Warner Bros. Discovery made headlines Wednesday by kicking off its Max streaming service — the renamed HBO Max — with buzzy series announcements based on familiar series. There’s a new “Harry Potter” streaming series, a “Big Bang Theory” spin-off and, yes, more dragons.
But CEO David Zaslav and his team will have to do more to impress a skeptical Wall Street and win over streaming consumers who already have an abundance of entertainment choices. And he will have to do that without the powerful HBO brand as a primary lure.
HBO is well-known — perhaps too well-known, in its specific associations with edgy content.