Sam Mendes & Armando Iannucci’s HBO Pilot ‘The Franchise’ Sets Cast Including Billy Magnussen, Jessica Hynes & Lolly Adefope 

The Franchise, a comedy pilot for HBO that takes a wry look at superhero movie-making, has found its cast.

The Sam Mendes and Armando Iannucci project has cast Billy Magnussen, Jessica Hynes, Darren Goldstein, Lolly Adefope and Isaac Powell as series regulars and Daniel Brühl and Richard E. Grant as recurring guest stars.

The Franchise follows a hopeful crew trapped inside the dysfunctional, nonsensical, joyous hellscape of franchise superhero movie-making. If and when they finally make the day, the question they must face — is this Hollywood’s new dawn or cinema’s last stand? Is this a dream factory or a chemical plant?

The series comes from the mind of Mendes and marks the 1917 director’s first U.S. directorial project.

Magnussen (Made For Love) plays Adam, Hynes (W1A) plays Steph, Goldstein (Ozark) plays Pat, Adefope (Ghosts) is Dag and Powell (West Side Story) plays Peter, while Brühl (Inglourious Basterds) is Eric and Grant (Withnail and I) is Peter.

The Franchise will be exec produced by Iannucci, via his Dundee Productions banner, and Mendes, via his All3Media-backed production company Neal Street Productions. The Oscar-winner Mendes, who hatched the idea, will also direct.

Jon Brown is set as showrunner, wrote the pilot, and will exec produce alongside Pippa Harris, Nicolas Brown, Julie Pastor, Keith Akushie, Marina Hyde and Jim Kleverweis.