‘And Just Like That …’ will feature three of the original four stars exploring friendship in their 50s.
And so … the internet took a heavy sigh and asked why another iconic TV series is being revived, while many Sex and the City fans celebrated with the idea of revisiting the lives of Carrie, Charlotte and Miranda.
On Sunday, HBO Max confirmed that it will present the HBO Emmy-winning comedy Sex and the City back to a new incarnation, this one entitled Is that so … In a nod to the original series. Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon will repeat their roles in the 10-episode comedy, which will bring the trio together with Emmy winner Michael Patrick King, who oversaw the show and its two films.
But why is the comedy coming back absolutely? And why are you on the HBO Max streamer and not Did the premium cable network serve as the home of the comedy set in New York for six seasons from 1998-2008? To answer the first part of that question, look no further The Mandalorian.
When Disney + was launched, it was home to Star Wars spinoff series. Not surprisingly, the drama created by Jon Favreau was a hit right away and illustrated the need for start-up streamers to rely on their parent company’s largest intellectual property. At this point in streaming wars, having rights to properties well known as Star Wars and Marvel films provide the backbone of the service. New titles that attract the same audience are key, as media conglomerates like Disney, WarnerMedia, the parent company of HBO Max and others compete with Netflix for subscriber dollars and viewers’ eyes.
In the coming years, Disney + will be home to nearly a dozen originals Star Wars TV series and a dozen more spinoffs from the multi-billionaire Marvel Cinematic Universe. HBO Max is following a similar strategy with its Sex and the City monitoring (among other titles).
WarnerMedia has the task of converting HBO subscribers to its streaming service, which costs the same as the linear channel, but offers a vast library of films (all related to DC and Warner Bros.) and TV titles (Friends, Big Bang Theory, Game of Thrones, The Sopranos) The conglomerate must also attract new subscribers, which is where the originals enter. Sex and the City has been off the air for more than a decade, new – and younger – audiences have found the series on distribution on basic cable networks like TBS and E! (Just as new generations discovered Friends and The office on Netflix.) With two films also being part of its larger franchise, Sex and the City now has the kind of broad, conventional audience that attracts a novice streaming service like HBO Max. As a source familiar with the business said THR, “At the moment, Max is looking for things that catch the eye.” (Watch Wonder Woman 1984 and the entire Warners 2021 film, for example.)
Sex and the City and the Warners film are merely pieces of the broader strategy to build HBO Max. The streamer, like Disney +, is leaning toward the ownership of its parent company. HBO Max’s DC films will soon be accompanied by series like Batman spinoff of the Matt Reeves film and Suicide squad branch, Peacemaker. JJ Abrams is creating a Justice League Dark TV universe for the platform. Other popular Warner Bros. titles for TV are also being revisited. The creators of Gossip Girl are reliving the series for a new generation with a new cast (and family narrator). The creator of CW’s Riverdale – which solidified its breakout status thanks to a streaming deal with Netflix – is revisiting Freeform’s network definition success Little liars. Both branches will join the complete library of both titles on the platform. Super producer Greg Berlanti, who launched the Arrow-verse on the CW, is creating a new DC TV world for HBO Max with a big budget vision Green Lantern.
The strategy also explains why HBO Max spent millions to bring together the cast and creators of Friends for a reunion special that, had it not been for the pandemic, would have been the urgent “mandatory TV” piece the streamer needed to launch. (Consider The Mandalorian again here, which helped boost enrollment on the first day of Disney +.)
Think of it this way: Netflix has attracted subscribers by offering library titles like The office and Friends as well as a multitude of films. Original series as House of cards and Orange is the new black helped the service attract new audiences. The race for known properties with built-in brand recognition (more recently, see Bridgerton and Snake Kai) helps to keep current subscribers and attract new ones. HBO Max and the recently launched NBCUniversal streamer, Peacock, are mirroring the same strategy in offering library titles (The office moved to Peacock this year after NBCUniversal paid $ 500 million to recover the rights to the program it originally produced) and invested in its known properties. Like the new versions Little liars and Gossip Girl, the new Sex and the City will live alongside the original series on HBO Max. Peacock, like Max and Disney +, is doing the same thing with titles like Battlestar Galactica, the new prince of Bel-Air, Saved by the gong and Punky Brewster and bet high on originals that go well with library titles like Tina Fey’s Girls5Eva (who will live next door 30 Rock) and Mike Schur Rutherford Falls (which matches with The office)
As to why And so … will be on Max, rather than HBO itself, sources say the premium cable network considers its role in the WarnerMedia ecosystem to create the next Sex and the City. Think of programs like Girls, insecure and, more recently, I can destroy you. Or, as one source says, “HBO is the star maker”. And all those programs that made stars end up on HBO Max in the end.