It’s no secret that the upcoming HBO comedy series The Franchise is a merciless satire of Hollywood superhero blockbusters, but it turns out the show is actually inspired by real stories from working on massive comic book movies. Starring Daniel Bruhl, Jessica Hynes, Billy Magnussen, Aya Cash, Jimesh Patel, Lolly Adefope, and more, The Franchise follows the director of a superhero movie, who believes the studio are secretly shooting the real film behind his back, with all his work destined to be scrapped. Sounds completely bonkers, right? Well, according to the show’s creator, Jon Brown, it’s not as far-fetched as it may seem.

Speaking to THR, Brown revealed that the producers of The Franchise did extensive research, speaking to people who had worked on Marvel and DC movies, and the crew heard some absolutely crazy stories. “All the research we did — and we did tons, we spoke to so many people — the actual chaos [on superhero films] was really surprising,” he said. While the MCU is currently pulling itself out of a rut (aided by the recent success of Deadpool & Wolverine), fans would assume that Marvel Studios and DC Studios have extensively detailed plans for their multi-billion dollar franchises. While this is occasionally true, Brown revealed that it’s not always plain sailing when making a superhero film. He revealed:

“People think these movies are laid out in neat phases for the next 10 years. Then you hear about a set where, in the morning, a limo literally pulls up, the window comes down, and they hand out new script pages. Or producers on set have eight versions of the same script open, and they go through each script, cherry picking lines, and then they Frankenstein a scene out of nothing. Or the studio sends an actor to the set in the morning and they basically rewrite the day’s entire scene [to accommodate the last-minute cast addition]. You would assume all this was decided two years ago, but it’s happened a lot across Marvel and DC movies.”

The Franchise Had to Pick Specific, Non-Superhero Actors

Spending millions of dollars on a HBO comedy series that mercilessly satirizes the studios that produce superhero entertainment (ironically, HBO is now one of those studios) is bound to burn some bridges. During the casting process, Brown and reps from HBO were careful in their casting, making sure they didn’t pick any actors that were part of major superhero franchises. Except for Daniel Brühl (Zemo in the MCU) and Aya Cash (Stormfront in The Boys), the cast of The Franchise is relatively superhero free. Brown explained:

“It’s very hard to find actors who can be believable superheroes — that have the physicality and the kind of tone — that [haven’t previously done] some element of that work.”

The first episode of The Franchise is directed by Sam Mendes (1917). Mendes appeared during the interview, commenting on his contribution to the series. According to the Oscar-winning director, it’s not just superhero movies that are bonkers to work on, it’s every major franchise. He said:

“The reality of making [franchise] films is often absurd, chaotic, and decisions are made for the most random of reasons — you are balanced on a knife edge the whole time. There’s this sense of a massive engine moving forward relentlessly, and sometimes you feel like you are driving the train and sometimes you’re just a passenger as a director.”

The Franchise
premieres on HBO on October 6.