Warner Bros. Discovery’s investor presentation took place on April 12th. The companies announced, among other things, that HBO Max will become simply, MAX. One of the biggest bits of news was the straight to series order for a “Harry Potter” show, which will reportedly cover all 7 novels across 10 years. The tail–end of the presentation, of course, was what interested the press more. Casey Bloys, Chairman and CEO of HBO and Max content, neatly sidestepped questions concerning you-know-who’s- JK Rowling‘s — involvement.
More than once, Bloys dodged questions concerning the problematic and controversial author.
“No, I don’t think this is the forum…That’s a very online conversation, very nuanced and complicated and not something we’re going to get into,” Bloys said when asked about Rowling’s TERF position concerning the company. “Our priority is what’s on the screen. Obviously, the ‘Harry Potter’ story is incredibly affirmative and positive and about love and self-acceptance. That’s our priority — what’s on screen.”
But shouldn’t a presentation for investors be the ideal place to answer those questions? If you want people backing your projects, shouldn’t you give them the confidence of an answer?
Regardless, inquiries regarding Rowling were dodged each time. The bottom line is she will be an executive producer, which is no surprise. Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav and Rowling have more in common than not. And given that Warner Bros. has the rights to “Harry Potter“, they’ll continue to milk the cash cow as long as they can.
“We’re free to do anything we want,” Zaslav said. “In some areas, we’d need to do it with J.K., in other areas we have full ability to move forward. So this is a full deployment on the Max platform of ‘Harry Potter.’”
Regardless of their reasoning, the refusal to explain just how involved she’ll be has troubled many former and current franchise fans. We’ll let you know what we hear about this and other news.
