The Franchise,' a new series from HBO premiering Sunday that stars Himesh Patel and Lolly Adefope, takes a comic look at the production of a second-tier superhero movie from a Marvel-like studio.

The Franchise answers the question of whether superhero films are killing cinema with a resounding yes right off the bat, sending up everything from convoluted cinematic universes

Created by Jon Brown, produced by Armando Iannucci and directed by Sam Mendes, “The Franchise” centers on the cast and crew of a second-string superhero film.

All that’s before we come onto dwindling box office, hostile crew, neurotic talent, ambulance-chasing press, VFX artists going postal, and Martin Scorsese issuing edicts that movies like Tecto are destroying moviemaking, while everybody involved is just trying to get through their 27-hour day and complete the paperwork on their divorce.

The new HBO series “The Franchise” satirizes the making of a superhero movie by a fictional movie studio that is Marvel in all but name. (The actual fictional name is Maximum Studios.) Warner Bros. Discovery, HBO’s parent, is Marvel’s bitter rival in the superhero field, so you might expect the show to offer an extra measure of savage mockery.