Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: HBO Max

  • ‘House of the Dragon’ – Best & Worst of ‘The Heirs of the Dragon’

    ‘House of the Dragon’ – Best & Worst of ‘The Heirs of the Dragon’

    Westeros is finally back on television, and there’s a whole lot to be excited about. HBO’s House of the Dragon, the first spin-off and prequel to the smash hit series Game of Thrones, premiered last night after much anticipation. The show had quite the legacy to live up to, and by all accounts, it checked off almost every box it needed to be considered a worthy successor. Coming on the heels of a controversial final season of Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon found its rhythm early and picked up where the absolute peak of Thrones left off. However, despite a rather strong start, nothing can be truly perfect. In a new weekly article series, Murphy’s Multiverse will break down both the best and the worst each episode of Dragon has to offer.

    The Best – Jousting & the Politics of the Throne

    There was quite a bit of good in this wildly eventful pilot episode, aptly titled The Heirs of the Dragon. With King Viserys I Targaryen, played by Paddy Considine, and his family suffering from some hushed health issues, the topic of the next royal heir is more relevant than ever in King’s Landing. This leads to several heated moments between Viserys’ advisors because as in any good court drama, nobody seems to be able to agree on who should gain true political power. The scenes focused on this are perhaps the episode’s most exhilarating, bringing fans back to a time when double-crossing and backhanded planning were the franchise’s main focus.

    Specifically, the tension between Matt Smith‘s Prince Daemon Targaryan – a nasty fellow – and Rhys Ifans‘ Ser Otto Hightower – a calculated King’s Hand – proves to be among the very best the premiere puts forward. The two high-ranking officials at first appear to be on opposite ends of the political spectrum, but small moments throughout the episode hint that they may be more alike than their demeanors suggest. The major difference between them is their execution. Where Daemon is outward with his intentions and desires, often far too aggressively, Otto hides behind a façade of respectability. Both seem to want more power, but where Daemon will say this to his brother’s face, Otto instead sends his daughter to woo a grief-stricken friend. It seems House of the Dragon is setting up an ongoing conflict between its own versions of Aiden Gillen’s Littlefinger and Iwan Rheon’s Ramsay Bolton, which should be enough to bring any viewer back from week to week.

    What the Westeros franchise does best, however, is bring together multiple smaller conflicts onto one larger stage. In Heir of the Dragon, this occurs at a joust. The King happily announces to his subjects that the Queen is in labor, something the audience knows to be a dangerous scenario, and allows the festivities to commence. During the “celebration”, nearly every plotline collides, intensified by the tragedy the viewers know is about to play out in the background. Daemon causes a stir, Otto confronts his anxieties, the Princess Rhaenyra questions her future, and men are murdered violently. Everything anyone could want from the show, wrapped up nicely in a single elongated sequence.

    The Worst – The Death of Queen Aemma & Alicent’s, *Ahem*, Awkward Situation

    It’s odd to call these things the “worst” of the episode when they were both also referenced as part of the “best”, but maybe that just speaks to the complexity of storytelling. Ever since the pilot of Game of Thrones hit the small screen in 2010, uncomfortable situations have been a key part of the viewing experience. The writers and directors on the series would tend to use the raw emotion of disturbing visuals and implications to their advantage, using the planned reactions from audiences to prop up the severity of important moments, and it’s now apparent the creatives behind House of the Dragon will do the same. Either way, the death of Queen Aemma Arryn, portrayed by Sian Brooke, is hard to watch, especially when it’s so obviously unnecessary and unfruitful for the man who ordered it. Yes, the scene works exactly as planned by the writers, but it also felt partly gratuitous to show so many of the gory details.

    In a similar vein, watching Otto Hightower “suggest” to his young daughter that she “comfort” the King in his time of need was – to be honest – not great. Again, this is something that comes with the territory of Westeros, and it effectively tells fans everything they need to know about both Otto and Alicent at this point in time, but that doesn’t make it entertaining to witness. Prior Thrones storylines give viewers a pretty good idea of where this is likely headed, and it probably won’t be the fan favorite subplot going forward. Although, who knows? Maybe this is just the beginning of a Sansa Stark-type turnaround in future seasons. Viewers will just have to keep watching to find out.

