The Franchise, Thomas Elrod (Tor 978-1-25040-658-3, $28.99, 368pp, hc) May 2026. Thomas Elrod’s The Franchise begins in October 1962, at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis. It is at Comic-Con that the newly minted showrun­ner, Jules Walker, announces the next phase of the franchise. #noinstaIan Mond IAN MOND, Contributing Editor, loves to talk about books. In 2024 he launched a Substack (Ian Mond | Substack) where he writes about everything he reads, new and old.