‘Start an episode and have fun’: Sam Mendes (Skyfall) advises Avengers directors to watch this Marvel series

This Monday, October 7, the Max platform offers its subscribers the opportunity to discover the first episode of the franchise, HBO’s newest series to date. It takes us behind the scenes of the team behind the superhero movie franchise. An environment in which chaos reigns and where every failure hides an original anecdote.

Created by duo John Brown (Legacy) / Armando Iannucci (Veep) and co-produced by Sam Mendes (1917, Skyfall), who also directed the first episode, The Franchise invites us to discover how Marvel and DC blockbusters are made, but with a comic twist. And not so interesting.

Recipe for success (or not)

Extra fish costumes, green backgrounds and cardboard sets… The opening scene of The Franchise takes the satire to its climax, playing with the clichés of superhero movies in recent years.

While Himesh Patel’s character, who plays a production assistant, wanders around the set in a long shot sequence trying to keep the ship from sinking, we quickly learn that the series will pull no punches.

Sam Mendes explained during the series premiere at the TV Line microphone that the franchise is not here to film the ambulance, but to show it “creative process” On a superhero movie that he clearly finds comical:

“If you walk onto the set of a Marvel or DC movie, with its green backdrop, you’re probably wondering what they’re actually doing, why the characters are walking around in funny costumes, and why there’s a young teenager. with the cape hanging in the air”.

Mendes went even further, revealing that he reached out to the Russo brothers — who notably worked on Avengers 3 and 4 for Marvel — to give them a look at the series: “Start an episode and enjoy…”,He would tell them. It’s enough to prove to anyone who will listen that he’s not there to tear down the house of ideas.

Series on each other

In the first episode, we’re treated to a pedantic director played by Daniel Bruhl (who shot for Marvel), a physically fit headliner played by Billy Magnussen, a second blade who doesn’t know why he signed on to play the superhero Richard. E. Grant and a somewhat crooked producer played by Aya Cash (The Boys).

The Franchise is an ultra-reference series that gets it all right: making fun of superhero fatigue, independent directors ending up with tasteless superhero performances, the studio’s lack of strategy… but do we really want to see that? not really. First of all, it reminds us how devalued the genre is today, and that the post-game period was difficult for both fans and Marvel.

This series, which belongs to the “office comedy” genre, can make those who work in the industry and those who find themselves in the story laugh. But I’m not sure that the audience wants to know how this kind of production is imagined, shot and composed. And despite the wrangling behind the scenes, they just want to see the result in theaters.

Franchise, a new episode every Monday on Max.