Custom MGM+ featuring the leads of Billy the Kidd, From, and Robin Hood
Over the past several years, the modern streaming landscape has been constructed brick-by-brick with elaborate, cinema-quality productions that have rivaled even the heights of cable with the rise of"prestige TV.
" Platforms like Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, Apple TV, and the grandfather of the business, Netflix, have been at the forefront of this revolution with programs like The Bear, The Pitt, Severance, and Stranger Things, taking the torch from past water cooler shows like The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, and Game of Thrones, and running with it. Yet, this business is much wider than it may seem at first glance. There are smaller services slowly gaining momentum in the shadow of the giants, and one has quietly built itself into a genuine force for actors and creators alike — MGM+. Formerly known as Epix, MGM+ was actually launched all the way back in 2009 as a collaboration between the three film titans of MGM, Paramount, and Lionsgate. Well before streaming was the singular way to experience all the hottest television shows, the brand began with both an on-demand service and a premium linear television network that would pull from the three companies' libraries of recent films and classics alike. A lot has changed since then, though. MGM would acquire its co-founders' stakes in the service in 2017 to become its sole proprietor, which then paved the way for Amazon to pull Epix under its banner in 2022, giving it a new name and a new purpose in 2023 as a sister service to Prime Video.Perhaps the biggest change, however, came when MGM+'s Global Head Michael Wright came aboard in 2017. Wright was instrumental in shifting the service, now known as MGM+, towards original programming, giving rise to ambitious shows with some big names attached, like Godfather of Harlem with Forest Whitaker, the DC Comics spin-off series Pennyworth exploring the origins of Batman's iconic butler, and the Western hit Billy the Kid starring Tom Blyth. Collider's Maggie Lovitt spoke to Wright for a wide-ranging conversation about his time at the company and how this all came together. In his eyes, the big difference that has helped people resonate with MGM+ has been the full embrace of the MGM brand, which has been their guiding light in terms of quality and how the actors themselves are treated in relation to their projects: "Leaning into the MGM brand has been the difference maker for us. We are super brand disciplined. It does materially inform every programming decision we make, including our more recent emphasis on elevating our cast. So I'm glad you guys are seeing it and appreciating it — and so is the audience." Related Casting Directors — The Collider TV Quiz! When a new actor takes over an existing role, audiences can be wary. On this first day of spring, let's look at some characters who got fresh starts. Posts By Macklen Makhloghi MGM+'s Latest Shows Have Married High-Level Talent Both On and Behind the Camera Since then, MGM+'s original slate has grown significantly. It's not rivaling the big streamers in terms of quantity, but the quality has been notable. Their top completely original programs include the true crime docuseries The Hillside Strangler, alongside their acclaimed new comedy darling American Classic, starring Kevin Cline, John Tenney, and Laura Linney, and arguably its flagship title, From, the horror mystery series created by John Griffin, executive produced by Lost veterans Jack Bender and Jeff Pinkner, and starring Harold Perrineau. The latter is currently preparing for its fourth season on April 19, though the service also has The Westies, a new crime drama pairing Whiplash's J.K. Simmons and Bosch's Titus Welliver, on the horizon for June, as well as Season 2 of its new adventure hit Robin Hood. Such a variety of projects and talent doesn't come out of nowhere. Part of their success, both with making the series and seeing them flourish, Wright said, comes down to striking at the right time in the right place where they knew MGM+ could build something in the shadow of the big streamers. "We acknowledge we are not one of the big, giant players out there. I have massive respect for Prime and Amazon, Netflix, and all of them. That's just not our land. We are playing much more to an addressable market. About five years ago, we decided to reinvent Epix and give it a real brand focus, a real addressable market, and build it that way. It was obvious then that the brand was MGM." It helps to have such a trusted brand behind MGM+. