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It’s been a roller coaster time for HBO Max and Warner Bros. Discovery. In August 2022, the merged company announced more merges were on the horizon. Plans to combine HBO Max and Discovery+ into one single streaming platform seemed set in stone. In fact, Warner Bros. Discovery planned for the combined HBO Max and Discovery+ product first to roll out in the summer 2023 but then moved up that date to spring 2023. But now, according to reports from Wall Street Journal, which we saw on Deadline, HBO Max and Discovery+ may not merge at all, at least not fully. But that doesn’t mean HBO Max has completely dodged a bullet; it seems like there is much changing and rebranding still to come for the streamer.

Blending HBO Max and Discovery+ never seemed to make good content sense. The two streaming platforms seem at total odds with one another in terms of the movies and shows they prioritize. Additionally, since the proposed merger, we saw more and more content cut from HBO Max. And these content cuts did not feel favorably received. But in the end, reports indicate the chief culprit for the possible Warner Bros. Discovery change of plans comes down to the usual suspect, price. Deadline shares that potentially, research indicated Discovery+ subscribers balked at a potential price increase. HBO Max is one of the pricier streamers, after all, costing users $16 per month or $10 with ads. Discovery+, meanwhile, costs approximately half that, $7 or $5 with ads.

Even when discussing combining HBO Max and Discovery+, Warner Bros. Discovery noted its greater ability to support an audience at scale. Clearly, the company wishes to keep that audience. The Wall Street Journal indicates that the potential new plan includes keeping Discovery+ as a separate service but evolving HBO Max into a new, rebranded product. This plan could still see Discovery+ content such as “Shark Week” on HBO Max, but Discovery+ would remain its own option. In addition, there is some discussion of a brand new, free free ad-supported streaming service that “will include a variety of streaming channels of programming including library content from the Warner Bros. studio, as well as shows that originally ran on HBO and Discovery outlets.”

As for HBO Max, what that product will be isn’t yet clear. However, rumors of the name “Max” have been circulating. And recently, HBO Chairman and CEO Casey Bloys seemed to feed into this idea. He noted that keeping the HBO brand feels limiting to a product. Bloys indicates that parents with kids may not feel like the service is for them while the HBO moniker is there. And its important that a streaming service be able to reach every member of a family. We’ll have to wait and see what that means for HBO Max’s current prestige offerings and for HBO Max as a whole. For now, nothing is fully set when it comes to the platform’s future.

The post HBO Max and Discovery+ May Not Fully Merge Into a Single Platform After All appeared first on Nerdist.

Full disclosure, I wasn’t fully aware of the incredibly popular comic book series for Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. I knew she appeared in some of the games, but didn’t know about her powers and I certainly didn’t understand why a dinosaur was involved. Cut to San Diego Comicon in 2022 and one of the feature panels for the new Disney+ animated series. 

I saw the cast was full of Black and Brown talent, and I became interested in learning more. For those who don’t know, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur tells the story of Lunella Lafayette (Diamond White). She lives in New York City’s Lower East Side with her family.  Lunella is a 13-year-old super-genius who, while trying to figure out what a machine does, inadvertently causes a portal to open to the past. Lunella has powers, and with them she can understand the dinosaur whom she brands Devil Dinosaur (Fred Tatasciore). With the help of Devil and her classmate manager Casey (Libe Barer), Lunella becomes Moon Girl and vows to care for those she loves in her community. 

The cast is filled with surprising voices. Sasheer Zamata, Jermaine Fowler, Alfre Woodard, and Gary Anthony Williams all serve as Lunella’s family. Laurence Fishburne plays the Beyonder, a mischievous trickster who helps Lunella, but also kind of doesn’t. Recurring roles are filled by Utkarsh Ambudkar and Craig Robinson. The guest spots are packed with stars: Jennifer Hudson, Daveed Diggs, Allison Brie, Wilson Cruz, Method Man — and the list goes on. 

