Image: HBO Max
WB movies won’t hit the platform, but these shows and movies will
The Dec. 22 premiere of The Matrix Resurrections on HBO Max concludes a risky year in which all of WarnerMedia’s major theatrical releases simultaneously hit the streaming platform. The results of the experiment are a great unknown; few of Warner Bros. Pictures’ movies took off at the U.S. box office like they might have as theatrical exclusives, but they likely resulted in a boom of subscribers for the growing HBO Max platform. But in 2022, Warner Bros. Pictures and HBO Max resume business as normal, with major releases heading only to multiplexes and Max becoming the home for streaming content. In a new sizzle reel for the 2022 slate, HBO Max hopes that won’t be such a bad thing.
The HBO-proper slate for 2022 mostly notably includes the return of Westworld, with season 4 picking back up with Aaron Paul’s petty thief character. The video also confirms a 2022 release for the third season of Bill Hader’s Barry, as well as new seasons of His Dark Materials and The Nevers. The trailer also highlights new footage from January’s The Suicide Squad spinoff Peacemaker, the Zendaya-led Euphoria, the new Game of Thrones series House of the Dragon, and Adam McKay’s anticipated docudrama Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, starring John C. Reilly.
On the HBO Max originals side, the reel boasts bits of footage from second seasons of The Flight Attendant and Raised by Wolves, the Pretty Little Liars spinoff Original Sin, a new take on The Time Traveler’s Wife, and the long-gestating animated Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai.
Perhaps most interestingly is the end of the sizzle, which teases a number of the original WB films coming to the platform in 2022. Like Netflix, HBO Max hopes to make a splash with smaller-budgeted films that fill the gaps of our blockbuster-sized theatrical moment. On the slate are a remake of House Party; Gary Alazraki’s new Latin-spun version Father of The Bride starring Andy García, Gloria Estefan, and Adria Arjona; Steven Soderbergh’s new movie Kimi, starring Zoë Kravitz; and Moonshot, a science-fiction romcom starring Cole Sprouse and Lana Condor.
Now to find time to watch all this stuff…
