The first two seasons of Harley Quinn will be coming to HBO Max starting in August, the streaming service recently announced. This is exciting news for anyone who's heard the buzz about the show but hasn't had the chance to learn what all the fuss is about.
The Harley Quinn animated series, starring Kaley Cuoco as the titular maniac, was previously the purview of DC Universe, DC's streaming service. It has since migrated to other networks, like SyFy, where season 1 is currently available. Besides Cuoco, Quinn stars the vocal talents of J.B. Smoove (Curb Your Enthusiasm), Tony Hale (Veep), Jason Alexander (Friends), and The Mandalorian's Giancarlo Esposito as Lex Luthor. The cast is outstanding, but it's the show's whip-smart humor that's been earning it the adoration of fans.
Calling Harley Quinn "irreverent" is like saying a hurricane is a bit of a breeze. The show respects its source material and its fans, but regards neither as sacred or off-limits. Its self-awareness and deep understanding of online culture give it a freshness that has delighted viewers who've sought it out.
Program sharing is relatively straightforward when streaming services are distinct from each other, but when they're owned by the same parent company, it becomes more complex. Warner Media owns both HBO Max and DC Comics, and on the one hand, as part of the same family, cross-channel content shouldn't be that difficult. On the other, each company has its own profits to consider, and competing streaming services could easily cannibalize each other's audiences. If all of DC Universe's content was also on HBO Max, would customers still subscribe to both? Unlikely. The question then becomes what to share and for how long. How HBO Max subscribers respond to Harley Quinn will likely become a factor in that equation.
Harley Quinn will be available on HBO Max starting August 1.
Source: Collider