There’s a lot to love about the series. Lunella is rumored to have intelligence on par with Shuri from Black Panther and RiRi Williams from Ironheart. Yet, as a 13-year-old-girl she can’t get past the truth of puberty and hormones and friends (or lack of them). Lunella is confident, but also has some missing knowledge, which is exploited weekly as she learns how to not just protect her community but to also be a part of it. 

It’s interesting to note that the series is extremely Black. The main family is Black and the school is filled with Black and Brown people. Casey is Latine, and we see bits of her culture come out naturally during her daily life. These kids are who they are, and the way they explore issues is surprisingly grounded given that this is a cartoon based on a comic superhero. 

In one stand-out episode, “Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow,” we see Lunella preparing for class photos. A classmate calls her hair “messy” (code for “nappy”), and Lunella tries to create a natural hair relaxer. It causes her hair to fall out and turn into a super villain voiced by Jennifer Hudson. Throughout the episode we see Lunella come to understand and love her hair. It points to another important thing that sets this show apart. 

Sometimes multicultural shows are tasked with educating the masses. They have to make the situations relatable so that kids in every demographic understand and relate. Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur doesn’t do that. It’s not made to educate white audiences, but to teach Black and Brown audiences to love themselves. The idea of assimilation isn’t encouraged, but rather staying true to yourself and your own idiosyncrasies. 

Another episode has Lunella paired with a classmate who she thinks is just a goof. But she learns that his mind works in different ways, and there is an intersection between art, music and science. Each episode Lunella grows in confidence and self-awareness, and you’ll be cheering her on the entire way. 

As someone who is not overly familiar with the comics, I felt Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur did a great job of setting the scene. I was able to follow who the characters were and the villains. It’s a naturally accessible show. The only points off are because the animation can be a bit frenetic and jumpy. It’s hard to concentrate because every scene is kinetic and packed. Also, even though Devil has a great range of vocal expression, his size seems to change constantly and it’s hard to believe he would be accepted so easily, even in the Marvel Universe. 

However, those are small things that are easy to overlook. The story is engaging, and the characters and themes are heartfelt and genuinely sweet. The side characters find a way to dig into your heart, and you’ll be rooting for them as much as Lunella. 

I highly recommend this cartoon not just for kids, but for people who want to see a faithful and loving adaptation of their favorite comic. Diamond White is a real gem and she sings the theme song, Moon Girl Magic. Raphael Saadiq is the composer and the music has a mix of the modern and a ‘90s chill vibe that mesh so well. The show really has something for everyone. For Disney fans, Moon Girl will soon appear in Hollywood Land in Disney’s California Adventure.

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur will premiere on Disney Channel and Disney+ on February 10, 2023.

Marvel Studios’ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is the most-watched Marvel film premiere on Disney+ globally, based on hours streamed in its first five days.

In Marvel Studios’ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), Shuri (Letitia Wright), M’Baku (Winston Duke), Okoye (Danai Gurira) and the Dora Milaje (including Florence Kasumba) fight to protect their nation from intervening world powers in the wake of King T’Challa’s death. As the Wakandans strive to embrace their next chapter, the heroes must band together with the help of War Dog Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) and Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) and forge a new path for the kingdom of Wakanda. Introducing Tenoch Huerta Mejía as Namor, ruler of a hidden undersea nation, the film also stars Dominique Thorne, Michaela Coel, Mabel Cadena and Alex Livinalli. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, directed by Ryan Coogler and produced by Kevin Feige and Nate Moore, is now playing in theaters and streaming on Disney+.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is now nominated for five Academy Awards®; fans of the film can watch behind-the-scenes footage and interviews of the making of the movie in Assembled: The Making of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, streaming on Disney+ February 8.

The Last of Us‘s fourth episode introduced an entirely new figure to the franchise, Melanie Lynskey’s Kathleen. The character’s first scene presented her as someone worth rooting for, a leader of free people interrogating a man who betrayed others to the fascist group Kathleen helped overthrow. By episode’s end, it wasn’t clear she’s any different from the coldblooded FEDRA she deposed. How should we feel about someone like that? That question is one of the biggest The Last of Us is asking. But the answer is not a matter of determining where the line between good and evil lies in a godforsaken world. It’s a matter of whether or not those concepts even exist when humanity doesn’t.

