HBO and HBO Max content CEO Casey Bloys has offered an update on multiple spin-off and reboot projects in the works at the premium cabler and it looks like the cost cutting at Warner Bros. Discovery is taking its toll.
First up, he confirms to Variety that the rumored “Six Feet Under” and “True Blood” revivals are dead. Bloys said ‘Under’ was never really in the works which suggests it was mostly just speculative reporting.
He adds that a “True Blood” reboot or revival was considered, with HBO developing a few scripts. However “nothing that felt like it got there” and so the plans have now been abandoned.
There are also no plans for a “Mare of Easttown” sequel as creator Brad Ingelsby, who has an exclusive overall deal at the network, is doing a new crime-centric show for HBO.
Whilst the network did proceed with a “Game of Thrones” spin-off, don’t expect the same for its other hits including “Succession”. That show’s upcoming fourth season could be its last (it’s not confirmed) and whether it is or not, Bloys is not entertaining any spin-off ideas:
“I don’t think so. I always say ‘never say never.’ When we started talking about doing a ‘Thrones’ prequel that was something that HBO had historically never done. I had some people internally saying, ‘This is crazy. What are you doing?’
That said, I think that there’s something about the universe that George created that lent itself to [spin-offs]. There’s a huge history, a lot of different families, a lot of different wars and battles.
It doesn’t seem to me that there’s something in ‘Succession’ where you would go, ‘Let’s follow just this kid’ or whatever. It doesn’t seem like a natural thing to me. But if [creator Jesse Armstrong] said I want to do this, then I would follow Jesse’s lead.”
Bloys has a similar sentiment towards Emmy-winner “Watchmen” and says he has no interest in bringing it back with anyone other than executive producer Damon Lindelof:
“‘Watchmen’ was so much his creation. If he doesn’t think there’s a story that he wants to put his heart and soul into, it’s hard for me to think that it would be worth doing. It was a very special limited series for us. I would put it in the pantheon of HBO greats. If Damon ever wants to revisit it, he knows that it’s an open door. But it is hard for me to imagine doing one without him.”
One project still in development is director Bong Joon-ho’s TV adaptation of his Oscar-winning film “Parasite,” though there’s been no real progress on it though.
