In a somewhat unsurprising decision, HBO Max announced today that even more titles are going to be removed from the streaming platform. Over the past weeks, subscribers saw some big titles disappear from the catalog, including Superintelligence starring Melissa McCarthy, Robert Zemeckis’ remake of The Witches with Anne Hathaway, and others which were Max Originals – meaning you couldn’t find them anywhere else. This time, however, the streamer is axing its biggest slate of titles to date, and this includes Originals, Cartoon Network content, and others.
The reason for this, according to Warner Bros. Discovery, is the same that they announced when the first titles were quietly removed: Eliminating lesser-watched content saves money on residuals, which is the amount paid to actors and creators for the time a specific series or movie is up on the streaming service. In an official statement, an HBO Max representative stated that this also makes room for the impending merge of HBO and Discovery titles, which means both platforms are set to lose content:
“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 decision, of course, was met with anger by content creators. Julia Pott, former writer for hit show Adventure Time and creator of HBO Max Original Summer Camp Island, took to Twitter to call out the streamer on its latest decision. Pott stated that she and her team worked late into the night for five years to make 100 episodes of the show, and now “HBO MAX just pulled them all like we were nothing. Animation is not nothing!”
This is just the latest decision in a series of unpopular announcements surrounding the merger of HBO Max with Discovery+. One of the most controversial was, of course, canceling the release of highly anticipated movie Batgirl, which was well under production and had already cost $90 million to produce. New Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has also revealed a shift in strategy when it comes to superhero titles, as well as the end of the strict release window that moved Warner Bros. movies to HBO Max within 45 days of the theatrical release.
Aside from Summer Camp Island, HBO Max is also removing other popular titles like cult series Genera+ion, The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo, and Uncle Grandpa. You can check out the full list of titles that will be removed from HBO Max below:
HBO Max Originals
“12 Dates of Christmas”
“About Last Night”
“Aquaman: King of Atlantis”
“Close Enough”
“Ellen’s Next Great Designer”
“Esme & Roy”
“The Fungies!”
“Generation Hustle”
“Genera+ion”
“Infinity Train”
“Little Ellen”
“My Mom, Your Dad”
“Odo”
“Ravi Patel’s Pursuit of Happiness”
“Summer Camp Island”
“The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo”
“The Runaway Bunny”
“Theodosia”
“Tig n’ Seek”
“Yabba Dabba Dinosaurs”
HBO Originals
“My Dinner with Herve”
“Share”
Cartoon Network
“Dodo”
“Elliott From Earth”
“Mao Mao, Heroes of Pure Heart”
“Mighty Magiswords”
“OK K.O.! – Let’s Be Heroes”
“Uncle Grandpa”
“Victor and Valentino”
Acquired Titles
“Detention Adventure”
“Messy Goes to Okido”
“Mia’s Magic Playground”
“The Ollie & Moon Show”
“Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures”
“Make It Big, Make It Small”
“Squish”