HBO Max has added Les Misérables, Russell Crowe’s sweeping 2012 historical musical, to its library. The three-hour epic is now part of the streamer’s September lineup, bringing one of Crowe’s most ambitious studio productions back into the streaming rotation. For an actor better known for swords, suits and hard-edged dramatic roles, it remains one of the more unexpected detours in his filmography.

Sometimes a streaming addition is simply a catalog update. In Crowe’s case, it also opens a small window into how dramatically his career has shifted.

Max has now added Les Misérables to its streaming library, bringing the 2012 Russell Crowe-led musical to subscribers as part of its current lineup. The nearly three-hour film gives viewers another opportunity to revisit one of the most ambitious productions in Crowe’s filmography, more than a decade after it first reached theaters. Released in 2012, Les Misérables was directed by Tom Hooper and adapted from the stage musical based on Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel. 

Collider has reported on the movie’s arrival on Max, putting the title back in the spotlight for streaming audiences. Hugh Jackman stars as Jean Valjean, with Crowe as Inspector Javert, while Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen round out the principal cast. The story follows Valjean as he attempts to rebuild his life while remaining pursued by Javert, against the backdrop of poverty, political unrest, sacrifice and redemption in 19th-century France.

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That makes the Max addition more than another older title quietly returning to a streaming catalog. It reconnects Crowe with one of the biggest productions of his career just as his recent filmography has taken a considerably more unpredictable route.

With only a handful of major studio movies to his credit over the last decade or so, Russell Crowe has increasingly moved between smaller productions that have produced wildly different results. Some have exceeded expectations at the box office, others have found audiences through home viewing, while several have passed through theaters with considerably less fanfare. The pattern is a sharp contrast with the period when projects such as Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World and Les Misérables placed him at the center of large-scale Hollywood productions.

His current run has nevertheless been unusually busy. His The Get Out has been performing strongly on Paramount+, while Unabomber is scheduled to arrive on Netflix on September 25. Crowe has also appeared opposite Ethan Hawke in The Weight, a crime thriller directed by Padraic McKinley in his feature directorial debut. The film follows an incarcerated man attempting to reunite with his daughter while confronting a threatening prison warden, with Hawke and Crowe leading the cast.

The Weight also adds another interesting footnote to Crowe’s recent career. The film holds a 93% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, placing it among his highest-rated projects.

With Les Misérables now available on Max, audiences can revisit one of the clearest examples of Crowe operating at blockbuster scale while his newer projects continue to take him in smaller and less predictable directions.

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Have you watched Les Misérables, and what do you think of Russell Crowe’s performance as Javert? Share your thoughts in the comments.