Sci Fi TV News Briefs: WarnerMedia Will Launch HBO Max and Bundle Several Services, Zack Snyder Brings the Gods to Netflix, and More

Sci Fi TV News Briefs: Quick hits keeping you updated on sci fi and fantasy television news.

WarnerMedia Goes to the Max: We have been hearing about the WarnerMedia streaming platform for a while and this week we have finally learned its name and more about what it will offer. The service will be called HBO Max and according to WarnerMedia Entertainment and Direct-To-Consumer Chairman Robert Greenblatt:

[It] will bring together the diverse riches of WarnerMedia to create programming and user experiences not seen before in a streaming platform. HBO’s world-class programming leads the way, the quality of which will be the guiding principle for our new array of Max Originals, our exciting acquisitions, and the very best of the Warner Bros. libraries.

This statement suggests that HBO Max will include the HBO originals and a trailer (see below) released to announce the service included the logos for DC Universe, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, TBS, CNN, TNT, New Line Cinema, truTV and Boomerang. It is unclear what content from each of those will be available on HBO Max, but I would expect the original programming to be included. This service will also become the home for The CW shows (after they have finished their broadcast season) now that Netflix no longer has an exclusive deal with that network. Expect more specifics on HBO Max in the coming weeks and months and currently it is targeting a Spring 2020 launch.

Amazon Goes into the Paper Girls Business: Amazon has won the bidding to adapt Brian K. Vaughan’s graphic novel Paper Girls. Deadline Hollywood gives the following description:

The series follows four young girls who, while out delivering papers on the morning after Halloween in 1988, become unwittingly caught in a conflict between warring factions of time-travelers, sending them on an adventure through time that will save the world. As they travel between our present, the past, and the future — they encounter future versions of themselves and now must choose to embrace or reject their fate. An emotional adventure in which the girls and the women they eventually become are tough, their friendships are authentic, and their journey through time is epic.

Legendary Television and Plan B will produce the series and Stephany Folsom (Toy Story 4) will be onboard as writer. Expect this to debut on Prime Video later in 2020.

Zack Snyder Gets Mythological: It seems like Netflix is getting everybody these days as Zack Snyder (Aquaman, Watchmen) is bringing a new project to the streaming service. This will be an Anime series based on Norse mythology, though no further details are available at this time. Snyder has co-created the series with Jay Oliva (Justice League Dark, Young Justice) and the latter creator will act as showrunner for the series. This will be Snyder’s first television project and will likely debut at some point in 2020.

Return to Westeros: Entertainment Weekly recently talked with George R.R. Martin about the frist Game of Thrones prequel series (which is currently titled The Long Night, but that could change). Among the things he revealed is that it will take place a thousand years before the events of GoT when Westeros is divided up into about a hundred “petty kingdoms”. The Starks will be there and they will have direwolves. And no Lannisters will be there at first, though Castlery Rock–occupied by the Castlerys at that time–will be seen. Currently this show is targeting a mid-to-late late 2020 debut.

Production Notes: Matt Ryan will remain as a series regular in the fifth season of The CW’s Legends of Tomorrow. John Wick creator Derek Kolstad has signed on as one of the writers for the upcoming Falcon and Winter Soldier mini-series that will run on the Disney+ streaming service. The upcoming Walking Dead sequel series has cast Alexa Mansour, Nicolas Cantu, and Hal Cumpston in major roles for the show. Angelica Ross has been cast in the upcoming ninth season of FX’s American Horror Story.