‘Hacks’ Creators On Show’s “Bleak” Predictions Of Hollywood, Why Spin-Off Doesn’t Seem “In The Cards”

SPOILERS: This post contains details about the Hacks series finale

With the emotional gut punch that was last weeks’ Hacks series finale, its creators consider the episode a pretty permanent farewell.

Despite fan pleas for a spin-off featuring Jimmy (Paul W. Downs) and Kayla (Megan Stalter), creators Downs, Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky tell Deadline that an off-shoot doesn’t seem “in those cards,” at least at HBO Max.

“The truth is, other than like House of Dragons or something, which is like a whole different universe with different characters, they don’t really do spin-offs at HBO. I think if that paradigm were to change, we would absolutely love to work with these people again, and I’m sure we could think of a lot of things. But it doesn’t seem like something that’s going to happen right now,” explained Downs.

“We would love to, but it does not seem like it’s in those cards,” noted Aniello, adding: “To me, a Broad City movie is more likely than a Hacks movie.”

The trio previously wrote for the Comedy Central series, which ran for five seasons from 2014 to 2019, with Downs playing Soulstice trainer Trey Pucker.

With Hacks‘ fifth and final season, the showrunners reflected on the series’ “bleak” predictions of Hollywood, including recent scrutiny against late-night hosts Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel, following Deborah’s (Jean Smart) silencing over quitting her talk show.

“It’s insane that this has all come to a head, concurrently with the making of the show, because it’s gotten worse and worse,” said Downs, referencing the recent finale of Colbert’s Late Night. “But what’s happening, the attack on free speech, on journalism, on journalists, on comedians, especially, it is really scary. It’s only gotten more bleak, and so, when people are like, ‘oh, you were predictive of this,’ we’re like, ‘well, we wish we weren’t.’ We’re just trying to reflect what we feel like is brewing, and is a serious problem we should all be talking about. It’s like, let’s all scream.”

The final season also touched a nerve for many in the industry with the episode ‘QuikScribbl’, in which Hannah Einbinder’s Ava gives an impassioned monologue against the supposed inevitability of AI.

“It was important to us to do that episode, and we’re glad that people seem to be responding positively, and creative people are saying, ‘yeah, this is how we feel,'” explained Statsky. “And it’s not just creative people, people in all industries. I think one thing that I’ve seen people respond to is this idea of the inevitability of it being forced upon us, that we’re not given a choice. We’re told this is happening whether you like it or not, by the people who stand to profit off of it and not stand to have any of the harm of it. And so, I think it’s luckily resonated, it hopefully resonates because this is a really serious thing that people should not be just accepting as something that’s happening, whether we like it or not. We do have a say in it.”

Read on about Hacks creators Paul W. Downs, Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky’s experience filming the final season, now available to stream on HBO Max.

DEADLINE: Tell me what the emotional roller coaster of filming the finale was like for you.

LUCIA ANIELLO: You know, it’s something we’ve been building towards really since the beginning, and the idea that Deborah, when faced with the ending of her life, she would want to have so much control over that. She’s somebody who loves control, has always wanted control, but at the end, the only thing that she’d be willing to give up that control for, would be just the idea of writing more comedy with her best friend. So, even though it is deeply emotional and intense, we do hope it has a life-affirming message, which is, we’re here to have fun and we’re here to laugh together, and that is at least what we are willing to keep pushing forward for.

DEADLINE: I also loved that callback to the first episode with, “That’s the better joke!” That was perfect.

DOWNS: I’m glad you saw it. We were like, “Are people gonna get that she’s chasing her down the driveway again?”

DEADLINE: Yeah, I got it. I also want to talk about giving the fans the lesbian Deborah/Ava moment they’ve been wanting forever. Tell me about what was the most fun part of that episode.

DOWNS: We laughed in village so much during that, and it was so fun, because we really shot it mostly in one location, which is very rare for our show. We’re kind of all over the place. And we shot in this house with Cherry Jones and Leslie Bibb, who were so perfect. We envisioned them in the parts, and they luckily said yes, and they were even better than we imagined. As we may have said before in press, it was the most Jean Smart has ever broken, cause she’s very good. She comes from theater, so she doesn’t really break in scenes. And she really could not get through—”Don’t you dare bring up A-S-S after you said I eat it!” She could not do it, and it was really fun. So yeah, it felt great to consummate a relationship that the fans have been shipping for a while.

DEADLINE: And another episode that’s gotten a lot of attention is the AI episode, just with everything going on in Hollywood. Was it cathartic to give that middle finger to AI? How did it feel?

JEN STATSKY: Yeah, definitely. I mean, it was a good opportunity in that, obviously there are things happening in the world that we want to speak to and reflect on, but you never want it to feel like ham-fisted into the story that, this is the creators on their soapbox and this doesn’t feel organic. But of course, Ava and Deborah would be encountering the push of tech and the push of AI into the creative space, and so, it felt nice that, story-wise, it felt very organic, but also, we were able to reflect our viewpoints and able to explore how Deborah and Ava would feel about this issue. And they would have different viewpoints on the issue for different reasons, but at the end of the day, the creative process is sacred to the both of them, and that is where they would land on it. So yeah, it was important to us to do that episode, and we’re glad that people seem to be responding positively, and creative people are saying, “yeah, this is how we feel.” And it’s not just creative people, people in all industries. I think one thing that I’ve seen people respond to is this idea of the inevitability of it being forced upon us, that we’re not given a choice. We’re told this is happening whether you like it or not, by the people who stand to profit off of it and not stand to have any of the harm of it. And so, I think it’s luckily resonated, it hopefully resonates because this is a really serious thing that people should not be just accepting as something that’s happening, whether we like it or not. We do have a say in it.

