Why HBO Canceled The Franchise After Just One Season

"The Franchise," an HBO comedy series about a superhero film franchise helmed by creator Jon Brown and executive producers Armando Iannucci and Sam Mendes, was canceled in January of 2025, just a few months after its October 2024 premiere. So what happened here?

According to a Deadline report announcing the show's cancellation, the show just didn't click with viewers, leading to its removal from the premium network's slate. "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," a spokesperson for HBO told the outlet at the time about the show's cancellation. "While we won't be moving forward with another season, we look forward to collaborating with all of them in the future."

Later on, HBO's comedy head Amy Gravitt spoke to Deadline in March and said that she just wasn't sure why the show wasn't a big hit, but that she doesn't blame the talented people who were involved with it.

"I'm not sure. I'm really proud of that show, and I think Jon is such a strong comedic voice as a writer," Gravitt said, speaking to the outlet at the premiere of a different HBO comedy, "The Righteous Gemstones" (which just ended its run after four seasons). "Obviously, we had Armando involved and Sam involved, and we took a shot with it, and it didn't necessarily connect in the way I thought it would, and it did for me personally. But I look at the writing, it's genuinely hilarious, and that's why we take shots."

It's a shame that "The Franchise" didn't take off; putting aside the pedigrees of people like Iannucci and Mendes, the cast was stacked with incredibly funny, talented folks like Aya Cash ("You're the Worst," "The Boys"), Himesh Patel ("Station Eleven," "Yesterday"), Billy Magnussen ("Game Night," "No Time to Die"), Lolly Adefope ("Shrill"), and even major stars like Daniel Brühl and Richard E. Grant. Still, it apparently just didn't find an audience quickly enough.

Another frustrating thing about "The Franchise" getting axed from the HBO slate after a single season is that, by and large, critics quite liked the series! Over on Rotten Tomatoes, the first (and only) season earned a 74% rating with a critical consensus that declares, "Teeming with superb actors having a ball playing hapless hacks, 'The Franchise' pulls some of its punches against Hollywood malaise but overall makes for a tart treat."

As Jackson McHenry wrote in his (positive) Vulture review, "The comedy grows into itself when it's not sneering at the bad system and instead becomes a good hang with kooky characters stuck in that bad system." Inkoo Kang seemed to agree at The New Yorker, writing, "'The Franchise' never stops lampooning the superhero stuff, but as the characters evolve, their world starts to feel less insular." Writing for Slate, Sam Adams felt like it was pretty approachable, even for non-cinephiles: "The first season's eight episodes feel neither defensive nor score-settling, the rare satire that can be enjoyed by fans and haters alike." Over at Variety, Alison Herman wrote, "The fruit is low-hanging, but cathartic to snatch with such naked derision. Such are the pros and cons of The Franchise's point of view, a caustic sneer blunted only by a palpable sense of exhaustion."

I should be clear, though: some critics had major reservations about this series. In The New York Times, critic Mike Hale didn't pull his punches: "But the show's general note of sour disdain for the genre it is depicting works against the humor, deadening it. There is not much point in satirizing something that you don't have at least a little love for." Vanity Fair's Richard Lawson had a pretty similar issue with the series, writing, "In order to feel something about all these characters, we need to know that they feel something about each other, and that's not entirely clear yet. Maybe the studio bosses will let them flesh it out in the sequel." (As we all now know, the studio bosses did not let them do that.) 

In The Hollywood Reporter, Daniel Fienberg criticized the depth of the show's characters, saying, "The series rapidly becomes a loose assemblage of on-the-nose snark, in part because none of the characters or their interpersonal relationships are defined clearly." Despite critics on both sides of the aisle here, so to speak, the show is done and dusted; it does seem like "The Franchise" had tonal issues that kept it from finding its audience.

With all due respect to "The Franchise," the show did have a bitter, sort of sour streak about the most frustrating aspects of making a blockbuster franchise, and I'll freely admit that I found some of its beats more infuriating or even depressing than funny. If you really loved "The Franchise," though, I have good news for you: there's an Apple TV+ comedy about filmmaking that, for my money, is even better, and it's called "The Studio."

Seth Rogen, who created the series alongside Evan Goldberg, Peter Huyck, Alex Gregory, and Frida Perez, stars as Matt Remick, the new head of Continental Studios who has a very high opinion of his own artistic talent and has a pretty idealistic view of the types of movies he can make now that he's in charge. Despite wanting to champion great art, Matt is constantly backed into a corner by blatantly terrible-sounding projects; in the series' first-ever episode, the company's CEO (played by Bryan Cranston, who's having a lot of fun) tells Matt he has to make a Kool-Aid movie, and the mess that ensues ends with Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese bursting into tears at a big Hollywood party. 

Rogen's connections certainly help "The Studio" feel surprising and fresh — alongside Scorsese, people like Ron Howard, Sarah Polley, Olivia Wilde, Charlize Theron, Zac Efron, Ice Cube, Adam Scott, and more have appeared as "themselves" — but the show has more emotional depth and nuance than "The Franchise," if I'm being honest. (Also, it hates AI, which is awesome.) "The Franchise" may be over for good, but "The Studio" scored a season 2 renewal at Apple TV+ ... and it's a delight, if you haven't gotten around to it yet.

"The Franchise" is streaming on Max, and "The Studio," which drops new episodes on Wednesdays, is streaming on Apple TV+.