‘The Franchise’ Teaser: Himesh Patel and Aya Cash Barely Survive Making Superhero Movies in ‘Veep’ Creator’s Latest Workplace Comedy

Samantha Bergeson
·2 min read

Aya Cash has now gone from playing a twisted superhero (or rather, a closeted super-villain) in “The Boys” to taking on the satire of actually making superhero movies in Hollywood.

Cash appears in “Veep” creator Armando Iannucci’s latest HBO series “The Franchise,” which follows a Hollywood crew as they try to revitalize the superhero genre. Sound familiar amid the rumblings of Marvel fatigue? Well, Warner Bros. Discovery (AKA parent company of DC) has never strayed away from making fun of itself…

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The official logline for “The Franchise” reads: “The series 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 fuck-up has an origin story.”

Alongside Cash, Himesh Patel, Jessica Hynes, Billy Magnussen, Lolly Adefope, Darren Goldstein, and Isaac Powell co-star.

Richard E. Grant and Daniel Brühl are billed as recurring guest stars.

Acclaimed filmmaker Sam Mendes executive produces the series, and directs the pilot episode. Jon Brown is the showrunner.

Iannucci executive produces for Dundee Productions, with Brown and Jim Kleverweis also EPing. Mendes, Pippa Harris, Nicolas Brown, and Julie Pastor are executive producers for Neal Street Productions.

Actor Magnussen previously told IndieWire that “The Franchise” is a full-on indictment of the craziness of Hollywood and actors’ egos.

“The gift was, I got to laugh at all this shit we do,” Magnussen said of the meta series. “Like people with big egos being like, ‘Oh, they’re superstars.’ It’s a TV show about making a superhero movie, and it’s all just a bunch of morons running the show and you get to laugh.”

He added of the star-studded cast, “The ensemble was everything. The community I worked with during that TV show was a gift that I couldn’t be more grateful for. It’s all about people, because a lot of this industry takes itself too seriously, and this show reminds me that you can have fun and laugh at yourself and that’s what we did.”

As for Magnussen potentially continuing his status of WBD darling and reprising his “Many Saints of Newark” role, the actor said he “would love to” expand “The Sopranos” cinematic universe. However, outside of the latest “Wise Guy” documentary, there is no word yet on more HBO material for the series.

“Nothing that I have heard of,” Magnussen confirmed. Perhaps that franchise isn’t the one to watch…

“The Franchise” premieres October 6 at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and will be available to stream on Max. Check out the teaser below.

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