Julia Pott, an animator who serves as the creator of Summer Camp Island, has expressed disappointment with HBO Max’s decision to remove the series from their library.
The streamer confirmed plans to remove “Summer Camp Island” and 35 other titles, including 19 other HBO Max originals, from its catalog Wednesday night.
“We’ve been working for five years to do 100 animated episodes. We worked late, 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 off like we were nothing,” Pott wrote. “Animation is not nothing!”
We worked 5 years to make 100 animated episodes. We worked late nights, 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 off 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 includes a hint that the show’s sixth and final season may not release at all. From the language used by the show’s cast, it appears that “Summer Camp Island” has completed much if not all of the production process behind the show’s final 20 episodes.
“We put… a lot of work into it,” wrote Ryan Pequin, who worked on the animated series. Pott shared Pequin’s tweet with her own followers.
we have…….. put a lot of work into it
— Ryan Pequin (@ryanpequin) August 18, 2022
“We’ve been working through the pandemic to make 20 linear episodes, which is our finest work yet,” Pott continued in another tweet, hinting that she would swear to explore options for releasing new episodes that have already been produced . “I can’t wait for you to see her. YOU WILL SEE THEM! I will not rest!”
The news comes just over eight months after “Summer Camp Island” premiered all 15 episodes of its fifth season on the streamer in December 2021. The series spent its first two seasons airing on Cartoon Network before migrating to HBO Max in December 2020.
HBO Max has removed several titles over the past few weeks, including 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 help Warner Bros. Discovery cut costs by shedding less-watched programming to save on leftovers.
While it remains unclear exactly how far “Summer Camp Island” was in the production process of its sixth season, the situation is similar to that of “Batgirl” and “Scoob!: Holiday Haunt,” two high-profile HBO Max original productions that were produced by Warner Bros. Killed Discovery to reportedly take a tax write-off, though both projects are nearing completion. The creative teams behind the projects have expressed shock and disappointment at the situation.
Summer Camp Island is from Cartoon Network Studios. Pott, Kent Osborne and Sam Register served as executive producers for the show’s final season.