  • ‘House of the Dragon’ Showrunners Explain Why They Chose to Adapt ‘Blood and Fire’ After ‘Game of Thrones’

    ‘House of the Dragon’ Showrunners Explain Why They Chose to Adapt ‘Blood and Fire’ After ‘Game of Thrones’

    While Game of Thrones may have gone out with a bit of a whimper, it doesn’t seem to have put a damper on fan expectations for the next show set in George R.R. Martin’s fictional Westeros. Season one of House of the Dragon is set to premiere on HBO Max and fans are hopeful that the GoT prequel series, which is adapted from Martin’s novel Fire & Blood which told the history of the House Targaryen. In an interview with Comic Book, showrunners Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik explained why they felt now was the right time to bring that story into live-action.

    “The question that I’m left with at the end of Thrones, of the original season, when you start to look at, ‘What do I want to know more about?’ is I’m fascinated by the idea of like, ‘What are Dany’s origins?’ Like, ‘Where does you know, where do these people come from? Why are they so crazy?’ You know, ‘Where did they get that white hair from?’, Saponchik told Comic Book.

    For Saponchik, that meant Fire & Blood, which details two opposing sides of what he calls “Targaryen exceptionalism”, provided the perfect answer to those questions.

    I mean, those are, I think that this answers those questions and gives you a real sense of Targaryenism. We’ve got a thing in this show which we call Targaryen exceptionalism, which is an argument, a kind of a philosophical argument that often happens between Viserys and his brother, where one sees the future of Targaryens belongs to the dreamers, who are the people, the occasional characters, the occasional Targaryens who have prescient vision and see the future as they did see the end of Valyria. And then there’s the old school, Fire & Blood Targaryens like our character Daemon, who really think that everything should be conquered and conquest is everything.

    Miguel Saponchik

    To Condal, going from a world where Targaryens were a rarity to one where they ruled everything made for a more compelling story.

    If you really think about it this is the most obvious successor show to pursue. “I mean, the minute George pitched it to me, a million years ago is, ‘Oh, this is the one that I want to do the most.’ It made the most sense because it’s, we didn’t get to know anything about the Targaryens in the original series, not really. I mean, we got to know Daenerys very well and Viserys a little bit, until he was melted. And so it’s fascinating to go from that world where there were no Targaryens and they were trying to reclaim the scraps of this empire to a time when, the height of their power and decadence and glory and see what it was actually like when they were in power with dragons.

    Ryan Condal

    As for the disappointing ending of Game of Thrones, much of which fans tie to Martin never completing his novels, Saponchik doesn’t believe that’s a concern for House of the Dragon. Not only are Saponchik and Condal dealing with a complete story, but they also have a definitive end point in mind. “We have a very, very precise idea of where we wanna go with it, but we can’t tell you.” As for whether there are more stories on either side of House of the Dragon, Saponchik calls upon another expansive mythology for comparison saying, “I think that the important thing is that this is a… Think of this as an Episode IV, the Star Wars Episode IV. So it’s kind of, we’re in the middle of a history that is rich and full of stories to tell and it’s a good place to start.” 

    For fans of Martin’s novels or those who fell in love with the World of a Song of Ice and Fire by watching Game of Thrones, this is a surprising comparison, to be sure, but a welcome one.

    Source: Comic Book

  • HBO Max Seemingly Removed 200+ ‘Sesame Street’ Episodes

    HBO Max Seemingly Removed 200+ ‘Sesame Street’ Episodes

    At this point, it feels like any news or discovery surrounding HBO Max leads to some rather dark realization about what exactly is happening with Warner Bros. Discovery. There was a laundry list of shows that were pulled from the service, such as Aquaman: King of Atlantis, Infinity Train, and even Elmo’s Not-Too-Late Show. As it turns out, that wasn’t all that was removed.

