The Franchise will be closing out its parody of the superhero genre and Hollywood at one season, as HBO will not be proceeding with a season 2. HBO released a statement to Deadline confirming the news, but while future seasons won’t be happening, HBO expressed their gratitude for the wonderful cast and looks forward to “collaborating with all of them in the future. You can read the full statement below.
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An HBO Spokesperson told Deadline “We’re so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with the tremendously talented team behind The Franchise, especially Sam Mendes, Jon Brown, Armando Iannucci, and this hilarious ensemble of actors. “While we won’t be moving forward with another season, we look forward to collaborating with all of them in the future.”
The Franchise, which was created by Jon Brown and executive produced by Sam Mendes and Armando Iannucci, held its season finale in November of 2024. The series currently holds a favorable 74% on Rotten Tomatoes and featured a stellar cast that included Himesh Patel, Aya Cash, Jessica Hynes, Daren Goldstein, Billy Magnussen, Isaac Powell, and Lolly Adefope, so it’s unfortunate that it won’t be able to continue.
The series found itself at an interesting time in regards to the superhero genre, which is coming off of a rollercoaster two years with huge successes and equally huge disappointments. That was part of what made the topic so interesting for the team, and Iannucci and Brown spoke to ComicBook about where the industry finds itself at this unique point in time.
[RELATED: The Franchise: HBO Cast & Crew Reveal Elements of Hollywood They Want to Roast in Season 2]
“Yeah, good question. We’re still finishing season one, so it’s sort of like in the trenches. I mean, they are interesting, aren’t they? They’re in an interesting phase. Marvel is specifically at the moment and the way that it’s heading and it feels like it’s starting to look back instead of just being this thing that moves forward,” Iannucci said. “It’s now entering this phase where it starts to look back at its own glory and trying to recapture that. And that seems like an interesting thing that’s happening across many, many forms of popular culture, music, or even like sports, and there’s lots of like heritage rock acts now and there’s, football is playing in these sort of leagues.”
“I feel like we are looking back to our recent past more and more often, and instead of looking back to the sixties, we’re looking for, it feels like we’re looking back to our very recent past and we’re now in the cycle of nostalgia. And that’s something interesting,” Iannucci said. “And like movie stars, action heroes being in their eighties and I had like bands headlining Glastonbury that are 80-year-old men and you’re like, What’s going on? Our coaches at games, all of our coaches are getting so old.”
“And we touch on it in season one but that sense of you know a massive studio going through an identity crisis or even fearing for the worst, just not knowing what’s going to happen next. Yes, sense. You see these monoliths of these big studios as they’re always going to be there, but what happens when they think it could be over? We don’t know,” Brown said.
All episodes of The Franchise can now be streamed on Max.
What did you think of The Franchise? You can talk all things TV with me on Bluesky @KnightofOA!
