the plan is to try to make that happen. I don’t know if they’re going to stop filming Season 1 on a Friday and start Season 2 on Monday, so there’s going to be a break there,” Bloys says. “But we’re going to do everything we can to make sure there’s not a big difference, not just for the kids, of course, but also for the audience. We’re trying to make sure there’s not a big difference. It’s a big show. There’s a lot of special effects, obviously it’s a big operation. But we’re going to do everything we can for the kids’ age, but also for the audience.”
While showing off both the HBO and HBO Max series in the lineup, Bloys gave his most succinct definition yet of HBO Max original series, admitting, “Until recently, Max’s original series might have been a little vague to you. You probably asked me about it. It’s a little vague to you, it’s a little vague to me. But now I can say that Max’s originals serve a very specific purpose.”
Simply put, it means more shows like the Emmy Award-winning “The Pit.”
“We’re leaning toward series that are more cost-effective, yet higher quality, and that allow us to air more episodes each year,” Bloys continued. “These originals are designed to attract an audience adjacent to the typical HBO fan, while also feeding our strategy of delivering new programming 52 weeks a year. Of course, ‘The Pit’ was our first shot, but we just caught lightning. Audiences embraced 15 weeks of habitual viewing. Five Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Drama Series, followed, and we quickly followed with our second. We were able to pivot the season and we’re already in the pilot stage with two more: American Blue, a crime drama directed by Jeremy Carver, and How to Survive Without Me, directed by creator Greg Berlanti.
