5 Years on, HBO Max is About to Remove Its Own Psychological Thriller Series

It often comes as a surprise when HBO Max deletes one of its originals from the service, and it has happened again with a psychological thriller. HBO Max often removes titles it holds the sole rights to from its service for various reasons. One big reason is that, if HBO Max removes a series, the production company no longer has to pay residuals from the property to the creative team. This happened with several animated series from Cartoon Network, as well as with popular shows like Westworld. It is also something HBO can do to use as a tax write-off, which has happened even with movies it chose never to release after they were made, with a perfect example being Batgirl.

HBO Max has announced the shows and movies leaving its streaming service in the near future, and one of the departing series is the psychological thriller Possessions. This was a Studiocanal series that HBO Max acquired back in 2020. Possessions was created by Shachar Magen (Sirens) and was directed by Thomas Vincent (Bodyguard). It was an international Max Original that debuted on the streamer in December 2020. Now, HBO Max has announced that Possessions will leave its streaming service on January 27.

Possessions was shot in Israel in French, Hebrew, and English. Reda Kateb stars as Karim, a French diplomat who arrives to help a young French woman named Natalie, played by Nadia Tereszkiewicz. She lives in Israel and is accused of murdering her husband on their wedding night. Kateb has to dig into her past to learn if she is guilty or innocent, a perfect setup for a thriller. The series blended the crime thriller genre with some fantasy elements and family drama.

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What Will Happen to Possessions Now?

There is some good news for fans of Possessions, or possibly for those who haven’t seen it yet, but might be interested. When HBO Max removes TV shows from its streaming service, it often makes them available to stream elsewhere. There is a chance that it could just disappear as a tax write-off, but there is a good chance that it offers up the show to other streaming services in licensing deals.

For example, when HBO Max removed Westworld from its streaming service, fans were shocked and angered because this was actually a popular show that viewers praised. However, it soon ended up streaming on other services, oftentimes for free, and there is still a chance to buy it from Amazon or digitally from Prime Video or Apple TV. There is a chance that a streaming service like Prime Video or Netflix could license Possessions to stream by paying HBO Max, and it is just a matter of waiting for it to show back up. However, in case it doesn’t go anywhere else, fans have until January 27 to catch it on HBO Max.

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