HBO‘s The Franchise just wrapped up its first season with a finale episode that totally upended the fortunes of First Assistant Director Dan (Himesh Patel), Techto leading man Adam (Billy Magnussen), and executive producer Anita (Aya Cash). After eight whole episodes portending fictional superhero film Techto: Eye of the Storm‘s doom — and blowing up a beloved European bridge — The Franchise‘s biggest twist is that everything worked out in the end?
**Spoilers for The Franchise finale, now streaming on Max**
When The Franchise Episode 8 “Scene 117: The Death of Eye” begins, Anita has learned that the studio is planning on shelving the film everyone has been toiling over for months. Everyone soon goes into panic mode, but it’s for naught. In an ironic twist, that mirrors some real-life superhero movie controversies, Techto‘s fortunes reverse when the studio’s planned tentpole, Centurios 2, has to be shelved after its leading man lands in a sex scandal.
However, all is not well. Dan has been secretly working on his own edit of the feature, aka “The Kumar Cut.” The film’s actual director Eric Bouchard (Daniel Brühl) fires Dan for this betrayal. Dan gets in his car, calls his son, and prepares to leave the set when studio bigwig Pat (Darren Goldstein) appears.
Pat tells Dan there are only a few times in anyone’s life where they have the power to ask for exactly what they want. Because Shane, the shadowy studio head, loves Dan’s take on Techto, Dan can ask for whatever he wants in exchange for rejoining the production. But does he?
The Franchise Season 1 ends on a cliffhanger where we don’t get to hear Dan’s answer. Luckily, Decider was able to catch up with Franchise star Himesh Patel to find out what he thinks Dan does next…
The Franchise Ending Explained: Does Dan Leave the Car?
What does it take to get Dan to leave his car? Franchise actor Himesh Patel confirmed to Decider that he thinks Dan will leave the car and he’s got an inkling what he’s about to ask for.
“I think we see him, as the season goes on, he’s starting to get creative,” Patel said. “You know, he’s got ideas because he actually cares about this franchise. He cares about this comic book universe because he grew up reading it. So he’s got actual opinions about where it should be going.”
“I think that’s probably what he would want. He’d want some sort of input into the creative direction of the franchise. What shape that takes, I don’t know.”
With Eric on the line with “Yorgos” and Shane favoring Dan’s vision for the project, does that mean a potential Franchise Season 2 would follow Dan as director? Would it tackle a different corner of the fictional franchise’s universe? Will there even be a second season of The Franchise???
Will There Be a Season 2 of HBO’s The Franchise?
We don’t know yet! However, when Decider spoke to creator Jon Brown, he confirmed that he’s “got some thoughts, but nothing that’s really solid.”
“It seems that the fluctuating fortunes of these franchise movies that are going on now, there’s no shortage, right?” Brown said. “They really are like soap operas.”
“There’s a number of permutations of ways we can go,” he said, musing that we still don’t know if Techto will be a hit or not. “What we really want to focus on is what does it mean for Adam and what does it mean for Daniel?”
“We’re very much character driven and the franchise stuff, I guess, follows.”
Read the full article here
