David Zaslav’s reign of terror over Warner Bros Discovery has scarcely begun.
This very recent merger is already leading to the death of HBO Max, which is currently the most user-approved streaming service.
But even before Zaslav drives that into the ground, people are already feeling the effects.
Batgirl was already made. The company canceled this fully finished film, leaving actors and directors reeling.
The FTC abandoned its responsibilities and allowed Discovery to purchase WarnerMedia.
Reports say that HBO Max, which currently has 77 million subscribers, will be folded into Discovery Plus, which has about a third of that.
If that doesn’t already sound bizarre, this nightmarish merger will reportedly lay off 70% of HBO Max’s development staff.
Imagine if WEtv somehow purchased Disney and announced that they were canceling Marvel and Star Wars shows.
Now imagine that they were going to make Mama June Shannon one of the main focuses of Disney Plus.
That is basically how this feels to many HBO Max subscribers, who are reeling in horror and disgust.
Most people on social media did not know David Zaslav by name until the past few days.
Now, he has been catapulted to one of the most hated names on Twitter.
And so much of that well-earned loathing began with the abrupt and shocking cancelation of Batgirl.
Marvel has seen commercial success with previously obscure properties, like Guardians of the Galaxy.
Batgirl is not obscure. She is second only to the original Robin (Dick Grayson) in terms of Batman’s most recognizable sidekicks.
The Batgirl film itself had people excited, from its Afro-Latina lead to Brendan Fraser’s return to movie acting.
But Warner Bros has become Warner Bros Discovery. We never thought that we’d miss AT&T.
Not only did they scrap the completed film, but The New York Post has learned that there was no warning.
The cast — including Lesie Grace, Brendan Fraser, and Michael Keaton, did not get an early warning. Neither did the directors.
Batgirl will never air on streaming or in theaters. Not if Zaslav gets his way.
This is an insult to the cast, to the directors, to everyone who worked on the film.
It’s also an insult to fans. And, as we noted, it’s just a taste of the nightmare to come.
This week, Zaslav and his cronies addressed others in their industry, explaining plans to merge HBO Max and Discovery Plus.
It is not going over well on social media, especially among HBO Max subscribers (who vastly outnumber Discovery Plus subs).
Soon, we’d like to see Zaslav walk back these changes. For now, it doesn’t look like he’s backing down.
Discovery’s plans to gut HBO Max are unpopular. The math also doesn’t make much sense.
Separately, the services bring in more subscribers than they would combined. It’s hard to understand the logic.
Very soon, Warner Bros Discovery will find out if their gamble blows up in their faces. If not, more projects will share Batgirl‘s fate.