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's long track record as a purveyor of quality, classic storytelling with stars at the forefront, dating all the way back to 1924, made it easier to create an identity and sell the streamer to both consumers and the many stars that make their shows tick. In fact, from doing the research, Wright and his team found that MGM is "one of the best entertainment brands in the world" when it comes to awareness, track record with audiences, and what the name alone conveys, showing just how much weight it carries. "The best entertainment brands, in my experience, describe an experience that the audience should expect. That's the value of the brand. Viewers have a set of choices. If you have a brand that says, 'Here's what you're going to expect from this service,' you're already advantaged. What the MGM brand says to consumers — it's a couple of really very specific things. If you do a word cloud around MGM, the first one is quality. That's your best friend. Classic Hollywood storytelling. It's not alternative. It's telling classical stories. Quality, classical storytelling, stars. If you go back and look at the MGM legacy, even some of their own wording they used back in the day, one of the MGM phrases was: 'More stars than there are in heaven.'" However, two problems emerged. First, without the same financial might as the other established streamers, it was still going to be hard to make something of that same cinematic quality as a television series. Second, times have changed since the early days of MGM, and audiences' tastes have, too. As MGM+ began marketing itself around the MGM standard, Wright added that it required real targeted communication to get producers on board, and a real understanding of the older audience who wanted the service and the titles it had to offer. Before they could live up to that old MGM catchphrase, they needed to modernize some of the go-to genres of old, like westerns or mob movies, into something that viewers nowadays would genuinely want to watch. That line of thinking helped give birth to some of the platform's best and most successful shows to date.Wright emphasized that MGM+’s audience skews predominantly over 40 and leans slightly more male — but what truly defines their viewership is a shared passion: they don’t just love movies, they want their series to deliver the same cinematic experience that MGM's storied catalog of movies deliver. Godfather of Harlem has the"vitamins and minerals of a classic gangster drama" within a contemporary narrative, while Billy the Kid is a classic western with a modern sensibility. "We took the expectations of an audience that wanted classic Hollywood storytelling, but for a modern audience. Now we've added another layer to it, which is casting, in our effort to really be the modern version of the old classic MGM." An Artist-Friendly Approach Has Made MGM+ Appealing to Stars Wright admitted that living up to the standards of classic MGM was a bit of a stretch."That's a huge bar," he said."I think it's not very clearable, because at their height, MGM was the studio that everybody wanted to be at, but they stood for something. So we're trying to build a platform and a sensibility here that celebrates that original MGM studio legacy." Even with the limitations, MGM+ has still managed to consistently land high-end talent to anchor its shows. Part of that starts at the top with hiring good creators and giving them a sandbox where they can create without the pressure of studio interference and with plenty of transparency. ""I think the reason a lot of actors are responding to our shows, and we're so honestly grateful for it, is I'd like to think we're also building a reputation for being very artist-friendly. A lot of people say that; we actually live it," Wright explained."We communicate to our showrunners upfront. 'Here's the brand. This is why we're buying your show, because we think your shows are great. Here’s the budget. We don't make any secret of it. Here's how much money we have to spend. We're going to give you notes, but we don't want to take authorship away from you.' We're very specific about that." "If you hire a Chris Brancato, a John Griffin, a Jeff Pinkner, a Tim Kring, a Daisy Goodwin — you're hiring them for their voice. So they get notes, but we really go out of our way to respect the authorship of our storytellers. I think directors have discovered that as well. We give notes, but we are hiring Alan Taylor or Alan Coulter because we love what they do. So we hire artists, and we allow them to work in their own voice." From there, the goal was to just keep layering good processes on top of each other, from the business end to communication, and building up a reputation that keeps drawing people in."And I think the more you do that, the more word spreads and people begin to realize, 'Oh, they really are just friendly over there,'" Wright continued."And that extends to actors as well. We love actors. Everyone says that, but don't judge me, I was an actor in a former life. I love actors as artists. I love what they bring to the process. When you work with Kevin Kline, Laura Linney, and Jon Tenney, they bring so much experience. Not just acting experience, but they bring storytelling experience. Same thing with Forest Whitaker, Mary-Louise Parker, Sean Bean. These are people who aren't just brilliant actors, they're also brand storytellers." Treating the people who make the magic happen right is the last key to creating a well-oiled production machine because of how it pays dividends down the road. For Wright, it's this approach, combined with the legacy of MGM, that really helps the streamer get a leg up on its much larger competition."So you put all that together. Real brand discipline and self-awareness, hopefully good communication, and a genuinely artist-friendly environment. And