HBO Max launched this week with the internet-exploding news that Zack Snyder’s Justice League would eventually be landing on the platform. But that isn’t the only DC superhero content coming to the streamer. Along with hosting all of the DCEU movies, some Arrowverse shows, and the upcoming Green Lantern and Justice League Dark shows, the platform is playing co-host to DC Universe’s Doom Patrol. This fact gave many hope that other DC Universe shows may come to HBO Max, giving fans a single location for all their DC binging. That, it turns out, is not the case.
Speaking with Business Insider, HBO Max content chief Kevin Reilly explained that DC Universe and HBO Max had plenty of conversations about how DC content would be used across the two competing platforms, citing the importance of DC’s content to Warner Media’s ability to make money:
There have been extensive discussions around DCU because DC is such a valuable entity to us and the depth of fandom is so important. So we really want to figure out how we walk this line for fans where we have a deep fan engagement, which is why DCU was designed, and a broader fan engagement.
That is evolving but there were high-end series that DCU produced that felt like, budgetarily, we could handle from a business model better, and bring along and service that swath of fans. Doom Patrol was a show we identified that had deep love for it and tucked right into our portfolio.
The key information came later, however, when an HBO Max rep followed up with information that no other DC Universe shows are currently planned to come to HBO Max. This means series like Teen Titans, Stargirl (already co-hosted alongside The CW), and Harley Quinn won’t be making the leap to HBO Max. Coupled with the fact that Netflix will still play host to the majority of the Arrowverse shows until that contract ends, it becomes incredibly difficult to keep up to date with all of DC’s content.
There was some good news in the article. Reilly spoke to the level of effort and money being put into both Greg Berlanti’s Green Lantern and J.J. Abrams’ Justice League Dark. “Greg has done a lot of really quality DC fare for The CW. These will not be that,” Reilly said, throwing some shade at the Arrowverse. “These will be next step up in production value. You can expect the highest level of cinematic production values on those shows, and that’s the same for the projects we’ve announced with J.J.”
You can also check out the latest and weirdest poster for the upcoming second season of Doom Patrol below.
