It’s been another crazy week for Casey Bloys. On Monday, the HBO and HBO Max chief jetted into London to press the flesh in advance of the streaming platform finally launching in the U.K. His visit came just days after he was spotted having lunch with Netflix boss Ted Sarandos in Hollywood, instantly igniting rumours that Bloys may be eyeing the exit once Paramount completes its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.
The shadow of Paramount has inevitably also clouded what should have been a crowning moment for HBO Max as it finally arrives in the country where, as Bloys told Variety, so much of its content originates, from “Harry Potter” to “House of the Dragon” and the upcoming Richard Gadd series “Half Man” (a BBC co-production to screen on Stan in Australia next month). While HBO have moved forward with launching the streamer on Thursday as planned, including flying in talent and execs for a glitzy party on Wednesday night, the truth is no one knows how long HBO Max will continue in its current format given Paramount boss David Ellis’s indication it will eventually merge with Paramount+.
Despite all the drama, Bloys sat down with Variety to talk about HBO Max’s content strategy in the U.K., what fans can expect from “Harry Potter” and whether he knows what’s going to happen after his WBD contract runs out next year.
When you spoke to Variety in 2023, not long after Discovery acquired Warner Bros., you mentioned that David Zaslav reached out to you almost immediately to tell you that HBO was big priority from him. In that vein, have you heard from David Ellison yet?
Yes, absolutely, he’s reached out. I’ve had lunch with him. He also is a big fan of HBO, so obviously can’t get too much into conversations. But it was a very, very nice lunch, and he had a lot of great things to say about not just HBO, but the entire team.
You also had lunch with Ted Sarandos last week…
I have lunch with lots of people.
Are you going to stay at HBO post-acquisition?
That is so far ahead of anything — because we are in the process — there are rules around what you can talk about, what you can’t talk about. But I’m going to go back to my lunch with David and the nice things he said about HBO and the team and all that. And you know, as we get closer to the close of transaction, we will be able to talk more about what does this look like, how will it work, that sort of thing. So I’m looking forward to that. But unfortunately, I mean — it’s actually legal — things you can and cannot discuss.
Do you mean in terms of your future at the company?
I wasn’t necessarily talking about my future. I was just talking about what a combined service would look like, you know, that sort of thing strategically, what he’s thinking. He said publicly, and also to me, that HBO is a big priority for him, and he feels strongly about that. So again, nice early signs, but there’s only so much we can talk about now.
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But with your deal expiring next year are you thinking about the future at the moment?
Now do you really think I’m going to answer that?
U.K. Originals
Turning to the U.K., have you been planning more U.K. originals in advance of HBO Max launching here? I know you have “Youth” with Sharon Horgan coming up and “Half Man” (although that will only be available on the BBC in the U.K.).
If you think about our slate, a lot of it is local original programming already. “Harry Potter,” “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” House of the Dragon.” [We’ve got] Sharon Horgan, we’ve got co productions with Michaela Coel, George Kay, so I feel like I work with a lot of a lot of U.K. talent.
In terms of U.S. streamers in the U.K., Apple TV’s creative director for international, Jay Hunt, has been particularly impressive in terms of “glocal” commissions. Do you envision having someone in a similar role here for HBO Max?
No and like I said, if you look at what we’ve done, at least in my time there at HBO, we’ve had a lot of successful co-productions. So we know a lot of not just talent, but a lot of executives, had a lot of good experiences with many different broadcasters. So I don’t anticipate needing someone in addition to that. You don’t know what the future holds. But for right now, I don’t think it’s necessary.
HBO has done a lot of co-productions with broadcasters in the U.K. where it takes the rights outside of the U.K. With HBO Max launching here, how is that going to work going forward?
We haven’t done one yet since launch. But given our history, I imagine it’s something we’d like to continue. It’ll be a conversation, though, about what streaming rights look like now. Where before we didn’t have to worry about it or think about it, now we will. I don’t know what that looks like because we haven’t dealt with it yet, but I’d like to have the option to continue to do them when we find the right project or the right talent.
Harry Potter
Is there anything new you can tell me about the “Harry Potter” series?
I don’t think I can other than I’m thrilled with what I’ve seen.
What made you feel like the time was right to bring it back?
Well, there’s no right number, but I do think it’s hard sometimes for people to really — you know, they’ll say, “The movies just came out!” It started about 20 years ago!
And what’s nice is the books have obviously remained popular, but you now have parents who grew up on it and wanting to share that with [their] kids, and kids on their own wanting it so just from a from a business point of view, that’s a big opportunity. From a creative point of view — I mean, look, I’ve always worked in television, it’s my preferred medium. One of the benefits of it, from my point of view, is spending more time with characters and story. And so if you’ve got a book, let alone a series of books, to kind of arbitrarily say, “Well, we’ve got two hours” you have to make some difficult decisions. So the idea is to have the freedom to let it breathe a little bit more and explore the world a bit more.
Has the fact that actors are effectively signing up to it for 10 years made casting difficult?