    As uncovered by Tough Pigs, it seems that around 200 Sesame Street episodes were quietly removed from the service. According to their research, it seems that 250 legacy episodes were removed from the streaming service. They share that 29 episodes from the first 38 seasons still remain on the service.

    The service was the home of the largest amount of Sesame Street episodes. The whole point of streaming services was to offer an archived home for iconic franchises, TV Shows, and movies that people want to revisit. Sesame Street has quite the legacy and having access to the series is perfect for those seeking the nostalgia to share with their kids.

    Warner Bros. Discovery is pulling a lot from HBO Max, which was revealed to save money on tax and residuals. They’ve outright taken shows down but removing the episode opens up even more questions on what exactly the point is. If they aren’t trying to keep these shows for a later release on the new combined streaming service. At this point, there’s a discussion

    Source: Tough Pig

  • ‘Aquaman: King of Atlantis’ to be Pulled from HBO Max

    ‘Aquaman: King of Atlantis’ to be Pulled from HBO Max

    Warner Bros. Discovery is looking to pull another batch of titles from HBO Max. It was revealed on Wednesday that the streaming service will be pulling a large list of titles including The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo, Generation Hustle, Uncle Grandpa and Ellen’s Next Great Designer. The biggest surprise, however, is that the service is also set to remove Aquaman: King of Atlantis from the service this week.

    Aquaman: King of Atlantis was first announced in January 2020. The HBO Max original animated series centered on Aquaman’s first day on the job as the king of Atlantis. Joining him in the series were Vulko, the scholar, and Mera, the water controlling warrior-princess, who were there to serve as his two royal advisors. The series saw the hero rise to the challenge as he fought to prove himself worthy of being King of Atlantis.

    James Wan, who directed the first Aquaman film and its forthcoming sequel, Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom, was on board as a producer through his Atomic Monster banner. He produced the animated series alongside Michael Clear, Rob Hackett, Sam Register and Warner Bros. Animation. The series premiered in Oct. 2021 and has since become available to rent through other platforms including Amazon’s Prime Video and iTunes.

    As Warner Bros. Discovery continues to evaluate the company as a whole, it’s likely more cancellations and removals will be announced in the coming weeks. Especially given that the goal is to merge HBO Max and Discovery+ by next year.

    “As we work toward bringing our content catalogs together under one platform, we will be making changes to the content offering available on both HBO Max and discovery+. That will include the removal of some content from both platforms,” the company said in a statement to the press. “At the same time, we’re already starting to bring our content catalogs together like the launch of the new CNN Originals Hub on discovery+ and a curated collection of Magnolia Network content coming soon to HBO Max.”

    Source: Deadline.

  • Disney+ Beats Expectations and Adds 14.4M New Subscribers

    Disney+ Beats Expectations and Adds 14.4M New Subscribers

    It looks like the streaming market isn’t taking a nosedive after all. Netflix and HBO Max have been low expectations; especially the former continuing to lose subscriber count. The same fear existed with Disney+ but it seems that they managed to pull it to their advantage as they just reported that they’ve added 14.4M subscribers, which is ahead of their predicted 10M. As such, the stock is up 6% as a result and its revenue continues to be driven by its parks offerings.

    Bob Chapek, the current CEO of Walt Disney, has shared the following statement on their third fiscal quarter:

    We had an excellent quarter, with our world-class creative and business teams powering outstanding performance at our domestic theme parks, big increases in live-sports viewership, and significant subscriber growth at our streaming services. With 14.4 million Disney+ subscribers added in the fiscal third quarter, we now have 221 million total subscriptions across our streaming offerings. We continue to transform entertainment as we near our second century, with compelling new storytelling across our many platforms and unique immersive physical experiences that exceed guest expectations, all of which are reflected in our strong operating results this quarter.

    Bob Chapek

    Unlike most, Disney has a diversified portfolio that can counterbalance any scares with the booming streaming business. Plus, the confirmation that an ad-supported model of Disney+ will hit the US in December also adds to the excitement on what exactly the future may hold for investors. Of course, the price hike to $10.99 for an ad-free version might rub som the wrong way.

