Christopher Nolan’s ‘Dark Knight’ Trilogy Leaves HBO Max, Now Available Exclusively on Hulu
DC Comics’ big screen future at Warner Bros. Discovery is likely to look very different than the path it has followed for the last few years. Since James Gunn and Peter Safran were brought on by WBD to oversee DC movies and shows earlier this fall, WBD has reportedly canceled the next “Wonder Woman” movie (although the details on that one remain fuzzy), licensed DC characters to Amazon for animated series, and, on Wednesday, Gunn announced that the company would be rebooting its Superman franchise without the most recent Clark Kent Henry Cavill.
However, there appears to have been another change to WBD’s DC superhero slate, as WBD’s streaming service HBO Max is no longer offering subscribers “The Dark Knight” trilogy of films from director Christopher Nolan. Now, the only place to streaming “Batman Begins,” “The Dark Knight” and “The Dark Knight Rises” as part of a subscription video-on-demand service is Hulu.
Hulu had been offering the first two films in the trilogy since 2020, but it had to share them with HBO Max, which was the exclusive home of “The Dark Knight Rises” during that span. But presumably thanks to changes in WBD's relationship with Legendary Entertainment, none of the Nolan films can now be found on HBO Max, despite the fact that they were co-productions with Warner Bros. Pictures, who also distributed the trilogy.
Legendary co-produced the “Dark Knight” films with Warner Bros., and apparently gets to make the final say on where they end up streaming. The relationship between Legendary and WBD took a turn for the worse in 2020 when then-WarnerMedia’s strategy of day-and-date streaming/theatrical releases caused Legendary to pursue legal action.
The Dark Knight Movies
A superhero film series based on the DC Comics character Batman. Centered on Bruce Wayne, a billionaire dedicating his life to fight crime in his home, Gotham City, as a masked vigilante known as Batman.
The two sides settled, but the relationship did not improve to the point where Legendary was willing to renew its deal with WBD. Financial reasons probably played a part in the split as well, as WBD is currently dealing with costs north of $5 billion stemming from the April merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery. Legendary signed its latest distribution deal with Sony in late November.
The departure of “The Dark Knight” trilogy could be a sign of things to come for HBO Max. Movies like “Godzilla” and “Dune” were also joint productions between Legendary and WarnerBros., and it wouldn’t be terribly surprising to see those quietly leave the service in the coming months as well. It will bear watching closely to see just how much content leaves HBO Max as WBD moves toward the services’ merger with discovery+ in spring of 2023.
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