HBO has announced an original comedy series that places moviemaking as its star, poking fun at the chaos behind the scenes. The new comedy show, The Franchise, will stream exclusively on Max and premiere on Sunday, October 6 at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on HBO.
According to the official logline, “The Franchise follows the crew of an unloved franchise movie fighting for their place in a savage and unruly cinematic universe. The comedy series 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.”
The cast includes Himesh Patel (Yesterday, Station Eleven) in the role of Daniel, Jessica Hynes (Shaun of the Dead, Spaced) as Steph, Aya Cash (The Boys, You’re the Worst) as Anita, Lolly Adefope (Ghosts, Miracle Workers) as Dag, Billy Magnussen (Game Night, Made for Love) as Adam, Isaac Powell (Cat Person, Dear Evan Hansen) as Bryson and Dareen Goldstein (The Affair, Ozark) as Pat via the official press release. Daniel Brühl (Rush, Eden) will be in the role of Eric, and Richard E. Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Saltburn) will be in the role of Peter as frequent guest stars in the series.
According to the press release, Pippa Harris (1917, Call the Midwife), Julie Pastor (1917, Empire of Light), Nicolas Brown (Blue Carbon, Human Planet) and Sam Mendes (1917, Skyfall) will executive produce the series with the studio Neal Street Productions. Additionally, Jon Brown (Succession, Veep), Jim Kleverweis (Insecure, Silicon Valley) and Armando Lannucci (Veep, The Thick of It) will executive produce as part of Dundee Productions studio. Brown, who wrote the pilot, will also take on the role of showrunner. Mendes directed the series’ pilot.
A trailer teasing The Franchise was released by HBO and is available to watch below.