it begins to hopefully build on itself. People say, 'I'm going to have a good creative experience over there.'” Related Kit Harington Leads MGM+'s 4-Part 'A Tale of Two Cities' Miniseries in New First Look The Charles Dickens adaptation will premiere later this year on MGM+. Posts By Rob London Wright Leads MGM+ With Years of Experience in Entertainment It's one thing to get a television series made. It's another beast entirely to ensure they thrive. Fortunately for MGM+, Wright has a lot of experience in the industry and learned from some of the best. He was formerly the CEO of Steven Spielberg's Amblin Partners and DreamWorks Studios, also spending time as the head of programming at TNT, TBS and TCM. Prior to that, he worked in broadcast television, working at CBS Entertainment as vice president of movies and miniseries. When asked about the relationships he builds with creatives and actors, and how he goes about getting each project the support it needs, he remarked that"This is also baked into our process," and cited his experience working underneath one of NBC's most influential entertainment heads — Brandon Tartikoff. "It's weird to me that not everybody today necessarily knows who Brandon was," Wright said."He was the architect of one of the greatest eras ever in broadcast television and NBC in the 80s. He was a bit of a mentor to me when I was starting out." Tartikoff was both the longest-serving and youngest president of NBC's entertainment division, taking the reins from 1981 through 1991 and, in that time, engineering a slate filled with instant classics like Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, The Cosby Show, and The Golden Girls. Under his hand, the network became the most-viewed on television for the first time in 30 years and remained strong for decades to come. Fortunately for Wright, Tartikoff was also very open when it came to sharing advice. He recalled a lunch they shared one day, where, upon being asked what he wanted to be, Wright told Tartikoff,"Well, I want to be you one day." Upon further questioning his mentor on what he needed to do to be successful in the same position, Tartikoff gave him two crucial pieces of advice that weave together."He said, 'The first thing you have to do is create an environment where talent comes to you first, or if not first, fairly early," Wright recalled."Because if they're coming to you last, you better be a genius, because all the guys have gone .'" The goal, in his eyes, was to"give yourself a fighting chance" by drawing in the best talent possible who can deliver a hit. After all, it was landing creatives like Heat director Michael Mann and prolific producer Stephen J. Cannell that gave birth to Miami Vice and The A-Team, for example. Yet, to actually get big names interested, Wright needed to embrace Tartikoff's second piece of advice by making MGM+ an"environment where your talent partners feel heard and respected." To do that, communication had to come first: "Tell them early on, 'Here's our brand. Here's our audience. Here's why I'm buying these shows or not buying these shows. I am hiring you because I've actually read your scripts, and I've watched your episodes, and I know the work you do. I'm not hiring you randomly. I'm hiring you or partnering with you because I know that when you are allowed to work in your voice, that voice is going to work on my service.' He said, 'If you do those things, communicate honestly and fairly. Buy shows you really want to make, not because it's a good press release or because you want to say, I'm working for so-and-so, because the rest of it will take care of itself.' And he was right." Although he was told that 35 years ago, Wright believes that advice has held up spectacularly. It's not just about getting people in the door, either. From his experience, creating a respectful channel of communication is just as vital to getting shows to thrive because of how much it helps with marketing."There's a couple of meetings that take place," he said."One of them is early on. Once the show has been greenlit, we do an all-hands meeting, and we invite our showrunners to tell us everything they want us to know about their show. What do you want people to know about your show? What is it? Why is it? What do you want us to communicate in our marketing?" That strategy has worked like a charm. In part through MGM+'s marketing efforts, From grew from one of the most underrated shows on television to a recognizable mainstay and the most watched series in the platform's history. The other side of it, aside from learning all there is about a show to present it as accurately and attractively as possible, is transparency. They aim to be just as clear about what they want from the show and everyone behind it, so expectations are set right away. Then, it becomes a team effort among MGM+'s brain trust to create something that, again, reflects the brand and helps each show put the best foot forward. Related MGM+’s Epic 3-Part Western Thriller Is One of Streaming's Best You won't want to miss this thrilling made-for-streaming Western. Posts By Michael John Petty Wright credited his team for making this whole operation possible, starting with Head of PR Eileen Quast, whom he's