{"id":686440,"date":"2026-06-05T18:07:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T18:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/686440\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T18:07:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T18:07:16","slug":"hacks-creators-on-bleak-hollywood-predictions-potential-spin-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/686440\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Hacks’ Creators On “Bleak” Hollywood Predictions, Potential Spin-Off"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSPOILERS: This post contains details about the Hacks<\/a> series finale<\/p>\n

\n\tWith the emotional gut punch that was last weeks\u2019 Hacks series finale, its creators consider the episode a pretty permanent farewell.<\/p>\n

\n\tDespite fan pleas for a spin-off featuring Jimmy (Paul W. Downs<\/a>) and Kayla (Megan Stalter), creators Downs, Lucia Aniello<\/a> and Jen Statsky<\/a> tell Deadline that an off-shoot doesn\u2019t seem \u201cin those cards,\u201d at least at HBO<\/a> Max.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe truth is, other than like House of Dragons or something, which is like a whole different universe with different characters, they don\u2019t 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\u2019m sure we could think of a lot of things. But it doesn\u2019t seem like something that\u2019s going to happen right now,\u201d explained Downs.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe would love to, but it does not seem like it\u2019s in those cards,\u201d noted Aniello, adding: \u201cTo me, a Broad City<\/a> movie is more likely than a Hacks movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe trio previously wrote for the Comedy Central series, which ran for five seasons from 2014 to 2019, with Downs playing Soulstice trainer Trey Pucker.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Jen<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tJen Statsky, Paul W. Downs and Lucia Aniello attend the \u2018Hacks\u2019 Season 5 premiere on April 8, 2026 in Los Angeles, California.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJesse Grant\/Variety<\/p>\n

\n\tWith Hacks\u2018 fifth and final season, the showrunners reflected on the series\u2019 \u201cbleak\u201d predictions of Hollywood, including recent scrutiny against late-night hosts Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel, following Deborah\u2019s (Jean Smart) silencing over quitting her talk show.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s insane that this has all come to a head, concurrently with the making of the show, because it\u2019s gotten worse and worse,\u201d said Downs, referencing the recent finale of Colbert\u2019s Late Night. \u201cBut what\u2019s happening, the attack on free speech, on journalism, on journalists, on comedians, especially, it is really scary. It\u2019s only gotten more bleak, and so, when people are like, \u2018oh, you were predictive of this,\u2019 we\u2019re like, \u2018well, we wish we weren\u2019t.\u2019 We\u2019re just trying to reflect what we feel like is brewing, and is a serious problem we should all be talking about. It\u2019s like, let\u2019s all scream.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe final season also touched a nerve for many in the industry with the episode \u2018QuikScribbl\u2019, in which Hannah Einbinder\u2019s Ava gives an impassioned monologue against the supposed inevitability of AI.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tMark Indelicato, Hannah Einbinder, Jean Smart, Paul W. Downs and Megan Stalter in \u2018Hacks\u2019<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was important to us to do that episode, and we\u2019re glad that people seem to be responding positively, and creative people are saying, \u2018yeah, this is how we feel,’\u201d explained Statsky. \u201cAnd it\u2019s not just creative people, people in all industries. I think one thing that I\u2019ve seen people respond to is this idea of the inevitability of it being forced upon us, that we\u2019re not given a choice. We\u2019re 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\u2019s luckily resonated, it hopefully resonates because this is a really serious thing that people should not be just accepting as something that\u2019s happening, whether we like it or not. We do have a say in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRead on about Hacks creators Paul W. Downs, Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky\u2019s experience filming the final season, now available to stream on HBO Max<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Tell me what the emotional roller coaster of filming the finale was like for you.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tLUCIA ANIELLO: You know, it\u2019s something we\u2019ve 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\u2019s somebody who loves control, has always wanted control, but at the end, the only thing that she\u2019d 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\u2019re here to have fun and we\u2019re here to laugh together, and that is at least what we are willing to keep pushing forward for.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: I also loved that callback to the first episode with, \u201cThat\u2019s the better joke!\u201d That was perfect.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDOWNS: I\u2019m glad you saw it. We were like, \u201cAre people gonna get that she\u2019s chasing her down the driveway again?\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tJean Smart and Hannah Einbinder in \u2018Hacks\u2019<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Yeah, I got it. I also want to talk about giving the fans the lesbian Deborah\/Ava moment they\u2019ve been wanting forever. Tell me about what was the most fun part of that episode.<\/p>\n

