Not to be outdone by Amazon’s bomb-shell announcement yesterday of a new Woody Allen series coming to the SVOD service, HBO has unveiled some news of its own, concerning Mike Myers.

According to a new statement, Myers has signed a 2-year overall deal with the network to develop various projects – as well allow HBO exclusivity to all things related to him and the small screen.

Said HBO programming president Michael Lombardo:

Mike Myers is one of the great comedy minds of this or any other era, [and] the opportunity to collaborate with a talent of his stature is tremendously exciting.

Myers went on to add:

I’m thrilled to be at HBO.

Most recently, Myers made a directorial debut with the documentary Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon, a film about the life of the eponymous famed talent manager/producer. However, it’s been a long time since the man stepped into television, or even the major feature film ring (assuming one doesn’t include his recent surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live this past December in response to the controversy surrounding the hacking attack of Sony and originally planned cancellation of The Interview). So, aware of that, what makes him so interesting to HBO?

HBO loves name recognition and looking good – something Myers can bring plenty of. Like Damon Lindelof, Peter Berg, Judd Apatow, J.J. Abrams and Jonathan Nolan before him, Myers is an easy sell for the network because he brings a dedicated audience of potential new subscribers a long with him.

But, even better for the network is some of those potential new subscribers are kids that once grew up on the likes of Austin Powers and Shrek. That makes them perfect candidates for the type of audience HBO’s going to be targeting when it finally launches its OTT service later this year.

At the end of the day, every deal any television network makes (but particularly for HBO) comes down to the bottom line. There’s a very real possibility that a new series or film from Myers could boost subscriber counts for the network that now has to compete with the likes of Netflix and Amazon for monthly dollars.

For HBO, Myers is a way to reach an audience it’s going to have to start going after once HBO OTT goes live. But, for Myers, this deal put him back in a position to make magic happen again, regardless of the format. From documentaries to acting, when his energy is channeled the right way, Myers can do some really cool thing. So, hopefully, the freedom of HBO will allow him to do that once again.