It’s about time the people who make superhero movies got their due, no? The unsung heroes, if you will. That seems—sort of—to be the premise of The Franchise, which HBO just ordered to series.
The Franchise comes from the super-talented team of producer and director Sam Mendes (Penny Dreadful), showrunner Jon Brown (Avenue 5, Succession), and producer Armando Iannucci (Veep), among others, and has an incredible cast on board.
Here’s the summary:
The crew of an unloved franchise movie fight for their place in a savage and unruly cinematic universe. The Franchise shines a light on the secret chaos inside the world of superhero moviemaking, to ask the question — how exactly does the cinematic sausage get made? Because every f*ck-up has an origin story.
Were this coming from anyone else, I might be suspicious—but with master satirist Iannuci (In the Loop, The Thick of It) on board, I’m all in. And the show has even more appeal now that Aya Cash (You’re the Worst, The Boys) and Himesh Patel (Station Eleven, pictured above) have joined the all-star cast, which includes Jessica Hynes (Paddington 2), Billy Magnussen (Made for Love), Lolly Adefope (Ghosts), Darren Goldstein (Ozark), Isaac Powell (American Horror Story), Richard E. Grant (Loki), and Daniel Brühl (the MCU’s Zemo).
Last year, HBO ordered a pilot episode of the show. Filming on the pilot was completed prior to the start of the SAG-AFTRA strike, but Variety notes that the rest of the series will not enter production until the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes are resolved.
