And just like that, Max is HBO Max again

It’s official, folks: HBO Max is back. 

Streamers woke up this morning to an update that replaced the “Max” on their apps with “HBO Max,” putting an end to a rebranding exercise that never quite took hold. 

“It’s good to be Home,” a press release on the website of HBO Max parent Warner Bros. Discovery said, complete with the new—old?—icon for the HBO Max app.  

Warner Bros. even put out a YouTube video to mark the occasion: 

The move puts the capper on a three-year-old saga that began when then-WarnerMedia merged with Discovery. With that merger came the decision—a poor one, as it turned out—to turn HBO Max from the streaming home of adult-focused fare to a big tent with “a broad array of quality choices for everybody.” Thus came the move to rebrand “HBO Max” as just “Max.” 

Right away there was a culture clash, with Discovery’s more family-friendly reality shows like House Hunters International, Property Brothers, Deadliest Catch, and Mythbusters sitting uneasily beside HBO’s gritty adult dramas and comedies as House of the Dragon, True Detective, And Just Like That, Veep, and Hacks.  

The confusion manifested itself as Warner Bros. Discovery executives argued whether upcoming shows like the new Harry Potter series would be an “HBO Original” or a “Max Original.” Meanwhile, many streamers simply ignored the re-brand and stuck with calling the app “HBO Max.” 

In the end, company execs realized the whole “Max” thing just wasn’t going to happen, and announced an about-face in May.  

Aside from the name change, not all that much is different about the “new” HBO Max. House of the Dragons and Mythbusters are still there, as are other HBO and Discovery shows, although many kid-friendly titles like Teen Titans, Ed, and Edd n’ Eddy are already gone, having been shed back in late 2024. 

But it’s clear that HBO Max is doubling down on the “HBO” part in its name, while Warner Bros. Discovery is undergoing an inevitable breakup that could lead to Discovery content going dark on HBO Max for good. (Company execs say they’re still working out the details of the split, which won’t be finalized until next year.)

Palace intrigue aside, HBO Max is back. And as for “Max,” I doubt many of us will miss it.