Kathleen didn’t get the information she wanted from her former doctor, but their conversation revealed a lot about what led both of them to that moment. FEDRA made people like him sell out friends and neighbors by giving them an unimaginable choice: their life or someone else’s. Some inevitably chose their own, even a doctor sworn to protect others from harm. That’s how Kathleen’s brother ended up beaten to death inside a FEDRA containment unit. A man named Henry gave him up.

The doctor wouldn’t tell her Henry’s location, even when Kathleen put a gun to his head. Unlike when FEDRA did the same thing, he didn’t believe Kathleen would kill him. He thought the woman he helped give birth to would never sink to FEDRA’s amoral depths. The doctor had faith in her as a good person. Minutes later, when he was of no immediate help, Kathleen shot him. She didn’t give him final chance to save himself or say goodbye to his loved ones. He died alone in that containment unit same as her brother.

Keeping a doctor around would have been wise, just as letting him live would have shown mercy. But in that moment of anger and sadness over her friends’ deaths it was possible to understand and possibly even forgive Kathleen for her ruthless vengeance. But everything else that followed showed just how wrong the doctor was about her. She’s no better than FEDRA. Kathleen used those deaths as an excuse to launch a massive manhunt for Henry. She lied to her people that Henry must have called in “outsiders” to hurt them. But we know it was her people who attacked Joel and Ellie without provocation. She leads a group that murders innocent victims for supplies while they drive around in armored trucks painted “We The People.”

If there was any remaining reason to sympathize with Kathleen and her cause that ended when we learned why Henry is hiding from her: he’s protecting a child named Sam. We don’t know their exact relationship (on the show) yet, but Sam’s drawings told us plenty. Sam needs Henry, his very own superhero. That might be why Henry sold out Kathleen’s brother in the first place. His purpose in this wasteland is to protect Sam, same as Bill’s purpose was to protect Frank and Joel’s new purpose is to protect Ellie. No one faulted Bill for burning people alive to keep Frank safe. Nor would anyone fault Joel for killing the men who ambushed him and Ellie. Can we fault Henry for handing someone over to FEDRA if it meant staying alive for Sam’s sake?

We know Joel wouldn’t. In this episode he told Ellie why he fights on in a world he thinks is hopeless. “You keep going for family. That’s about it,” he said. Joel is no different from Kathleen and her group when it comes to how you protect your own, either. “We did what we needed to survive,” Joel told Ellie about his past actions. It’s how he recognized the “I’m hurt” scam. He used to use it himself. And since he wouldn’t answer Ellie when she asked if that included killing innocent people, we truly know why Tess said her and Joel are not good people.

Learning about Joel’s prior actions probably won’t make many viewers stop liking him. Especially because we know what happened to him and his daughter. It’s easier to forgive and empathize with him because of what we know of his life. But anyone who has survived this world—from Kathleen and her doctor, to Henry and the soldiers of FEDRA—all lost people, too. No one survives the apocalypse without scars that fundamentally change them as people. Are they really any different from Joel? Is it fair to root for or against them when we can’t deny there’s no difference between perceived heroes and perceived villains?

What’s the ethical difference between FEDRA killing individuals to keep the QZ safe versus a group that murders innocent people for their food and supplies so they can live? Is their a distinction between a grieving sister who seeks vengeance and a man desperate to keep his vulnerable brother safe no matter what that takes? And what does morality matter when the world ensures all of our choices lead to someone’s death? The Last of Us isn’t asking us to answer these questions because no one can when right and wrong no longer exist. Instead the show is asking us to confront something much darker. It’s asking us to confront the fact that when humans face annihilation our humanity will die long before we do.

We’ll probably never face that truth because of a Cordyceps infection. But we might because we launch bombs powerful enough to wipe out most of mankind. Or because we won’t make sacrifices today to save our own planet’s future. Whatever the reason, The Last of Us is making clear people like Joel, Kathleen, and Henry that the only way to avoid living in a world without ethics or morals is to act with them when we still have the chance.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter at    @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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