DEADLINE: Yeah, I really appreciated that episode. And it’s also just great seeing Ava kind of rub off on Deborah after so many years. After the season 4 finale, and that whole plot line with the studio execs silencing Deborah, does that feel a little too real these days in Hollywood, with all these threats to First Amendment rights?

DOWNS: Yeah, I mean, isn’t the finale of Colbert tonight? I think it’s tonight. It’s insane that this has all come to a head, concurrently with the making of the show, because it’s gotten worse and worse. Even the episode where she says that she’s going to resign and leave the show because she won’t fire her head writer, Ava, and also because she doesn’t want to be censored and make a lesser show—it’s gotten so much worse since then. I mean, the Kimmel stuff hadn’t happened that, the Colbert stuff hadn’t happened either. But what’s happening, the attack on free speech, on journalism, on journalists, on comedians, especially, it is really scary. It’s only gotten more bleak, and so, when people are like, “oh, you were predictive of this,” we’re like, “well, we wish we weren’t.” We’re just trying to reflect what we feel like is brewing, and is a serious problem we should all be talking about. It’s like, let’s all scream.

ANIELLO: And it’s also such an important time for people to invest in physical media because you’re right, things are coming down all the time and it’s like, “oh, I love that movie, I want to see it. You just can’t, babe, it doesn’t exist. That does really put so much power of the distribution of art in the hands of algorithms and people’s whims and certain executives not liking somebody’s brother, so they take down their movie or show or whatever. It is really scary, the idea of censorship, especially as more and more companies are bought up by other companies, and so, we’re hoping to make a Hacks DVD box set, for one. We’re trying to make that happen. That’s an exclusive. Please go buy it, not because we make any money off of it. We just want to make sure the show stays in existence for as long as DVD players exist.

DEADLINE: That feels like a very Deborah thing to do.

ANIELLO: Yes, it’s how she released her special. But it’ll be packed with DVD extras, by the way, deleted scenes. But yes, as we’re talking about all these things, it has become only bleaker. So, I don’t know where that leaves us. Power of community, I guess.

DEADLINE: Well, with this ending, The Comeback ending, there’s just so much Hollywood satire that we’re gonna be missing in the next few years, unfortunately. I know you’ve had to field this question so many times, but is there any movement on a potential Jimmy, Kayla spin-off? Especially with them taking over Latitude at the end, because it seems ripe for a new show.

DOWNS: Well, I’m so flattered you ask, and we do field this question a lot. And the truth is, other than like House of Dragons or something, which is like a whole different universe with different characters, they don’t really do spin-offs at HBO. I think if that paradigm were to change, we would absolutely love to work with these people again, and I’m sure we could think of a lot of things. But it doesn’t seem like something that’s going to happen right now. Is that the right answer?

ANIELLO: That’s right. We would love to, but it does not seem like it’s in those cards.

DEADLINE: Well, maybe something good potentially could come from whatever this merger situation will be. Who knows?

DOWNS: That’s a pull quote from Deadline. “The best thing to come from the merger could be a Jimmy, Kayla spin-off.”

DEADLINE: Yes, they could save this. PR-wise. Also I loved the Variety cover, with at the top, “Lassie still missing.”

ANIELLO: “Family losing hope.”

DOWNS: Lassie’s fine. As Kayla said, she’s taking loads from every pit bull from here to Santa Clarita. She’s having a blast. She’s OK.

DEADLINE: And another thing, I interviewed Dan Bucatinsky a few weeks ago for The Comeback, and he told me that he had an idea for a crossover with Hacks where Valerie appears on Deborah’s talk show.

ANIELLO: That’s right, he was pitching that—and listen, we have so much love and respect for Lisa [Kudrow], and Michael Patrick King, and Dan. The Comeback is such a seminal part of our comedy inspiration.

DOWNS: It’s one of the reasons we wanted—Dan is a fantastic actor, he would have been hired anyway—but it’s one of the reasons we wanted him in the show is because we were such admirers of the three of them and of that show, and so that was such a funny idea. It does kind of make you wonder if Deborah Vance is real [in that universe]. It is like a question mark. And also, he did pitch it when we were already shooting. That pitch came a little bit late.

STATSKY: It also starts getting interesting, and sometimes on shows, this happens and you just let it go. But Ava’s referenced Friends. So if Ava’s watched Friends, who is Phoebe?

DOWNS: So, who is Phoebe if we have Valerie Cherish? I guess we just have to pretend Valerie was just Valerie and not [Kudrow].

DEADLINE: So, it opens a whole rabbit hole. I get it.

DOWNS: That’s the thing, and then you don’t know what happens. The universe could turn in on itself.

STATSKY: it was too powerful to go there.

DOWNS: And then there could be another extended term for Trump. You just don’t know what’s gonna happen.

STATSKY: Butterfly effect, you know.

DEADLINE: I’m a huge Broad City fan. Do y’all still talk to that whole crew?

DOWNS: Oh yea! Ilana [Glazer] almost stayed here last week. She ended up not, but we were planning for a wild sleepover because she was coming for Netflix Is a Joke Festival. Because Ilana’s in New York. Abbi [Jacobson] is in LA but also in New York too

STATSKY: Yeah, we’re all still in touch

DOWNS: We are family.

DEADLINE: Well, I’d love to see a Broad City movie one day. I think that would be awesome.

ANIELLO: You know, we always talked about the idea. To me, a Broad City movie is more likely than a Hacks movie.

DOWNS: I do think it would be really fun.