Julia Pott, an animator who serves as the creator on “Summer Camp Island,” has expressed disappointment in HBO Max’s decision to remove the series from its library.
The streamer confirmed plans to remove “Summer Camp Island” and 35 other titles, including 19 more HBO Max originals, from its catalog on Wednesday evening.
“We worked for five years to make 100 episodes of animation. We worked late into the night, we let ourselves go, we were a family of hard working artists who wanted to make something beautiful, and HBO Max just pulled them all like we were nothing,” Pott wrote. “Animation is not nothing!”
We worked for 5 years to make 100 episodes of animation. We worked late into the night, we let ourselves go, we were a family of hard working artists who wanted to make something beautiful, and HBO MAX just pulled them all like we were nothing. Animation is not nothing!
— Julia Pott (@juliapott) August 18, 2022
The streamer’s decision to remove “Summer Camp Island” from its library also carries the suggestion that the series’ sixth and final season may not be released at all. According to the language that the series’ contributors are using, it seems that “Summer Camp Island” had completed a large fraction, if not all, of the production process behind the series’ final 20 episodes.
“We put… a lot of work into that,” wrote Ryan Pequin, who worked on the animated series. Pott shared Pequin’s tweet with her own followers.
we put…….. a lot of work into that
— Ryan Pequin (@ryanpequin) August 18, 2022
“We worked through the pandemic to make 20 linear episodes that are our most beautiful work yet,” Pott continued in another tweet, hinting that she would vow to explore options to release new episodes that have been produced already. “I cannot wait for you to see them. YOU WILL SEE THEM! I will not rest!”
The news comes a little over eight months after “Summer Camp Island” premiered all 15 episodes of its fifth season on the streamer in Dec. 2021. The series spent its first two seasons airing on Cartoon Network before migrating to HBO Max in Dec. 2020.
HBO Max has removed several titles over recent weeks, such as HBO Max original films like “The Witches,” “An American Pickle” and “Moonshot,” as well as HBO TV shows like “Camping,” “Vinyl” and “Run.” Removing the titles from streaming could assist Warner Bros. Discovery in cutting costs by forgoing lesser-watched programs to save on residuals.
Although it remains unclear exactly how far “Summer Camp Island” was in the production process of its sixth season, the situation resembles that of “Batgirl” and “Scoob!: Holiday Haunt,” two high-profile HBO Max original feature productions that were killed by Warner Bros. Discovery in the interest of reportedly taking a tax write-down, despite both projects nearing completion. Creative teams behind the projects projects have expressed shock and disappointment regarding the situation.
“Summer Camp Island” comes from Cartoon Network Studios. Pott, Kent Osborne and Sam Register had served as executive producers on the show’s most recent season.