‘Westworld’ To Be Pulled From HBO Max, ‘Minx,’ ‘The Nevers’ Canceled As Cost-Cutting Measures Continue
If users of HBO Max thought the holiday season would bring with it a reprieve for content removal from the service, they were sadly mistaken. According to reporting from Deadline, HBO Max’s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery is conducting a year-end review of HBO Max’s financials, so it may ramp up content cuts before the end of the year.
Those content cuts are already growing more numerous. HBO Max is going to remove all four seasons of its sci-fi/Western drama “Westworld” from its platform, after canceling the show in November. HBO is also reportedly canceling its paranormal thriller series “The Nevers,” as well as the erotic comedy-drama series “Minx,” which had nearly finished production of its second season.
The “Minx” cancelation is an especially drastic move, echoing what WBD did with “Batgirl” over the summer: taking an essentially complete project, and deciding to take a tax write-off and throw it in the can rather than releasing it as scheduled. “Minx” will be shopped to other networks and streamers by its producer Lionsgate Television, according to Variety.
The future for “Westworld” and “The Nevers” is less immediately clear. As both shows were produced in-house by WBD, there’s small likelihood that they will be shopped around to other media companies. Deadline’s report states that the company is exploring putting these shows on a separate service as free ad-supported TV (FAST) channels.
WBD has made its interest in a collection of FAST channels clear in recent months, but it seemed unlikely that the company would begin canceling shows that are still in production in favor of utilizing them on a service for such channels. WBD has a huge content library of potential shows and movies for such channels, so the decision to move freshly canceled shows to such a service would be a surprise to say the least.
WBD CEO David Zaslav came onboard the company in April with a mandate to find over $3 billion in savings, to offset a debt of more than $50 million. Zaslav has taken to his assignment with gusto, axing content left and right and attempting to monetize every facet of the company possible. Given the news that WBD is still in the midst of a year-end review at HBO Max, more painful cuts could be on their way soon.
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