worked with"for 20 years plus, at Turner and now here." Bringing experience from MTV Networks and WarnerMedia Entertainment, Quast handles all PR communications strategies for MGM+, including campaigns for original series. Marketing, meanwhile, falls under the"brilliant" Kelly Hughes, another industry veteran who previously found success at Netflix and Peacock. Then there's Global Head of Brand Creative B.J. Smith, the man behind the creative rollout of the streamer's shows."These are all people that really know what they're doing, and they're all very good at communication," Wright affirmed, noting how all of them are needed at some point throughout the creation of the trailers and posters that fans see, whether when cutting things together or when communicating with the talent, to ensure it all reflects the brand. "B.J., Kelly, and I will work together on the print ads and the trailers. We share. We take ownership of our work, but we share it. We say, 'What do you think? How do you feel about this?' It's a collaboration. But that works because from the very, very beginning, you said to people, I'm repeating myself, 'Here's who we are. Here's our brand. Here's what we're making. Here’s why we bought your show.' There's no confusion." A final, important key to Wright is flexibility. He understands that projects change throughout their development and, thus, their needs and expectations shift with them."Sometimes you buy a show, and you communicate really, really well, and everyone knows exactly the show they're making, and shows evolve organically. That's a good thing, too. It's not like we're saying, we’re buying, and it must be this thing." That's where it's important to have a strong brand identity as a base that informs the very general level of quality MGM+ projects should shoot for."We always bind it all up in a place, a real keen understanding of our brand and our audience, and communicate that to our talent partners, and it makes their life easier. They're not guessing. They know exactly what they're meant to do for us and why." MGM+'s Fate Was Forever Changed With Its Name Even with the MGM name behind them, it still took time to build that identity, Wright said. A surprisingly big piece of the puzzle was that name change in 2023. He recalled meeting with Mike Hopkins, the head of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, shortly after Amazon finalized its deal to acquire MGM in 2022, to discuss the future of Epix under the new management."I'm not just saying this, I’ve known for a while before I came here, he's one of the best in the business," Wright added, before recalling how Hopkins spurred the streamer and network's facelift. "He communicated to me early on, 'I like this Epix thing that you guys have built. This works. What can we do together to make this work even more?’ And one of the first things I said to him was, ‘Well, we rebranded a couple of years ago, but we didn't pick the name because the owners at the time said not yet.’ And Mike was like, ‘Let's do it.’ It was like the greatest day. Mike Hopkins got our business, you know? And he said, ‘Yeah, I get it.’ So from my perspective, that MGM brand, what a gift." The platform was already evoking the feel of MGM, in a way. Its library of movies from the production giant, along with series like Billy the Kid and Godfather of Harlem that were made with that classic Hollywood feel, MGM+ formulated an energy that, surprisingly, was best summed up by, in Wright's opinion, "Television for cinema lovers." Wright doesn't want to sound like other movie studios have lost their way, necessarily, as they move to meet modern audience demands. He does, however, believe an avenue has been left behind that MGM+ has been able to exploit."I feel like the film business of necessity sort of veered away from the adult contemporary audience about 15 years ago, and because they were making so much money, I get it," he said."Superhero IP and all the big stuff. Those movies that they used to make for grown-ups: that is harder to make these days. So we've been able to sort of say, ‘Okay, well, we're going to grab that audience, and we're going to grab that storytelling lane and put it in series form.’ Because that also is very consistent." Once again, he reflects on the storied history of MGM, from the iconic musicals, like Singin' in the Rain, to the Technicolor wonder of The Wizard of Oz, the epic scale of Ben-Hur, the spy thrills of James Bond, and much more, to showcase what MGM+ is trying to build, albeit in television form with a fresh coat of paint."They were known for making elevated, star-driven, high-quality commercial fare," he continued. He wants that sheer variety of stories that can all still feel like classic Hollywood, a feeling no streaming service is exactly aiming for. "It was the ultimate date movie. You could time-travel to the 1950s, or late 40s, or 60s. They were feel-good, fun, but really expertly, smartly made films. So now we're not trying to be retro, we're just taking that spirit. And saying, 'Okay, let's deliver that experience, but to a modern audience. Classic Hollywood storytelling for a modern audience.'" Related MGM+'s Most-Watched Sci-Fi Horror Series Returns April 19 With Terrifying New