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season 2 of Dragon House will premiere on HBO/Max in June, said JB Perrette, head of global gaming and streaming at Warner Bros. Discovery.
Speaking at a Q&A press conference today, he said it is one of the few HBO series that will contribute to a turnaround at the media giant after a weak period for film and television due in part to last year’s Hollywood strikes.
He did not give a specific release date. HBO and Max content chief Casey Bloys last said in November that the season would begin in early summer. Warner Bros. Discover CEO David Zaslav confirmed during the February 23 earnings call that Season 2 would premiere in the second quarter.
Dragon House It takes place 172 years before the events of game of Thrones and tells the story of House Targaryen. It stars Paddy Considine, Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, Fabien Frankel, Sonoya Mizuno and Rhys Ifans. Ryan Condal and George RR Martin are executive producers with Sara Hess, Vince Gerardis, Season 2 director Alan Taylor, and Season 1 director and co-showrunner Miguel Sapochnik.
“As we look at the next 12-18-24 months, we have our four biggest pillars of HBO: Dragon House The second season will arrive in June”, as well as new installments of The last of us, euphoria and white lotusPerrette said at the Morgan Stanley conference.
He noted that the strategy Bloys is implementing – “my kind of partner on the content side” – seeks “bigger Warner Brothers intellectual property” for originals. “So less than Time to win(s) or the Julia(s), and more than” The Penguincoming to Max this fall from the DC Universe, a Dune series “based on the obviously incredible success of the movie” and The spell.
“So we have many more of what we call four quadrants, appealing to everyone. Large and well-known IP.”
He called the content one of a series of “vectors” WBD is counting on to boost Max as the streamer moves toward steady profitability. The second anniversary of the Discovery-Warner Media merger, which left the combined company in deep debt, is approaching. Max, formerly HBO Max, launched last May. With the share price just above $8, investors are eager for good news from the company led by David Zaslav.
Perrette said it’s a slow build, but he predicted growth in streaming from an international push (in Latin America and Europe), a crackdown on password sharing, a light advertising offering and the lineup of content.
“In the eight months after (Max’s release), for a variety of reasons, some of which we knew about and some related to the strike, we went into probably the lightest content slate we’ve ever had,” he said. WBD signed a production agreement with A24 in December that began this quarter. “So in the second half of last year, our paid movies were significantly lower in volume, our Warner Bros. slate, apart from Barbiewhich is obviously a great success, it was lighter and not as strong as we expected.”
For “our original slate, in part because of the strike, we postponed some titles that were supposed to be in the last quarter because we couldn’t get the talent to help promote them. So in the second half of the year we had a much lighter schedule than we expected.”
He was optimistic about the recently announced sports streaming joint venture by Disney, WBD and Fox. “It’s great to have Sports on Max and it’s a great service for a fan base that spends more time with sports. But if you are a true sports fan, you will want more.” Therefore, “aggregation is super powerful and can provide many more opportunities for us and our partners. And that’s where we started our conversation about sports and adventure.”
Sports on Max has helped raise awareness and is growing by the month, he said, as it prepares to launch March Madness later this month and the NBA playoffs later this spring. “And so our lineup strengthens as we move forward in the coming months. And then. Over time, as we finalize the company and the structure of the company, we will figure out what exactly we do with our sports offering at Max relative to the sports offering” in the joint venture.