Casey Bloys is once again at the forefront of a pivotal moment in entertainment history. But it’s not the moment he was preparing for a month ago. With Paramount Skydance now acquiring HBO parent Warner Bros. Discovery, Bloys and his team are yet again facing a new future.

In an interview with Deadline, Bloys chooses his words carefully on the $111B mega-merger, but does admit there is something to be said for a combined HBO Max-Paramount+ streaming service. “I don’t know what the setup looks like… but there are certainly some great potential combinations.”

Tonight, he is in London as HBO Max finally launches in the UK and Ireland after years of speculation about whether Warner Bros. Discovery would ever go solo in the country. A glitzy launch party in central London is taking place as a new streaming landscape in the UK takes shape – one in which WBD begins separating from long-time local partner Sky.

After that, Bloys has the small matter of the Harry Potter TV show, and productions such as A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Season 2 to attend to. The former is a hot potato requiring careful handling, with toxic elements of the fanbase to handle, along with the challenge of actually producing a hit from JK Rowling’s books.

In this wide-ranging interview with HBO Chairman and CEO of HBO and Max Content Bloys and JB Perrette, WBD’s President & CEO – Global Streaming & Games, they address the streamer’s UK credentials, how unexpected hits such as Neighbors play into the content mix and addresses that lunch with Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, which has set tongues wagging all over Hollywood.

DEADLINE: Big day for you guys. You both look very calm. You have talked about how this launch completes the core rollout of HBO Max in Europe. Can you contextualize what today means for the HBO Max brand?

J.B. PERRETTE: This has been years, if not decades, in the making. When you think about it, Warner Bros. has been around for over 100 years. HBO has been around for over 50 and, in a market as sizable, as important, given the obviously Anglo connection, and as creatively vibrant as the UK, the idea that this is the first time that we will have our own branded service that houses all the best of Warner Bros. legacy and HBO legacy, as well as the original content that is coming through all in one place, it’s a big moment. Frankly, it’s a big moment in the history of this incredible company.

DEADLINE: Casey, you know the UK production community very well, but how will you use this launch as a means to getting to know the UK community even better?

CASEY BLOYS: I don’t know that it’s possible to know the UK better! I would say, to add on to what J.B. was saying, I’m personally excited, just because we have worked with so many creators, directors, actors, talent across the UK, and shot all over the UK.

I’ve had so many great co-operative experiences with most broadcasters in the UK. We’ve kind of revered the talent here. I feel like the UK, more than any other [international] market, feels like they probably have the best idea of what HBO is, even though we haven’t been directly available here, so to be available directly for the first time is pretty exciting.

DEADLINE: It’s impossible to talk about everything that’s happening in the UK without considering the context of what’s happening at the wider Warner Bros. Discovery group. How do you feel about the future for HBO Max and for the HBO brand? How do they evolve when we’ve heard David Ellison say that the ultimate goal is to bring the two streaming services, HBO Max and Paramount+ together?

BLOYS: Well, as you know, not a lot we can say – there’s not a lot we know, to be honest, because in this process, there are rules around what can be discussed. But I would say, like with other transactions, of which I’ve participated in a few, is I think that the HBO brand, and more specifically, now HBO Max, has done incredibly well, so in whatever the future holds, the programming does the talking, and I feel pretty good about what we put out in the world.

DEADLINE: You’ve got major talent who are completely associated with the HBO brand – John Oliver, for example. Are you confident that they will be willing to stick around when there is ultimately going to be some upheaval?

BLOYS: Well, we’ve kept everybody around since AT&T, if I’m just using past transactions as a guidepost. I’m not saying there’s not going to be change, and not saying there are things that are unpredictable. But as I say to everybody, all you can do is continue to focus on the programming and let that do the talking.

DEADLINE: Casey, I have to ask: Is there anything you can say about that lunch?

BLOYS: Everybody’s very, very interested. I should put out a copy of the menu ordered. But other than that, I admire Ted. It was a good lunch, but nothing else to shed light on there.

DEADLINE: One really interesting programming trend at HBO has been the introduction of shows like Neighbors, which is a lower-budget show for HBO, but has clearly done very, very well. With that experience in mind, how do you envisage the content mix, particularly in terms of budgets?

BLOYS: I’m glad you brought up Neighbors, because that show’s done really well and the young producing team that put it together did a really great job. Nina Rosenstein, who’s our head of late-night, has been at HBO for at least 25 years, and we worked together for a long time. She’s done specials for a long time and is very good at spotting talent.

This is not necessarily something new that we’re doing, but just kind of an extension of what we’ve been doing in late-night, working with really talented creators who are trying things differently.

DEADLINE: With Hacks ending and being such a well-regarded show, is there any truth to rumors of a spin-off?

BLOYS: I’m not sure about that, there are no spin-offs. Not for us.

DEADLINE: Bringing it back to the UK, you’ve obviously produced a lot of shows, some of your most important ones there – Game of Thrones and its spin-offs, and the whole Harry Potter of everything – but in terms of originals out of the UK, is that something that can ramp up?

BLOYS: I guess I would say a good portion of our schedule is already set here: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, House of the Dragon, Harry Potter, Michaela Coel is doing a co-production. We show Industry and we’ve got a co-production that George Kay is doing called War, and Sharon Horgan is working on a new show that’s shooting now. We’ve got a long list of creators that we work with and shows that are shot here, so I don’t know that I necessarily see ramping up as opposed to maintaining a really healthy share of our schedule that is shot here.

DEADLINE: I spoke with [HBO Max Head of Programming] Sarah Aubrey yesterday, who was saying the Harry Potter sets were beyond anything she’d seen in her career before. How do you manage the noise around that show?