Trailer The series stars Harold Perrineau, Catalina Sandino Moreno, and Hannah Cheramy. Posts By Denis Kimathi MGM+ Leans on the Classic Hero's Journey With Its Series The process of finding the right shows to air at the right time is also a big part of MGM+'s strategy for keeping subscribers engaged. When Lovitt questioned if there was any meaning behind Robin Hood slotting in and providing that same sense of romantic adventure provided by Billy the Kid, Wright said emphatically,"That was intentional." Their timing, whether intentionally or not, has also been a bit clever in relation to other streamers. For example, just as Apple TV's hit sci-fi Hugh Howey adaptation Silo was gaining steam, MGM+ brought in its own series based on a Howey story with another big-name lead actress — Beacon 23 starring Game of Thrones alum Lena Headey. When it comes to lining things up within the streamer's catalog, though, he prefers a different method than expected. "I think it's easy, maybe, to look at programming purely based on a concept," he continued."Is this concept going to work for this audience? I don't do it that way." Wright finds it best to go by character and tone because he believes it better predicts what an audience actually wants from a story and what makes them alike. That's how, despite one being a new take on the English folklore of the most famous heroic thief in history and the other being a western centered on the life of a legendary gunslinger, the aforementioned series can still feel like they're scratching the same itch."So the real similarity, and you nailed it between Billy the Kid and Robin, and I would add From to that." While he admits that"It's going to sound kind of pretentious," Wright does have a guiding light when it comes to television."I'm a big Joseph Campbell fan," the president shared. Campbell was a pioneering figure when it comes to writing theory, with his book, The Hero With a Thousand Faces, being widely influential to artists from Star Wars mastermind George Lucas to Watership Down author Richard Adams, with how it introduces the idea of a monomyth, or what's more commonly understood as the archetypal"hero's journey." That idea is not just something Wright"relates to," bit it's a surprising through line for many of MGM+'s stories and classic Hollywood movies in general. "That hero's journey, the reason Campbell defined it, articulated it, is that he didn't invent it; he was observing something that's been around for the history of drama. There's a certain kind of story that tends to resonate with a really broad audience. That reluctant hero, that person who is an expert or a master at something, who is then called upon to solve a problem or save a village or whomever to do the right thing when nobody else will." For Wright, the ultimate example of what Campbell dissected is High Noon, the groundbreaking 1952 western starring Gary Cooper as a marshal who must decide whether to depart with his new wife , or stay in town and make a stand alone against a group of vicious killers."He's supposed to leave town" after just getting married, and wavers on what to do, given his stellar reputation as the"best sheriff ever" and his duties to his family, but"at the end of the day, he steps in and does the right thing." That reluctance is what makes Cooper's aging marshal so compelling and more realistic, grounding his heroism in very human feelings and a journey that brings out his ultimate desire to do right by his people. Something similar can be said about MGM+'s protagonists. Jack Patten's Rob in Robin Hood is just the latest example."He wasn’t trying to be a hero," Wright said."They hung his dad, and instead of burning up the neighborhoods and his neighbors and his people, he was like, 'Damn, I don't want to do this, but I'll do it.'" Yet, it's repeated time and again, from Perrineau's town Sheriff Boyd, who becomes a leader against the horrors of Fromville after getting"sucked into this evil, scary vortex," to Blyth's Billy, a gunslinger for good in the American frontier, and even Whitaker's Bumpy Johnson, who still fights for his neighborhood, even if he's a criminal mastermind."The backstory of that character is, he was a brilliant young man that got accepted into law school, but racism kept him from doing that. His natural skill set, intellect, and personal power made him a leader of people that he wasn't expecting to be in our story." These characters don't do it for the recognition, but because it's the right thing for them to fill these roles. Audiences have an interest in protagonists who aren't knights in shining armor, but more grounded people who often overcome their varying degrees of flaws to grow for the better and do the right thing in the end. It helps unite these MGM+ stories with a common theme, even if all of those characters are vastly different and exist in realities that couldn't be further apart."So that is the theme you see in the transition from Billy the Kid to Robin Hood," Wright continued."There's a similarity of character." As he further notes, there's nothing specific that either allows or stops a character from being a reluctant hero. They come in all shapes, sizes, and genders, some being experts and others being ordinary people