It is a time of cost-cutting and upheaval at the reconfigured Warner Bros. Discovery under CEO David Zaslav. The streaming platforms HBO Max and Discovery+ will be merging together at some point in the future, and the company is doing some housecleaning in the meantime. And it’s much, much worse than it sounds. Via Variety, 36 titles will be removed from HBO Max streaming as early as this week, including many HBO Max Originals, and some series are reportedly already gone.
It is unclear if Warner Bros. Discovery intends to make missing content available physically or through other means, but for the moment, it appears some content will just be gone, unavailable to consume anywhere legally. Again via Variety, here is the list of content and original series that are being removed from HBO Max:
HBO Max Originals
12 Dates of Christmas
About Last Night
Aquaman: King of Atlantis
Close Enough
Ellen’s Next Great Designer
Esme & Roy
The Fungies!
Generation Hustle
Generation
Infinity Train
Little Ellen
My Mom, Your Dad
Odo
Ravi Patel’s Pursuit of Happiness
Summer Camp Island
The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo
The Runaway Bunny
Theodosia
Tig n’ Seek
Yabba Dabba Dinosaurs
HBO Originals
My Dinner with Herve
Share
Cartoon Network
Dodo
Elliott From Earth
Mao Mao, Heroes of Pure Heart
Mighty Magiswords
OK K.O.! – Let’s Be Heroes
Uncle Grandpa
Victor and Valentino
Acquired Titles
Detention Adventure
Messy Goes to Okido
Mia’s Magic Playground
The Ollie & Moon Show
Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures
Make It Big, Make It Small
Squish
Unspecified Sesame Street specials will be removed as well.
Some creators have spoken out about the decision to remove content from HBO Max, including Summer Camp Island creator Julia Pott, who noted with exasperation that HBO Max pulled her team’s work “like we were nothing.” Warner Bros. Discovery has an uphill battle in winning goodwill back.
and we worked through the pandemic to make 20 linear episodes that are our most beautiful work yet. I cannot wait for you to see them. YOU WILL SEE THEM! I will not rest!
— Julia Pott (@juliapott) August 18, 2022