    Chapek promised investors in late 2021 that they’d reach 230M+ subscribers by September of 2025. It’ll be interesting to see if that continues to rise or if we should expect a slow-down anytime soon. They also expect Hulu and ESPN+ to become profitable by then as well.

    Source: Deadline

  • HBO Max’s ‘Pennyworth’ Season 3 Gets a Curious New Subtitle

    HBO Max’s ‘Pennyworth’ Season 3 Gets a Curious New Subtitle

    It’s still crazy to think that not only do we have a Pennyworth series focused on the famous butler that would go on to take care of the Wayne family, but it’s also lasted for around three full seasons. While it’s moving to a new home, Pennyworth is also getting a new title. HBO Max has decided that they can’t entirely sell a Batman prequel series without the name in the title, which is now titled Pennyworth: The Origin of Batman’s Butler.

    It’s kind of a bizarre title choice, which seems like it was made to give that series an additional level of promotion. Plus, it might be their way of trying to make the third season stand out for those that haven’t seen the original when it premiered on Starz. It does seem like the series isn’t going through any major changes and sticking t its guns from previous entries, but the fact they had to find a way to shove Batman into that title is definitely more a marketing ploy than something creatively.

    There’s no word if they might end up finishing the series with the birth of Bruce Wayne, which may be the inspiration for that title. We’ll see if the series might end up finding a strong audience on the new streaming home and could potentially go on for another season or two. So, perhaps the origin of Batman’s butler will remain a staple as Warner Bros. Discovery continues to figure out their franchise.e

    Source: Twitter

  • REPORT: ‘Constantine’ is Safe at HBO Max

    REPORT: ‘Constantine’ is Safe at HBO Max

    Over the course of the past few months, Warner Bros. Discovery has made headlines after canceling a slew of projects. Most of the notable cancellations to occur happened to DC titles including Wonder Twins, which was well into pre-production, and most recently, Batgirl, which was nearly finished. Now, DC fans are curious about what will happen to DC’s previously announced slate of television shows and movies, especially those on HBO Max. While the DC’s future slate remains uncertain, a new report from Deadline suggests that Constantine is still very much moving forward.

    The outlet states that Constantine, which is being developed through J.J. Abrams‘ overall deal at the studio, is on solid ground and is still moving along. In fact, it seems to be one of two projects believed to still be moving forward. Deadline also stated that Duster, which Abrams co-wrote with LaToya Morgan, still has its series order and looks to be active.

    Constantine, which hails from writer Guy Bolton, will see a diverse lead in the role and is imagined as a darker reboot of the DC Comics character. Rumors earlier this year stated that British-Nigerian actor Ṣọpẹ Dìrísù had been cast as Constantine. The actor’s casting was never confirmed, though.

    As it stands, nothing has been officially announced, but it looks like Constantine might be a series saved from cancellation. After all, David Zaslav is said to be a fan of Abrams and, so long as Zaslav feels Abrams’ work is quality, it seems likely Abrams will continue to chip away at his packed slate of projects.

    Source: Deadline.

  • James Gunn’s DC Projects and ‘The Batman’ Spinoff Still in Development

    James Gunn’s DC Projects and ‘The Batman’ Spinoff Still in Development

    There’s been a lot of discussions about what exactly the future has in store for Warner Bros. Discovery’s various DC Comics adaptations. The sudden cancelation of Batgirl raised the question of whether other projects might face a similar sudden cancelation. There’s still no word on what exactly the future looks like–besides a tease of a ten-year plan–but luckily it seems that some projects are definitely safe moving forward. James Gunn took to Twitter to confirm that Peacemaker‘s upcoming second season will be safe.

    The director has also gone on record to confirm that his other secret projects are still in development at this point. While they haven’t been announced outside of one that’ll focus on Viola Davis‘ Amanda Waller, it’s good to know that Warner Bros. isn’t shooting everything to the curve at this point.

    That is not all, as The Wrap‘s Brandon Katz has also taken to Twitter to hear that the upcoming The Batman spinoff series focused on Colin Farrell‘s Penguin is also safe. So, luckily those excited to further explore that new corner of the DC adaptation’s multiverse won’t have to worry much longer.

