Superhero movies can go one of two ways: these films can either be a faithful adaptations of beloved comic book canon texts or silly action flick flops. Looking at the new trailer for Max’s new comedy series The Franchise, the show will examine not the best superhero movies but the latter, poking fun at some of the badly-rated movies you see in the MCU and DC series.
Created by Armando Iannucci (The Death of Stalin) and Academy Award winner Sam Mendes (American Beauty), The Franchise is set to arrive on Max, one of the best streaming services, on October 6.
The story will follow the production crew behind fictional superhero movie Tecto: Eye of the Storm over the course of eight episodes. In the trailer, which you can watch below, we see the film crew fretting and fighting to pull the movie off, but its ability to succeed commercially is jeopardized when its behind-the-scenes drama shrouds the movie itself.
Making up the members of the film crew is a star-studded cast of familiar faces across cinema and television, with Himesh Patel, Jessica Hynes, and Aya Cash from Prime Video’s hit superhero series The Boys as part of the dysfunctional film crew. The trailer also reveals several guest cameos you can expect across the series including ones from Daniel Bruhl (Captain America: Civil War) and Richard E. Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me? and Saltburn), who’s expected to appear for one episode.
Opinion: Finally, superhero movies are being called out for what they are
I’ve never been one for movies within the MCU or DC franchise for a number of reasons, the main one being that there are just far too many for me to even wrap my head around. But also because it seems that these cinematic giants like the MCU aren’t focussed on putting out films that are actually good anymore, as they know they’ll attract millions of people at the box office even if the film is a bit crappy.
Superhero movies, in my opinion, have lost their sense of novelty and the 'event factor' that surrounds cinema premieres. They’ve always been cash-grabbing opportunities, but it’s more obvious now than ever before and that’s what irritates me – as does the tabloid drama that surrounds them. Watching the trailer for The Franchise was like a deja vu moment, and it was reminiscent of movies like The Flash (2023), one which had a lot of potential but only garnered mass attention as a result of its production drama stories and Ezra Miller’s questionable behavior.
Nonetheless, there’s something intriguing about the trailer for The Franchise that makes me want to lend it some of my time, despite my growing dislike for MCU and DC movies. Now that one of the biggest streaming services is coming forward with a show that will seemingly critique one of the most bankable and popular Hollywood franchises, I’m willing to partake in the discourse.
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