The HBO Max 2026 global programming slate was presented by Casey Bloys, chairman & CEO, HBO & HBO Max content, in London on Wednesday night, and he brought stars and glamor with him.
Asked about the bidding process for Warner Bros. Discovery, Bloys said he has not felt any impact. “It’s business as usual for us,” he said/
Among them were The Comebackcreators Michael Patrick King and Lisa Kudrow.
Also featured on stage were Industry co-creators and writers Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, along with star Marisa Abela. Kay promised the upcoming season 4 would be “the most entertaining season we have made.”
Upcoming series A Night of the Seven Kingdoms, set in the Game of Thrones universe, also took the spotlight, with co-creator and showrunner Ira Parker sharing that protagonist Ser Duncan “Dunk”the Tall is “from the ass-end, shit hole end of Westeros,” he said, naturally leading to some humor. “This feels like an on-ramp” and lighter take on the GoT universe, also for audiences who may not have watched the original. Parker promised a “gritty, and miserable, and muddy” show. And to laughs, he quipped that the lower budget is more in line with Dunk’s upbringing than the other shows in the same universe.
Parker lauded star Peter Claffey as “a leader” and great person to have around and called Dexter Sol Ansell the greatest child actor ever.
Euphoria news shared by Bloys at the event was the April launch for season 3. He then welcomed executive producer, writer and director Sam Levinson to the stage. Zendaya’s Rue is looking at innovative ways to pay back debt, while Sharon Stone plays a showrunner, and Sydney Sweeney, Colman Domingo and Co. all also face interesting new challenges, he said in some teases for the new season. Levinson said he was “very excited” about the success of his show’s cast, including in movies, since the first season. “Being out of the safety net of school” is what the new season is about, he said. “The stakes are higher.”
The final guests on the London stage were The Comeback creator, writer and star Lisa Kudrow and creator, writer and director Michael Patrick King. They shared that the return of the show will center on AI. “It’s very grounded in real life. This is not sci fi,” King said. “This may be happening, for all we know, somewhere right now.” Added Kudrow: “It’s from what we heard of could be the potential problems.”
Bloys on Wednesday also explained that Max originals used to be somewhat “nebulous” but are now about “more cost-efficient, yet elevated” fare. He touted such recent audience hits as Task, 12.6 million viewers per episode, and The Chair Company. And ge said that IT: Welcome to Derry’s audience performance ranks only behind House of the Dragon and The Last of Us.
International local productions are part of the mix. They are “vital to our success and can break out at any moment,” he emphasized.
Bloys also showed trailers for the likes of Rooster, Lanterns and House of the Dragon season 3, and mentioned such in-the-works series as an untitled Sharon Horgan comedy, which was first unveiled in February.
The event in London’s Soho came after HBO Max, the streaming service from Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), eaarlier in the day unveiled the latest steps in its international expansion with market launches in Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Liechtenstein on Jan. 13. WBD, which is currently the object of a bidding war, also noted that the service would launch in the U.K. and Ireland in early 2026, completing its European roll-out.
HBO Max head of originals Sarah Aubrey mid-day on Wednesday had told the Content London conference about the upcoming Harry Potter series and unveiled the renewal of the Spanish local original Furia (Rage) as part of the company’s focus on growing its development slate.
