Our Five Most Anticipated Shows and Movies Coming to Max in 2023; 'Evil Dead Rise,' 'Last of Us,' 'Shazam!', More (2024)

The upcoming year should be a big one for HBO Max. The service is due to merge with discovery+ in the spring of 2023, and the new service is likely to be rather uncreatively renamed “Max.”

The new service is scheduled to get quite a few new shows and movies next year, despite the glut of content removed from HBO Max in 2022. Here are the five shows and movies we are anticipating the most on Max next year.

‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’ | Coming to Theaters March 17, 2023, Streaming Date TBA

The next scheduled DC movie to hit theaters is “Shazam! Fury of the Gods.” Zachary Levi will return to play the titular hero. He should be living the dream life, but he’s experiencing a bad case of impostor syndrome as he struggles with his identity. When the villainous daughters of the Greek Titan Atlas begin to make trouble, Shazam will have to put his self-doubts aside in order to save the day once again.

This film’s release might provide some clues as to the future of the DC cinematic universe at Warner Bros. Discovery. Is the franchise starting over, or will it bring some characters and elements from past movies into the future, like Shazam?

‘The Last of Us’ | Jan. 15, 2023

This series centers on Ellie and Joel, two humans trying to make their way through a post-apocalyptic world that has been ravaged by an outbreak of a mutated fungus. Ellie shows signs of immunity to the fungus, which leads her family to hope that a cure might be synthesized from her blood. Joel is tasked with helping deliver Ellie into the hands of those who can develop such a cure.

“The Last of Us” is the latest video game adaptation from HBO Max, and the source material is much-beloved. This series could be a major success for a service that really needs a big win early in 2023.

‘Barbie’ | Coming to Theaters July 21, 2023, Streaming Date TBA

Based on the ubiquitous line of Barbie fashion dolls, this movie will likely be one of the most fantastically absurd outings of 2023. Very few details are currently available about the film, but it is confirmed to take place in “Barbieland,” a fictitious world filled with Barbies and Kens. The cast alone makes this film a must-see, with Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Will Farrell, and others confirmed to appear.

WBD has been using box office results diligently to determine when movies will shift from theaters to streaming, and unless “Barbie” is the runaway hit of the year, it’s almost certain to hit Max before 2023 ends.

‘Succession’ Season 4 | Spring 2023

This award-winning drama centers on the lives of the Roy family as they contemplate their future once their aging father begins to step back from the media and entertainment conglomerate they control. Patriarch Logan has decided to stick with the business, but that doesn’t mean his children’s schemes to take control of his empire will end. In fact, they are just beginning.

This season, the sale of media conglomerate Waystar Royco to tech visionary Lukas Matsson moves ever closer. The prospect of this seismic sale provokes existential angst and familial division among the Roys as they anticipate what their lives will look like once the deal is completed. A power struggle ensues as the family weighs a future where their cultural and political weight severely curtailed.

‘White House Plumbers’ | March 2023

“White House Plumbers” tells the story of how Nixon’s own political saboteurs and Watergate masterminds, E. Howard Hunt (Woody Harrelson) and G. Gordon Liddy (Justin Theroux), accidentally toppled the presidency they were zealously — and illegally — trying to protect.

This dramatization tells an incredibly topical story of one of the most critical times in the history of American democracy. Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux have the chops to take this series to the next level, as does co-star Lena Headey. Gary Cole and Kathleen Turner will also make appearances, making this a can’t-miss series for political junkies.

‘Evil Dead Rise’ | Theatrical Release Date April 21, 2023, Streaming Date TBA

Sam Raimi returns to his beloved franchise of the undead, but without star Bruce Campbell for this latest entry in the “Evil Dead” franchise.

The movie is a twisted tale of two estranged sisters whose reunion is interrupted by the untimely rise of body-possessing demons. This rising of the dead thrusts the two into a primal battle for survival as they face the most nightmarish version of family imaginable. The film features an all-new cast, but with Sam Raimi involved, can anyone REALLY rule out a cameo from the legendary Ash Williams?