NEW YORK — HBOMax has announced smallpox as the latest recipient of a 2020s reunion and popularity resurgence.
“We’re excited to bring Thanksgiving back to its roots,” says producer Anthony Martin. “This film is really about being grateful, grateful that you don’t have smallpox. It’s crazy how relevant Smallpox is now. The fear, the uncertainty, the disease disproportionately affecting communities of color. HBOMax even gave us the budget to resurrect the original cast from the dead. I didn’t even know that kind of technology existed! Rich people have had it for 50 years! They were sooo disoriented when they woke up.”
HBO CEO Jason Kilar expressed similar excitement for the reunion.
“We greenlighted what? Oh I mean yeah, we’re very excited to bring back Smallpox,” Kilar commented. “We have so many reunions we’re producing right now, but this one is definitely my favorite and I definitely knew it was happening. But I’m sure we’re bringing back the original cast and it’ll be great. It has to be. We have been putting our entire 2021 budget into reunions. We will burn Netflix to the ground and make it choke on its own ashes, and then produce a Netflix reunion, to be aired on HBOMax.”
Pre-screenings have received mixed critical response.
“I guess it just feels a little obvious, a little predictable,” said white film critic Jenny McDonald. “I mean, this story has been so played out. And it’s like, how long are they going to keep holding that against us? Smallpox was so long ago and nothing similar has ever happened since. It’s so tiring. I almost wish they took it in a new direction.”
Smallpox is now playing in select theaters! It’s BYOB: bring your own blanket.