What’s going on with The Penguin, Euphoria, and The White Lotus?
With Max launching in France and Belgium, Casey Bloys, Chairman and CEO of HBO and Max Content, sat down with Variety to discuss several of the network’s premier shows, including The Penguin, Euphoria, and The White Lotus.
When asked about HBO and Max’s next 18 months, Bloys shared how Warner Bros. IP has led to some of the company’s most successful shows. When mentioning The Penguin, Bloys shared the show’s release date.
“After House of the Dragon, the next big tentpole series that we have coming up will be The Penguin with Colin Farrell,” Bloys said. “That is coming out of Matt Reeves’ The Batman, and it’s fantastic. Just like Peacemaker came out of James Gunn’s Suicide Squad, it’s a really good example of what you can do. That’ll be in September.”
One of HBO’s most popular shows is Euphoria, the provocative teen drama series that follows a group of high schoolers navigating love, sex, drugs, and addiction. Since the season 2 finale in February 2022, Euphoria has experienced numerous delays. Scripts are still being written, and no filming date has been announced. Bloys touched on his conversations with Euphoria creator Sam Levinson about the upcoming third season, including a potential time jump.
“One of the issues I think that Sam is thinking about is that he doesn’t want to have it in high school anymore,” Bloys said. “That’s where it was set, and what made sense then. So when you take it out of that, there’s a lot of back and forth about where to set it and how far in the future to set it, and all that stuff. But I think he’s got a take that he’s excited about, and he’s busy writing.”
Bloys added that the core cast — including Zendaya, Jacob Elordi, Sydney Sweeney, and Hunter Schafer — would return for season 3.
The White Lotus, Mike White’s anthology series, is filming its third season in Thailand for a 2025 release. Will there be more seasons of The White Lotus?
“I think as long as he [Mike White] wants to do it, we’ll go along for the ride,” Bloys said. “He’s really built a very interesting model to go from different parts of the world and have a rotating cast.”
Bloys added Dune: Prophecy streams later in 2024, with Welcome to Derry in 2025 and Harry Potter “further down the line.” Other shows in development are based on popular IP, like The Conjuring, Crazy Rich Asians, and Green Lantern.
Finally, would Bloys ever be open to a Succession spinoff?
“I would take [creator] Jesse [Armstrong’s] lead on that,” Bloys explained. “If for some reason Jesse called and said, ‘I’ve been thinking about it and I really want to do a spinoff,’ I would say, ‘Great.’”
