HBO Max has an official launch date: May 27, 2020.
The forthcoming WarnerMedia streaming service will also cost $14.99 per month, the same amount as its sister platform HBO Now, according to Variety.
The news comes just days after it was revealed the planned Friends reunion special, originally due to be filmed in March, would not be ready in time for the service’s debut.
Coming soon! HBO Max has an official launch date: May 27, 2020
While the reunion special -which was to feature Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry, David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc- is reportedly still in the works, HBO Max will instead offer up the full 10-season series for streaming upon its launch next month.
The availability of all 236 episodes of the Emmy Award-winning series and cultural phenomenon which ran from 1994 to 2004 will be somewhat of a balm for viewers, who learned last month that the special – which took around six months and labor-intensive negotiations to make happen – was being postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
It was crushing but expected news, as all television and film productions have ground to a halt amid efforts everywhere to stem the spread of the highly contagious virus.
Whoops: The news comes just days after it was revealed the planned Friends reunion special, originally due to be filmed in March, would not be ready in time for the service’s debut
While rumors of the potential reunion had been bandied about since as early as last fall, the delay in making the Friends special a reality was reportedly due to feverish contract negotiations between each of the actors, who all wanted more money to appear in the one-hour, unscripted special.
Ellen DeGeneres has also been passed around as a potential host for the television event, which will see the actors – who are still close – reminisce about their time together on the show.
However in better news, the streaming service has just handed out straight-to-series orders for three new one-hour programs from producer J.J. Abrams and his Bad Robot Productions company.
Shot down: It was crushing but expected news, as all television and film productions have ground to a halt amid efforts everywhere to stem the spread of the highly contagious virus
Busy JJ: WarnerMedia’s new HBO Max streaming service has just handed out straight-to-series orders for three new one-hour programs from producer J.J. Abrams and his Bad Robot Productions company.
Justice League Dark: The first series is based on the iconic DC Comics title Justice League Dark, while the second is entitled Overlook, a spin-off of Stephen King’s The Shining
The first series is based on the iconic DC Comics title Justice League Dark, while the second is entitled Overlook, a spin-off of Stephen King’s The Shining.
The third series is an original project entitled Duster, which Abrams is co-writing himself alongside LaToya Morgan (The Walking Dead, Into the Badlands), according to an HBO press release.
While no further details were given for Justice League Dark, it will feature on the DC Comics title which debuted in 2011, and featured more supernatural superheroes.
The original team was comprised of John Constantine, Madame Xanadu, Deadman, Shade, the Changing Man and Zatanna.
These characters were called upon to handle situations that fell outside of the scope of the traditional Justice League, which featured iconic heroes like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.
Superhero team: The original team was comprised of John Constantine, Madame Xanadu, Deadman, Shade, the Changing Man and Zatanna
There had been numerous attempts to get a Justice League Dark movie off the ground, with directors such as Guillermo del Toro (Pacific Rim) and Doug Liman (American Made) attached, but the movie never made it into production.
There is no indication yet as to who is writing the Justice League Dark series at this time, or what characters from the comics will be involved.
The Overlook program is described as a ‘horror-thriller series inspired by and featuring iconic characters from Stephen King’s masterpiece The Shining.’
Thriller: The Overlook program is described as a ‘horror-thriller series inspired by and featuring iconic characters from Stephen King’s masterpiece The Shining’
The series will tell ‘the untold, terrifying stories of the most famous haunted hotel in American fiction’ where The Shining novel and Stanley Kubrick adaptation were set.
Abrams’ Bad Robot and Warner Bros. Television had previously teamed up on another Stephen King property, Castle Rock on Hulu.
The third series Duster is set in the 1970s Southwest, following the life of a ‘gutsy getaway driver’ for a crime syndicate, whose life, ‘goes from awful to wildly, stupidly, dangerously awful.’
Haunted hotel: The series will tell ‘the untold, terrifying stories of the most famous haunted hotel in American fiction’ where The Shining novel and Stanley Kubrick adaptation were set
All three shows will be executive produced by Abrams, along with Ben Stephenson, Bad Robot’s Head of Television.
Abrams’ Bad Robot currently produces the hit HBO series Westworld, along with Hulu’s Castle Rock.
Bad Robot and Warner Bros. Television are also producing Demimonde, which Abrams created, and Lovecraft Country for HBO, as well as another Stephen King adaptation, Lisey’s Story, along with Little Voice and My Glory Was I Had Such Friends for Apple TV+.
Watch every episode of Friends on HBO Max from April 27, or on Stan in Australia now.
Producer: Abrams’ Bad Robot currently produces the hit HBO series Westworld, along with Hulu’s Castle Rock