thrust into extraordinary situations. Yet, MGM+ thrives in uniting them all under one roof, from Rob, who is"the best archer in the land and is also a natural leader" to Billy, who is"the fastest gun in the West and also a natural leader." What Does MGM+ Have on the Horizon? The Westies will carry on that reluctant hero mantle when it premieres on June 12. Set in 1981, it'll unfold in Hell's Kitchen, where the titular gang once ruled and profited off the construction of the Jacob Javits Center by controlling the docks. While they fight for control with the Gambino crime family, who outmatch them in numbers but not brutality, FBI probes narrow in, and tensions rise among the Westies' ranks. Tangled in this web is beat cop Glenn Keenan, who, unlike Welliver's other notable detective role, has a moral compass that's more than a little askew and is set on a collision course with the Westies' leader Eamon Sweeney . Wright went as far as calling the series"one of my favorite things we've ever done," hailing the work of creator Chris Brancato, who also helped construct Godfather of Harlem and Netflix's Narcos. He also highlighted Tom Brittney's role in the show, citing him as another example of a classic reluctant character and natural leader torn between a life of crime and his neighborhood. "Tom Brittney plays a character who is a natural leader, doesn't necessarily want to be, who’s growing up in Hell's Kitchen, is trying to navigate this impossible path between fealty to the Westies, the Irish gang that has raised him and protected him and its morals, and his own concern for his neighbors. That's the consistent thread across all of our shows, is that Joseph Campbell character. doesn't mean we won't deviate from that, because we have and will. But that's a character that resonates with the broader audience. Those are my favorite characters." Welliver and Simmons are the draws of The Westies, but Brittney caught Wright's eye from the very beginning, beyond his character."He has this innate strength. In the very first frame, you see him like, 'Who's that guy?' He just commands the screen. He has this leadership about him. If the shit hit the fan, boy, I want to be in that guy's foxhole." The trio, together, brings a lot of talent for what looks to be another hit for the network. That's not the only big original coming soon, as the MGM+ linear channel will premiere the much-anticipated Nicolas Cage-led Spider-Noir series on May 25 before gritty superhero detective Ben Reilly comes to Prime Video on May 27.Yet, for avid readers, the rest of MGM+'s upcoming slate is especially exciting. Among the streamer's originals in production is Season 2 of the Stephen King adaptation, The Institute, while a new series based on Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities is one of its most anticipated acquired projects coming sometime in 2026 from MGM+ and BBC One. Also coming down the pipeline of acquired series are adaptations of John le Carré's A Legacy of Spies and Robert Louis Stephenson's Treasure Island."It's brilliant," Wright said about the Two Cities show, specifically."I’ve seen two episodes." David West created the series, and another Game of Thrones favorite, Kit Harington, will star opposite French actor François Civil as uncanny lookalikes Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay, respectively. Plenty of streaming services have filled their catalogs with starry renditions of novels over the years, both in feature and series form. While some creatives choose to make sweeping changes to classic stories for the modern day, Wright and the MGM+ team have a pretty simple philosophy when it comes to expanding their own slate of such projects — stick to the page. That bleeds into what adaptations they choose to take on, as they look specifically for faithful takes on classic tales that still have a lot to say about the current state of the world, like A Tale of Two Cities, rather than just picking up promising projects willy-nilly. Subscribe to the newsletter for streaming strategy Dive deeper—subscribe to our newsletter for expert coverage of the streaming business. Get expanded analysis of MGM+'s strategy, creator-first approaches, and the industry context that shapes shows and talent. Get Updates By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime. "I don't understand people who take source material and reinvent it for the sake of reinventing it. If you're going to do classic material, do classic material that speaks to a modern audience," Wright admitted."Let's say Robin Hood, for example, even though it's not based on specific IP. There are certain expectations around the story. A story about an individual standing up to oppression, being executed at the hands of oligarchs. That's kind of relevant. So in that case, we heard a classic story and said, You know what the themes present already in that classic story makes sense to do today." While A Tale of Two Cities may not seem to share similarities with the likes of Robin Hood or From, Wright highlighted that, at its core, it"is a story about people, right? And standing up to oppression. So I think the key is it's not about any classic material. What classic material speaks to things that need to be