BLOYS: Obviously, it’s a big show, and a lot of interest in it. We’ve had big shows before and any big IP-based show will come with built-in fan bases that feel strongly about it. It’s like with anything else: You just have to get in business with people you trust – in this case, Francesca Gardiner and Mark Mylod – and have a producing team with them that you believe in and support them as much as you can, and to the extent you can, you tune out the noise and do the best show possible. That’s what we’ve been doing. I’ve seen the work, and I’m very, very happy with how it’s going.

DEADLINE: In terms of Harry Potter, Paapa Essiedu and John Lithgow have talked about their experiences. When you’re speaking to the talent and actors, what are you trying to impress on them as they get started?

BLOYS: We anticipated there would be a lot of interest in all of them, and interest can tip over into more unpleasant and aggressive behavior. We talked to them about what to expect, what to expect on social media and how we handle it, but any kind of security that’s needed is an unfortunate aspect of doing IP shows. We just try to be mindful and monitor it.

DEADLINE: Sarah Aubrey talked about how an online sleuth was immediately able to find out who was playing Draco Malfoy when the three leads were announced by trawling through their social media friends. That feels instructive in terms of how big the fandom is for this one, and there is pressure that comes with that, right?

BLOYS: It’s having to deliver. More than anything, you want to do the best show possible. You want to do a show that you know the people working on the show are proud of, that the fans will be excited by and that new fans will come to, so of course, there’s a lot of pressure. Any show you do has a certain amount of pressure, and again, part of the job is to tune out everything else and focus on the work in front of you.

DEADLINE: Let’s talk about the Heated Rivalry phenomenon. You came in as a buyer towards the end of last year, but it’s been a super interesting case study in how a show like that can be supercharged by both the local writing and having the HBO machine behind it.

BLOYS: Yes, it was an acquisition. I don’t like to make our Canadian friends mad, so I like to be clear that this is a Canadian production, written and directed by Canadians, and obviously Crave developed and produced this. We happily picked it up for the U.S. and other major markets, across Europe except for the UK where we hadn’t launched yet.

It’s been a great experience for us. I’ve gotten to know Jacob [Tierney, Heated Rivalry creator] very well, and his producing partner Brendan [Brady]. I was happy to be a part of that, watching that show take off, watching Connor and Hudson take off. I don’t think I’ve seen talent take off like that – from being waiters in the summer to hosting Saturday Night Live in February. I mean, it’s just insane. I’ve seen people get famous, but this was a whole other level, and I think they’ve handled it beautifully. It’s been fun to be part of, and I’m glad that we have subsequent seasons. And again, congratulations to Jacob and to Crave. The fans have been great.

DEADLINE: I know there’s not going to be a lot you can say, but there are obviously some great brands on the on the Paramount side of the merger. You guys have got so many prestige brands within Warners and HBO, and it is an exciting idea that you could potentially be bringing those things together.

BLOYS: They’ve got a lot of great content. We have very happily had South Park, and it performed really well for us, and it’s obviously now exclusive on Paramount+. But as an example, we know that it works on our platform. It was great. I think they have a lot of properties that would do well. I don’t know what the what the setup looks like, or anything like that, but there are certainly some great potential combinations.

DEADLINE: Where are we with A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Season 2. How’s that shaping up?

BLOYS: They’re shooting season two now. One of the benefits of that is the production footprint is smaller and it is easier to get back to on an annual basis, which is one of the things we’re trying to balance with a slate of shows – some of them smaller, some of them bigger. One of the things that we’re trying to get back to is getting shows back on the air and that one gives us an opportunity to do it because of the scope of the production.

DEADLINE: Going back to the UK launch. What should people really be looking out for what’s, going to be setting the agenda for HBO Max subscribers?

BLOYS: We’re launching with The Pitt, which hasn’t been in the UK yet. Rooster with Steve Carell, Euphoria is coming back, House of the Dragon is coming back. We’ve got a new DC series this summer, Lantern and Chuck Lorre is doing A Big Bang spin-off that will also be really big and probably not what people are expecting, and Sharon Horgan is currently shooting her show in London now. That’ll be on the air later this year. It’s a pretty, pretty full lineup.

DEADLINE: What do you say to the people who say you guys waited too long to launch in the UK and Ireland?

PERRETTE: I say three things. Number one, we’re not in the widgets business, so they may have waited a long time, but they still don’t have any other place to get what we have and what we have is unique.

Number two is we’ve actually come at a perfect moment because we’ve learned a lot from what others have done in the marketplace, and we’ve made it as accessible as possible to our fan bases, so people who enjoy us and have enjoyed us for years on Sky now will get access to it. It’s great for them and the 20 million broadband households who don’t and have decided Sky is not for them. For the cost of essentially a fancy coffee drink in London, they can get us for £6 a month. We’ve tried to make it very affordable, and way more affordable than the £25-30 or £40 packages in the market that they said no to, so it’s great value for money.

The third thing is, the service is meeting a sweet spot in a world where no consumer anywhere is saying, ‘What I want is more content.’ What we are doing is exactly what the consumers want, which is they’re saying, ‘We want better content’. What Casey and his team, the [film] group and the rest of the company work on, and what’s on the service, is really the most curated, high-quality collection of stories you’ll find anywhere.

DEADLINE: Obviously, a month ago, you were thinking about life as part of the Netflix group, and now you’re thinking about life as part of the Paramount group. How comfortable do you feel with the sort of change in mindset that this will require?

PERRETTE: Even though I haven’t been through as many ownership changes as Casey has, we have developed a fluidity and a flexibility in this market and in the media environment we’ve operated in, so we are remaining flexible. As Casey said earlier, having access to more great stories and more great content with more potential to satisfy fans is a positive. Exactly what that means and how it comes about, we’ll find out, but generally, there’s a lot of things to be excited about on the horizon.