    It’s definitely a relief that these projects are safe, especially with the potential surrounding them. Peacemaker was a sleeper hit for HBO Max and there’s quite a bit of excitement surrounding the other projects he’s working on. While he’s still busy on the third entry of the Guardians of the Galaxy, he’s got a slate of projects in some form of development over at Warner Bros. and DC. Plus, Matt Reeves is also spearheading his own mini-universe that might offer something very grounded in contrast. So, it seems they aren’t just throwing everything out just yet.

    Source: Twitter

  • DC’s ‘Strange Adventures’ Anthology Series Cancelled According to Kevin Smith

    DC’s ‘Strange Adventures’ Anthology Series Cancelled According to Kevin Smith

    Another casualty of the massive turnaround from Warner Bros Discovery, it has now been confirmed that the studio has stopped development on their Strange Adventures show for HBO Max. Announced in late October of 2019, Strange Adventures was shaping up to be a Twilight Zone-esque anthology that would’ve served as “cautionary tales set in a world where superpowers exist.” The 1-hour drama, which was to be executive produced by Greg Berlanti, would’ve involved characters from all over the DC Universe.

    Kevin Smith, who had previously collaborated with Berlanti, directing episodes of The Flash and Supergirl, revealed on Hollywood Babble-On that he had been working on an episode of Strange Adventures alongside Supergirl writer Eric Carrasco. This episode, which Smith had intended to direct, would have centered around Jimmy Olsen and Perry White being taken by Bizarro to Bizarro World. Additionally, they were looking at Nicolas Cage to play the character of Bizarro. However, according to Smith, the project has been canceled and will not be moving forward at the studio:

    “It feels like what was once, to me, a promising future of we are going to see a bunch of DC stuff on HBO Max; MORE DC stuff than we would see theatrically, including shit like Strange Adventures…gone! All of it is just f—king gone now. I got a call the other day from Eric before all of this story broke and he was just like “Strange Adventures is officially dead,” and I was like “What the f–k, are you serious?!” I know we haven’t heard from them for a while, but I guess this goes in parts with the new moves with David Zaslav. But good lord, I thought Strange Adventures being a causality kind of made sense to me. Nobody necessarily knows these characters; it sounded like an expensive show.”

    Strange Adventures‘ cancellation is indeed in line with the array of projects getting nixed by Warner Bros. Discovery. Notably, Batgirl was scrapped despite being in the post-production process and $78 million already being spent on it. Wonder Twins, a project also slated for HBO Max, was canceled earlier this year as well. And at the pace in which David Zaslav has been clearing house in terms of previously announced projects in development, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to assume more projects will meet an untimely end before they move any further.

  • Warner Bros. Discovery Won’t Guarantee 45-Day Theatrical Release Window Anymore

    Warner Bros. Discovery Won’t Guarantee 45-Day Theatrical Release Window Anymore

    The 45-release window was a controversial one, as many feared that streaming demands are pushing films out of theaters. While some films revel in their long-running theatrical release, it has offered the opportunity for others to not only pull in a strong box office run but also a high view count to boost the various streaming offerings. While Disney+ is seemingly sticking to it, Warner Bros. Discovery may have other plans moving forward.

    To say that the shake-ups over at Warner Bros. Discovery have been bizarre is to only paint one picture. While the previous group strongly focused on growing its new streaming service with HBO Max, the current one is moving away from the foundation that was laid out. A part of that is the reveal that they are no longer guaranteeing that they will adhere to the modern 45-day release window. So, we might see many big-budget projects make use of a longer running time as much as possible.

    Streaming hasn’t run its course just yet, but we are seeing some bumps along the way. More and more competitors have entered the market creating some concerns among investors. We’re likely seeing a realigning of strategies due to the events that have unfolded since the pandemic died down. The post-pandemic era has set a new precedent and we’re seeing many business decisions hit a snag along the way. It’s not uncommon and with Netflix losing its subscribers for the first time since it started, we’re simply seeing a new era as people slowly embrace leaving their homes once again.

    Source: Decider