A number of beloved DC titles are moving from DC Universe to HBO Max on January 1st, including Batman: The Animated Series and Batman Beyond.
Starting in 2021, series and movies like Green Lantern: The Animated Series, Justice League Dark: Apokolips War, and Batman: Bad Blood will become available to HBO Max subscribers. Other DC titles available on other streamers, including Superman: Doomsday and Superman: Man of Tomorrow, will also be available on HBO Max. The full list can be seen on WarnerMedia’s site.
The move isn’t too surprising considering DC previously announced its DC Universe streaming service will transform into a comics-exclusive platform, to be called DC Universe Infinite, beginning on January 21st. Shows and films still on DC Universe will make their move over to HBO Max throughout the month.
Up until recently, many of the titles were available exclusively on DC Universe, which costs an additional $8 a month. For people who are looking to marathon a bunch of their favorite DC series and films over the holidays, having to maintain two subscriptions — one for DC Universe and another $15 monthly subscription for HBO Max — isn’t ideal. Yet as WarnerMedia puts an additional emphasis on growing HBO Max, offloading DC Universe titles to its newest streaming service will help bolster and keep HBO Max subscribers.
2021 is an important year for WarnerMedia and HBO Max. The company is simultaneously releasing its movies on HBO Max the same day they’re out in theaters. Executives are hopeful the move will rapidly accelerate the streamer’s subscriber base, which isn’t growing as fast as industry insiders would have liked. HBO Max will also play host to some big originals, including Zack Snyder’s Justice League cut and a Gossip Girl reboot, among others. Having a number of popular “comfort series” like Batman: The Animated Series and Batman Beyond may encourage people to keep their HBO Max subscriptions active even after they’ve watched the latest shows and movies.
(This is where I strongly recommend HBO Max’s animated Harley Quinn series if you haven’t seen it yet. It’s the best TV show I’ve watched all year.)
Not to mention that, if you’re like me, you’ve been not-so-quietly asking WarnerMedia to move Batman: The Animated Series over for a while. Between The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, and WandaVision on Disney Plus, it’s a good time for streaming, for both DC and Marvel fans.
