As Warner Bros’ HBO Max soon reaches its third year as a streaming service this May, some changes are afoot. WarnerMedia and Discovery CEO David Zaslav announced on Wednesday that it will be rebranded to be named “Max” instead and there’s a ton of exciting new exclusive series coming to the platform, notably from The Big Bang Theory and Conjuring universes.
The Big Bang Theory is among the profitable sitcoms of all time, finding a 12-season run along with Warner Bros. Television launching the prequel, Young Sheldon, which is currently in its sixth season. As announced today in a press release, Big Bang Theory creator Chuck Lorre is now developing another comedy that will draw from the world of the beloved sitcom.
What exactly will that be? Plot details have yet to be disclosed. WarnerMedia previously earned exclusive rights to The Big Bang Theory in an over $1 billion deal back in 2019, per THR.
In addition to more Big Bang Theory coming to audiences, Warner Bros has also unveiled that it will be taking The Conjuring universe to a serial format for the first time. James Wan and his Atomic Monster Productions in concert with Peter Safran are working on a drama series “based on the films” as well.
News of the mysterious series comes following eight Conjuring movies being released in the past decade and more films on the way, starting with The Nun 2, set to hit theaters this fall. Wan also previously shared that a fourth Conjuring movie is currently in the works that could "potentially" wrap up the segment of the franchise revolving around Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson’s Ed and Lorraine Warren.
In the cases of the untitled The Big Bang Theory and The Conjuring series just made known to the public, it certainly sounds like both of them are in the early days of development and it could be some time before we learn more about the specifics of them. Good news for both of them is that their original creators are involved in both instances, rather than these properties simply being expanded on just for namesake.
In addition to plans for these franchises to find homes on HBO Max’s newly renamed “Max” platform, Warner Bros. also unveiled a first trailer teaser for The Penguin series starring Colin Farrell as his character from last year’s The Batman along with sharing plans for another Game of Thrones prequel series called A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight and confirmed Max will adapt the Harry Potter books into a show.
A lot is certainly coming up for those with an HBO Max subscription! The “Max” version of the service will debut in the United States on May 23.
