HBO, amirite? What a shit show! What a disaster! It’s like David Zaslav and Elon Musk are teaching each other how to take something that everyone uses and utterly burn it to the ground! Luckily, we’ve got internet gallows humor to keep us going in this dark time.
To recap what’s been happening: Last August, after taking over as CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, Zaslav announced that Warner was going to focus more on theatrical releases and started slashing content from streaming giant HBO Max’s library. Batgirl was one of the first projects to be cut, despite being in post-production, with several animated series and fan-favorites like Westworld following.
Now, a new round of cuts has led to the cancellation of Minx, Love Life, and The Nevers, with previously nixed series like Westworld being pulled from the platform completely. Minx was preparing to wrap filming when the announcement came, though showrunner Ellen Rapoport expressed optimism on Twitter that the series would be picked up by another platform.
What makes Zaslav’s moves especially galling to filmmakers, showrunners, and fans is the decision to cancel projects that have already completed filming. This isn’t a matter of TV series not getting renewed—these projects are being greenlit, only to be canceled after months of hard work by casts and crews. According to Variety, the cuts will enable Warner to avoid paying residuals to the people who worked on the shows, while Batgirl’s cancellation earned Warner a tax write-off of up to 4.3 billion dollars.
Of course, when you look beyond the short-sighted cost-saving measures, the cuts are doing irreparable damage to HBO Max as a brand. Why would studios sell their work to HBO, knowing that it might get randomly slashed? Why would viewers keep subscribing to the platform, knowing that their favorite shows could disappear at any time?
Anyway, here’s what the internet has to say about Zaslav’s shenanigans:
BREAKING: HBO Max removes ENTOURAGE: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON boxed set from the back of your closet and throws it in the ocean.
I don't know how, but David Zaslav has somehow gone back in time and canceled M*A*S*H in its first season.
HBO Max just came in and removed my TV. Are they allowed to do that?!
HBO Max in 2020: what if you could have the entire HBO library at your fingertips
HBO Max in 2023: would you pay $9.99 a month for all seven seasons of Arli$$ https://t.co/wNAtYBwkA1
I'm just going to show up to Hollywood, lie, and tell people I wrote two seasons of a show that no longer exists on HBOMax.
hbo max killing shows they already paid for pic.twitter.com/XWjOwgDLEJ
Waiting on that announcement that says “HBOMAX has canceled HBOMAX”. https://t.co/uBtaOI7RmN
Someone from @hbomax showed up at my house, touched my forehead, and said “thou were never born”, and now my mom doesn’t know who I am and my wife told the cops I was a home invader
Me leaving HBOMax headquarters with the Minx Season 2 hard drive pic.twitter.com/8xvO8kv4X3
(featured image: HBO Max)
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Julia Glassman (she/her) lives in Los Angeles, where she reads tarot and watches Marvel movies. You can check out more of her writing at linktr.ee/juliaglassman, or find her on Twitter at @juliaglassman.
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