Finally, HBO Max Launches in the U.K. and Ireland

Celebrations were in order Wednesday night as TV’s top talent filed into London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall to mark the launch of HBO Max in the U.K. and Ireland.

It’s music to the ears of audiences, too: Finally, Brits will be able to watch The Pitt, which has long gone without a U.K. partner. Star Noah Wyle was even in attendance at Wednesday’s event, a day after an onstage conversation with HBO chief Casey Bloys in the British capital. There, the pair discussed universal healthcare in the U.S. and season three of the hit series.

Bloys was also present for the one-night-only HBO house party. He caught up with The Hollywood Reporter earlier in the week to unpack the still-unanswered questions around the Paramount deal, the new Harry Potter series, and that lunch with Ted Sarandos.

Speaking of Harry Potter, HBO held an exclusive preview of the hotly anticipated trailer ahead of the party. THR was bundled into a screening room made to look like a cupboard under the stairs and given a first look at the J.K. Rowling adaptation starring Dominic McLaughlin, Alastair Stout, and Arabella Stanton, who made their red carpet debut at the event. The trailer showed all the core cast and even confirmed an early release date for the show — for more on that, head here.

Also in attendance were the “HBO family,” Lisa Kudrow and Michael Patrick King (The Comeback); Steve Carell, Phil Dunster and Charly Clive (Rooster); Wyle and Katherine LaNasa (The Pitt); True Whitaker and Jordan Firstman (I Love LA), David Chase (The Sopranos), Sharon Horgan (Youth), Marisa Abela (Industry), Aimee Lou Wood and Jason Isaacs (The White Lotus), Linda Cardellini and Joy Sunday (DTF St. Louis), Sirine Saba (Harry Potter) and Peter Safran (co-chairman and CEO of DC Studios).

Much of the House of the Dragon and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms talent were present, including Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy, James Norton, Fabien Frankel, Harry Collett, Tom Glynn-Carney, Phia Saban, Matthew Needham, Phoebe Campbell, Dexter Sol Ansell, Bertie Carvel, Shaun Thomas, and Sam Spruell.

They circulated as DJ Lou Hayter spun vinyl in The Loft and Peter Dorelli served martinis on bar trolleys in The Liquor Cabinet. Guests helped themselves to a fridge stocked with Jell-O shots and ice cream sandwiches in The Kitchen Raid, played billiards, and toured a complete library of HBO Originals scripts in The Smoking Room.

“I’m gonna be very short, because nobody’s gonna listen to this,” joked Bloys onstage while his guests mingled. “One thing we have to say at HBO [is] that we are only as good as the people who choose to work with us. So I want to thank everybody here, everybody who has worked on a show in the past, present, future — every actor, every creator, director, crew member. We could not do this without you. We stand on your shoulders, and we’re incredibly appreciative. So I want to thank everybody.”

“It’s a big deal for us to be here,” he said. “We’re proud to launch in the U.K. and Ireland, and for our library and all our shows to be available.” We could not do without everybody in this room.”

To close out the evening in style, the HBO team had 500 drones take flight between Westminster Bridge and Hungerford Bridge, bringing the skies over the capital bursting to life in a world-first drone show. The formation assembled 394 feet above the river and depicted some of the world’s most iconic TV shows, sports, and movies, including Harry Potter, Batman, Superman, Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon, and The White Lotus.