Not really. I mean, I think anytime someone signs on to a TV project, the hope is it’s gonna be [a] job for the next 10 years. I mean, that’s a dream. So we didn’t really have any issues with that. I think anybody who’s willing to go up for a television show, it’s possible they’re signing up for a long-term gig. So it’s something you have to think about. But we haven’t seen many people say, “Well, I don’t want to do that, because it’s going to be too long.”
Paapa Essiedu, who is set to play Snape in the show, recently talked about some of the toxic and racist reactions to his casting, including death threats. Did you anticipate that reaction?
With all actors on any kind of big IP shows — and this is obviously one of those where you’ve got, you know, passionate fans, people with a lot of opinions — it can get scary in places. So for any show like that, we anticipated it and tried to have training, you know, best practices in terms of social media and how to handle it. And obviously we’ve got a serious security team. So unfortunately, it was something that we thought might happen and we just try to be as careful as we can.
Have you cast Voldemort?
No, we have not.
Because there’s a lot of names in the mix. Tilda Swinton was one.
As a rule, I would say any rumors – don’t [believe them]. I don’t even know who we’re casting.
I’m not sure I believe that…
I really don’t! I would take everything you read with a grain of salt.
D.C. Universe
The proliferation of the DCU on HBO always felt like it moved at a slightly slower pace and volume than the MCU on Disney+. Was that a deliberate strategy?
That was deliberate because I do it based on the script. More than anything else — forget about anybody, any plan or anything like that — you have to do it based script by script. Is it a good script? Do we think it’s interesting creatively? Do we think it makes sense as a show? So for me, personally, I think anytime you lay out a thing dictating in advance how many shows you’re going to have per year, it sets up an opportunity where you might compromise creatively. And so I think it’s always better just start every project “What do we think of what’s in front of us here?” versus, well, “If we don’t have this one, we can’t have that one.” You’ve got to start with what’s in front of you.
There was a point where no one ever thought superhero fatigue would kick in and now it seems like it really has. Did you anticipate that?
I think, in retrospect, our approach creatively probably is the more prudent one. And I think one of the benefits also that we have at HBO / HBO Max / Warner Bros. Discovery, if you think about some of the shows, it’s not just “Game of Thrones.” It’s funny, when “A Knight of Seven Kingdoms” comes out there’s language around “another ‘Game of Thrones’ spinoff.” And I like to remind people, this is [only] the second one.
And I think part of it is because a lot of what gets written about is development and some people will talk about development like it is actually [in production]. So I’ve had to remind people, there’s been “House of the Dragon” and “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” — and that’s it, regardless of what else gets written about. We didn’t do five “Game of Thrones” spinoffs because we’ve got DC and we just did “It: Welcome to Derry” and they’re working on a second season. We’ve got other places to go. We’re developing a “Crazy Rich Asians” series. So we’re not locked into just one world or one universe. But I think logically, if you think about it, if you overdo anything, if you give to people too much of anything, kind of by definition it becomes less special. So I think it’s something you have to be careful about.
Is there a chance that Colin Farrell will return for a second season of “The Penguin”?
Colin is going to be in the [“The Batman: Part II”] movie. He’s got other movies going on. [..] I would say it’s certainly complicated, but something everybody involved would like to figure out. I just don’t know.
What about Viola Davis’ “Waller” spinoff – does it look like it might go into production?
Put it this way, I wouldn’t say it’s on the runway. But “Lanterns” is coming up this summer.
Other HBO Shows
Have you talked to Sam Levinsion about any “Euphoria” spinoffs?
No, no no. He is so focused on Season 3 that we haven’t gotten into what he wants to do next. So I will wait to hear from him, but we are deep in post. And the air date is, you know, we’re weeks out, so he is really laser-focused on getting the show completed.
Has “White Lotus” Season 4 started shooting?
Hasn’t started yet, but they are deep into prep. It’s soon.
Do you have anything else in the pipeline with “Succession” creator Jesse Armstrong?
Well, we had his directorial debut in “Mountainhead,” which was last year. And let’s see, how would I categorise it? He’s noodling. I think anytime you come off a big show. it’s good for a creator to kind of take their time, maybe do other things. I’m pretty confident that he will come to us when the time is right.
“Succession” was a show that a lot of people said it took them a couple of episodes to really get into. Some people think that particularly in the streaming age, where there is so much content, it’s arrogant for creators and execs to expect audiences to invest that amount of time into a show before it “gets good.” What do you make of that?
I’ve heard people talk about that before. One thing I’ll say about “Succession” — people say, “Oh, in Episode 4, it really kind of clicked,” and I was like, “No, I believe it was there from the beginning. You just got the rhythm of it [now]. So it wasn’t the show. It was you.” But remember it used to take — we talked about seasons, like we talked about “Game of Thrones” in Season 3 is when it kind of clicked.
So I don’t think it’s arrogant. I think it’s letting artists do their thing. But the marketplace is the marketplace, and there’s a ton of new shows now, whereas before, you could stick around for Seasons 1, 2, see if it found its legs. I think it is a little crazy to think a show is going to be fully formed by, you know, whatever [early episode]. But you know, each show is different, too. Some come knowing exactly what it is. The beauty of television is you have the ability to evolve and change and turn into something.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
From Variety US