HBO Max Is Coming for Netflix — and It’s Bringing Harry Potter, Euphoria, and a Merger to Do It

Warner Bros. Discovery hosted a statement-making launch party on the evening of March 25, 2026, in a renovated arts complex on London’s South Bank. There was Steve Carell. Lisa Kudrow. Matt Smith, Jason Isaacs, and Aimee Lou Wood. While the adults surrounding them celebrated the official launch of HBO Max in the UK and Ireland, the three young actors who play Harry, Hermione, and Ron at the center of HBO’s most costly upcoming production stood together on a red carpet for the first time, apparently not allowed out past 7:30 p.m. The celebration was extravagant. The timing was difficult.
With a library that includes shows like The Sopranos, The Wire, Game of Thrones, and Succession, HBO Max has been one of the most powerful brands in American entertainment for decades. However, it has been experiencing identity turbulence for the majority of the last few years. The service has undergone more rebranding than most businesses manage in a lifetime. It was renamed and relaunched from HBO Go to HBO Now to HBO Max to simply Max in the US before returning to HBO Max for international expansion. With a sizable content library, a major Harry Potter series in development, and Euphoria Season three weeks away from its premiere, it now has momentum—something it momentarily lacked.
The CEO of HBO and HBO Max, Casey Bloys, was in London for the launch and discussed how the company had been preparing for the UK arrival for years. The UK is one of the world’s most competitive streaming markets; Netflix has a long history, Disney+ has Marvel and Star Wars, and the BBC’s iPlayer sets the bar for high-quality, free content that commercial streamers must constantly meet. Bloys appeared unfazed by the challenge. Instead of attempting to undercut rivals on price, it seems that HBO Max is placing its bets on the strength of its library and the appeal of its upcoming original series. The starting price of $11 per month is not very competitive. But it is difficult to dispute the catalogue that supports it.

The most obvious indication of how seriously HBO Max is taking the upcoming years is the Harry Potter series. Over 32,000 kids tried out. Alastair Stout as Ron, Arabella Stanton as Hermione, and Dominic McLaughlin as Harry are all relatively new actors who were selected following what HBO has called a rigorous casting process. Dumbledore is portrayed by John Lithgow. Snape is played by Paapa Essiedu. Hagrid is played by Nick Frost. All seven books will be adapted over a ten-year period, with the first season debuting on Christmas 2026. It’s almost too obvious to say aloud as a retention strategy: ten years of a cherished franchise, updated for a new generation, landing on a platform that requires subscribers to stick around. Based on preliminary tracking data, TheWrap has already referred to Harry Potter as a “major retention engine” for HBO Max. That designation, which was made prior to the premiere of the first episode, speaks to the cultural significance of the show just by virtue of its existence.
The other significant topic of discussion is Euphoria Season 3, which premieres on April 12. Zendaya, Sydney Sweeney, and Jacob Elordi played high school students navigating addiction, identity, and social cruelty in the show’s 2019 premiere. Now, all three are well-known movie stars. It took a lot of scheduling coordination and reportedly a lot of patience to get them back for a third season, which took place four years after season two and included a five-year time jump. The characters in the new season are in their twenties: Sweeney’s Cassie is engaged to Elordi’s Nate, Maude Apatow’s Lexi works as an assistant to a Hollywood showrunner played by Sharon Stone, and Zendaya’s Rue is in Mexico dealing with drug dealers. Danielle Deadwyler and Natasha Lyonne have joined the cast. After being diagnosed with ALS in February, Eric Dane, who portrayed Nate’s father and was one of the show’s most subtly menacing characters, passed away. His scenes had already been filmed. That weight will be carried by the season.
Contrary to what its content slate indicates, HBO Max’s structural picture is more complex. The announcement of Warner Bros. Discovery’s merger with Paramount+, which would eventually merge the two streaming services into a single platform, is a consolidation move that illustrates how financially challenging the stand-alone streaming model has become for businesses other than Netflix. Additionally, Netflix has changed a prior offer into a $72 billion all-cash offer to buy the film studios of HBO Max and WB outright. Whether that deal moves forward, stalls, or completely changes is still unknown. In other words, the streaming environment in 2026 is genuinely uncertain.
It’s difficult to ignore the fact that HBO Max is aggressively entering new markets at the exact moment that its ownership is under dispute. It will take time to determine whether that is a daring tactic or the business equivalent of staying busy in the face of uncertainty. The library is one thing that is certain. One of the greatest television shows ever produced is still The Sopranos. Despite the controversy surrounding its conclusion, Game of Thrones shaped a decade of culture. After its theatrical run, Ryan Coogler’s genre-bending Michael B. Jordan vehicle, Sinners, which won four Oscars out of sixteen nominations, is now available for streaming on the platform. With Companion, Half Man, and a horror library ranging from Get Out to Eraserhead, HBO Max’s reputation for content is largely unaffected as it enters this uncertain time. It could be a messy corporate drama. The programs aren’t.