spoken about today?" "Everybody always talks about how it's so great that you can do science fiction or fantasy as a way to mask relevant things today. I think that's true. It's also true about period drama. You can find great period dramas that are super relevant. They're not antiquated, they're not old-fashioned. They take place in a different era, but they speak directly to things the audience is experiencing and thinking about today." Beyond the shows, one thing viewers can expect is more activity from their partnerships with BBC, Sky Atlantic, STARZ, and more. It's through teaming up with banners, both international and stateside, that MGM+ has been able to reel in some of its biggest hits, like Rogue Heroes, created by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight."I think that the partners you're mentioning in there, among others, are all experts," Wright added. Again, he's taken the wisdom from another book to ensure the streamer is working with the exact right businesses. The goal is to form collaborations with like-minded entertainment companies that can help a smaller banner like MGM+ continue to grow and stand out from the crowd. Wright noted that one of his touchstone philosophies hails from Derek Thompson's Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction. Thompson, a former contributor for The Atlantic, explored the hidden psychology behind the rise of"hits" across music, television, film, and consumer products. Among many ideals that Wright gleaned from Thompson's analysis, he underscored the importance of"piggybacking on other businesses that do what you do and do it well." Rogue Heroes, in particular, was a slam dunk to bring to the service as a co-producer. A Knight-created series is about as surefire a hit as they come, and with the sweeping World War II historical setting and a cast led by Connor Swindells and Sinners standout Jack O'Connell, it fits about every tenet MGM+ has tried to embody. Both seasons so far have earned perfect 100% scores from critics on Rotten Tomatoes and have found frequent streaming success, proving the decision was sound. Work is now well underway on what Knight has teased as a"beautiful" Season 3 in France. It's an example of the kind of partnership Wright wants to keep making, one built on mutual understanding and respect that allows both parties to get what they want out of the program. "I am so happy to sit in the second chair on that one," Wright noted, praising MGM+'s partnership with the BBC, which he cites as"the best in the business." Rogue Heroes was a show that MGM+ knew from the start would work for their audience."We're just leaning into partnering with people whose voices we understand, whose output we're familiar with." Wright added,"I like to think we're very good partners. We pride ourselves on that. We want people to want to come back and work with us a second time. We're not pushovers. When we say no, we say no with purpose and meaning. In this business, you say no 95% of the time. We just try to say it nicely and to treat our partners like real partners."Wright Knows He's Not the Most Important Person in the Room at MGM+ As his conversation with Lovitt wrapped up, Wright thought of one more lesson from Tartikoff that looms largest of all. While he had much to say about his work and the work of the rest of the team at MGM+ to ensure the streamer reflected its namesake, he wanted to drive home that, at the end of the day, executives like him aren't the key to making this all work. Like MGM before it, the keys are the stars and the creatives that make the excellent content that has helped the platform beat the odds in a crowded streaming landscape. It's just his job to bring them in and give them the best canvas possible to work with, complete with the assurance that the brush will always remain in their hands. Wright has embodied the wisdom Tartikoff imparted to him over lunch, years ago."Network executives and streaming executives don't create hits. Talent does. So never lose sight of that." "I'm not the hit maker. I am here to identify hit makers, support them, enable them. The great story of MGM+ is the incredible talent that has given us their trust." By all indications, MGM+ is built on healthy collaboration that allows art to flourish. In a business that often operates in uncertainty, where renewals can be upended and survival is often hard-fought, Wright tries to sell something far more confident."My biggest sale is, ‘Hey guys, here's the brand. You can go do your thing, bring your voice to it, and help me shine light on this great brand of ours.’" Customers can subscribe to MGM+ directly on Prime Video or directly on the official website. The network is also available through cable, telco, satellite, and digital distribution channels. Stay tuned here at Collider for more on everything that's to come in the streamer's future. From Like Follow Followed TV-MA Mystery Drama Horror Science Fiction Release Date February 20, 2022 Network Epix, MGM+ Directors Jack Bender, Brad Turner, Alexandra La Roche, Bruce McDonald, Jeff Renfroe Writers Vivian Lee, Kristen Layden, Brigitte Hales, Jeff Pinkner, John Griffin 7 Images Close Cast See All
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