Every Christopher Reeve Superman Movie Is on Its Way to HBO Max

This July, a number of Superman movies will make their way to HBO Max, the new AT&T/WarnerMedia [...]

By Russ Burlingame

This July, a number of Superman movies will make their way to HBO Max, the new AT&T/WarnerMedia streaming app that has thus far been a little bit anemic on the DC content front. According to HBO Max's list of what's coming and going in July, the beginning of next month will see Superman: The Movie, Superman II, Superman III, Superman IV: The Quest For Peace, and a number of animated movies heading to the platform. This means that every film that featured Christopher Reeve in the role will now be on HBO Max (although both Superman Returns and the recent "Crisis on Infinite Earths" crossover on The CW featured Brandon Routh in that same continuity).

Superman Returns will also join the HBO Max lineup, along with the animated movies Superman: Brainiac Attacks and Superman: Unbound, both of which center on the villain Brainiac (with Brainiac Attacks being set in the old DC Animated Universe, while Superman: Unbound is a loose adaptation of the Geoff Johns/Gary Frank story from the comics).

HBO Max's current DC lineup includes Aquaman, the pre-Nolan Batman movies, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (but not the Ultimate Cut),Catwoman, Green Lantern, Joker, Jonah Hex, Justice League, The Losers, Shazam!, Steel, Supergirl, Suicide Squad, and Wonder Woman in terms of feature films. In terms of live-action TV, they have only Doom Patrol, Batwoman and Watchmen, with a number of animated movies and shows.

That would not be a bad offering, if DC wasn't one of the biggest brands at Warner Bros. and, indeed, one of the channels on the HBO Max app. Over on the DC Universe app, fans can get a great deal more animation, as well as a lot of live-action TV, including Birds of Prey, Constantine, Swamp Thing, Stargirl, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, and more. Series like Shazam!, Wonder Woman, and The Flash all bring your childhood from decades past.

That Warner rolled out two different major digital initiatives in the space of a year and never managed to secure the rights to Man of Steel (which had a watch party to celebrate the announcement of the Snyder Cut) or the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight Trilogy feels like a big missed opportunity. The lack of anything exclusive -- even, say, the CW Seed animated shows set in the Arrowverse or something like that -- at launch also feels like it's lacking somewhat. And for a service that's hanging so much on the Snyder Cut, it's a little odd that they only have the theatrical version of Batman v Superman which, ask any Snyder Stan, is a wildly inferior cut.

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