Meet Max, the Potential Gender-Neutral Child of HBO Max and Discovery+

Attempting to understand the current streaming landscape, littered as it is with various and ever-changing services and studios, is likely to induce an aneurysm at worst or brain freeze at best. There are the obvious questions: Is this the year Netflix takes home a Best Picture Oscar? (No.) Remember when there were three different types of FX and now there’s also FX on Hulu? (No.) What is going to be the name of the new streaming service that combines both HBO Max and Discovery+?

Okay, on this one, we have an answer, or at least the inkling of an answer. A new CNBC report shared that lawyers are currently discussing the possibility of maybe potentially closing in on the name “Max.” I hedge because that’s what these guys are doing: floating this to a news source to see how many people will dunk on them.

Max! Well, it’s clean, it’s neat, it’s arguably gender neutral, which is a nice change of pace after that crazy graphic that said HBO Max was for men and Discovery+ was for women. Still, I’m kinda like, Max? We sure about that one? For instance, I have only been thinking about this for about seven minutes, but here’s what I’ve come up with:

• HBO+: I don’t know, give it a shot.
• DisHBOvery: This one works too well.
• Main one worth paying for: Too long-winded, but you know I’m right.
• Mubi: NVM.
• DisGoMax - Okay, stay with me here. If we think back to the halcyon days of 2014, HBO’s streaming service was called “HBO Go,” which didn’t have exclusive programming. It just let you watch Game Of Thrones the day after it aired. By combining “Discovery,” “Go,” and “Max,” the HBO Max-Discovery+ merger pays tribute to streaming services past and present. It also kind of sounds like disco max, which would suggest the maximum level of disco. Rock on!

Anyway, these are just some of my thoughts, and if a lawyer for Warner Bros. wants to get in touch with me, I’m happy to make new friends here and there. But all things considered, Max works fine! Max is totally doable. I will certainly have to adapt to saying “throw on Max so I can sleep through another episode of White Lotus” instead of “throw on HBO so I can sleep through another episode of White Lotus.”