2. HBO World

THE STREAMING STORY: HBO (Home Box Office) has been around since the '70s, but was purchased by Time Warner in 1989 (just about when Time Warner also began taking an interest in Six Flags). Still, the cable network only really garnered widespread critical success with the three year run of 1997's Oz, 1998's Sex and the City, and 1999's The Sopranos – all of which exemplified what cable networks could do without the censorship of network TV. That string of hits continued into the 2000s with The Wire, Six Feet Under, True Blood, and then of course, Game of Thrones. 

In what turned out to be a very unwise move, telecommunications giant AT&T purchased Time Warner in 2017 for an incomprehensible $108 billion (the price Disney paid for The Muppets, Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and 20th Century Fox combined). 

HBO's entry into the streaming sphere was somewhat messy. When HBO Max was announced, the service was a third HBO streaming service alongside HBO Go and HBO Now (with HBO Max meant to replace the former... Or is it the latter?). In any case, HBO Max officially launched in May 2020 (good timing given the pandemic), becoming the de facto way to access HBO and Warner Bros. content on demand. For $15 a month in the U.S., it's among the most expensive streamers... but then again, HBO is a prestige brand. (Surely, you'd pay less for a service with the same material, but called Warner Bros+.)

That was reversed in 2021 when AT&T spun off Warner Media (including HBO) into a separate company, merging with Discovery to create Warner Discovery. (It's anticipated that eventually, Warner's HBO Max will also inherit content from Discovery+ – another streaming era content consolidation.) Until then, our imagined "HBO World" would pull from the portfolios of Warner Bros. and HBO itself... So what might we find?

IN THE PARK: First we have to address the elephant(s) in the room. Both outside and inside of the HBO Max bubble, Warner Bros.’ two most iconic intellectual properties are – of course – Looney Tunes and DC Heroes. It’s hard to know if either would be present in “HBO World” since – through some ownership transitions, inherentences, and licensing deals – both are currently used in Six Flags parks across North America. 

Obviously, that’s a shame for our imaginary “HBO World,” because it would be really, really nice to see these two timeless intellectual properties given big-budget, Wizarding World-style projects. Of course, particularly in DC's case, it's also not as easy as it seems. Despite nominally being Warner's clear counterpart to Disney's "Marvel Cinematic Universe," the so-called "DC Extended Universe" of films is uneven at best, and depressing at worst. With rotating casts, broken chronologies, and some very weird behind-the-scenes spats, reshoots, reboots, and solo projects, it's unclear what form DC Heroes would take in HBO World... so we'd hope they'd find a more timeless, comics-rooted version of the characters to embrace.

It’s not impossible to imagine what either would look like in a really-for-real, built-out HBO World… The gritty streets of Gotham City, the art deco skyscrapers of Metropolis, the Technicolor cartoon wonder of a Looney Tunes National Park… Until then, we’ll have to turn to Warner Bros. World in Abu Dhabi as an example of how each can be better used.

Westworld is a perfect match for an HBO World because it’s already a theme park. In fact, Westworld is an adaptation of a movie by Michael Crichton – author of Jurassic Park – and likewise dabbles in the dark side of technology as embodied by a theme park for the ultra-rich. In this case, it’s a hyper-immersive “living” Old West park. In Westworld, 1%-ers can become heroes or villains by befriending, sleeping with, and even killing lifelike android “hosts” who are programmed as characters in the fictional world… all without consequence. 

Of course, when the “hosts” begin to develop a consciousness and to resent their torment, they begin to fight back… Both the “Old West” park and the dystopian, industrial backside of Westworld where its “hosts” are repaired and reprogrammed would make for pretty theme-park-able locales… But of course, in this Westworld, neither the guests nor the “hosts” would be quite so expendable.

One of the more compelling Originals to come out of HBO Max has been The Flight Attendant, a sort of noir mystery action comedy starring Kaley Cuoco as a globe-hopping flight attendant who accidentally finds herself caught up in an international murder. Its sleek and stylish settings (from New York City to Bangkok; Los Angeles to Berlin) make it an interesting idea for a theme park adaptation… 

But of course, there’s no doubt that the anchor of an HBO World would be none other than Game of Thrones. A generation-defining series, Games of Thrones depicts a fantasy realm of ice and fire; the continents of Westeros and Essos, where centuries of battle over the Iron Throne have resulted in powerful families – the Lannisters, Starks, Baratheons, and Targarygens – whose stories begin to overlap. 

The world of Game of Thrones is vast, rivaling Tolkein or Lewis. It’s also incredibly visual, with visceral, “real” places like King’s Landing, Winterfell, Braavos, Old Town, The Wall… In fact, the problem with adapting Games of Thrones to a theme park is probably the same reason no one’s tried to adapt Lord of the Rings yet… it’s simply too big. If anything, an entire park could be dedicated to Game of Thrones, with its fabled locals set around a shared lagoon, Islands of Adventure style… 

Of course, all of that also depends on what happens next. After all, Game of Thrones was a global phenomenon… but reviews for its final season in 2019 and its concluding episodes are abysmal, with reviews noting that the show “betrayed” its fans, deeming the final a “failure of imagination” and “a tragedy and an injustice.” After working the public into a flurry for a decade and becoming the must-see HBO show, Game of Thrones kind of flickered out, leaving precious few footprints in pop culture aside from memories of its flubbed ending.

This year will see the debut of a prequel series – House of the Dragon – set two hundred years before the events of Game of Thrones. Will it land? Or did the sour taste left by Game of Thrones’ ending manage to derail interest in the franchise so much that it’s as good as over? We’ll find out… Meanwhile, it’s a whole lot of fun to daydream about a Game of Thrones land… or even theme park.