\n\tDOWNS: 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\u2019re 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\u2019s very good. She comes from theater, so she doesn\u2019t really break in scenes. And she really could not get through\u2014\u201dDon\u2019t you dare bring up A-S-S after you said I eat it!\u201d 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: And another episode that\u2019s 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?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tJEN 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\u2019t 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\u2019re glad that people seem to be responding positively, and creative people are saying, \u201cyeah, this is how we feel.\u201d And it\u2019s not just creative people, people in all industries. I think one thing that I\u2019ve seen people respond to is this idea of the inevitability of it being forced upon us, that we\u2019re not given a choice. We\u2019re 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\u2019s luckily resonated, it hopefully resonates because this is a really serious thing that people should not be just accepting as something that\u2019s happening, whether we like it or not. We do have a say in it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tJean Smart and Hannah Einbinder in \u2018Hacks\u2019<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Yeah, I really appreciated that episode. And it\u2019s 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?<\/p>\n

\n\tDOWNS: Yeah, I mean, isn\u2019t the finale of Colbert tonight? I think it\u2019s tonight. It\u2019s insane that this has all come to a head, concurrently with the making of the show, because it\u2019s gotten worse and worse. Even the episode where she says that she\u2019s going to resign and leave the show because she won\u2019t fire her head writer, Ava, and also because she doesn\u2019t want to be censored and make a lesser show\u2014it\u2019s gotten so much worse since then. I mean, the Kimmel stuff hadn\u2019t happened that, the Colbert stuff hadn\u2019t happened either. But what\u2019s happening, the attack on free speech, on journalism, on journalists, on comedians, especially, it is really scary. It\u2019s only gotten more bleak, and so, when people are like, \u201coh, you were predictive of this,\u201d we\u2019re like, \u201cwell, we wish we weren\u2019t.\u201d We\u2019re just trying to reflect what we feel like is brewing, and is a serious problem we should all be talking about. It\u2019s like, let\u2019s all scream.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tANIELLO: And it\u2019s also such an important time for people to invest in physical media because you\u2019re right, things are coming down all the time and it\u2019s like, \u201coh, I love that movie, I want to see it. You just can\u2019t, babe, it doesn\u2019t exist. That does really put so much power of the distribution of art in the hands of algorithms and people\u2019s whims and certain executives not liking somebody\u2019s 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\u2019re hoping to make a Hacks DVD box set, for one. We\u2019re trying to make that happen. That\u2019s an exclusive. Please go buy it, not because we make any money off of it.\u00a0We just want to make sure the show stays in existence for as long as\u00a0DVD players exist.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: That feels like a very Deborah thing to do.<\/p>\n

\n\tANIELLO: Yes, it\u2019s how she released her special. But it\u2019ll be packed with DVD extras, by the way, deleted scenes. But yes, as we\u2019re talking about all these things, it has become only bleaker. So, I don\u2019t know where that leaves us. Power of community, I guess.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Well, with this ending, The Comeback ending, there\u2019s just so much Hollywood satire that we\u2019re gonna be missing in the next few years, unfortunately. I know you\u2019ve 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDOWNS: Well, I\u2019m 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\u2019t 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\u2019m sure we could think of a lot of things. But it doesn\u2019t seem like something that\u2019s going to happen right now. Is that the right answer?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tANIELLO: That\u2019s right. We would love to, but it does not seem like it\u2019s in those cards.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tMegan Stalter and Paul W. Downs in \u2018Hacks\u2019<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Well, maybe something good potentially could come from whatever this merger situation will be. Who knows?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDOWNS: That\u2019s a pull quote from Deadline. \u201cThe best thing to come from the merger could be a Jimmy, Kayla spin-off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Yes, they could save this. PR-wise. Also I loved the Variety cover, with at the top, \u201cLassie still missing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tANIELLO: \u201cFamily losing hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDOWNS: Lassie\u2019s fine. As Kayla said, she\u2019s taking loads from every pit bull from here to Santa Clarita. She\u2019s having a blast. She\u2019s OK.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: 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\u2019s talk show.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tANIELLO: That\u2019s right, he was pitching that\u2014and 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDOWNS: It\u2019s one of the reasons we wanted\u2014Dan is a fantastic actor, he would have been hired anyway\u2014but it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tSTATSKY: It also starts getting interesting, and sometimes on shows, this happens and you just let it go. But Ava\u2019s referenced Friends. So if Ava\u2019s watched Friends, who is Phoebe?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDOWNS: So, who is Phoebe if we have Valerie Cherish? I guess we just have to pretend Valerie was just Valerie and not [Kudrow].\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tJean Smart and Hannah Einbinder in \u2018Hacks\u2019<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: So, it opens a whole rabbit hole. I get it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDOWNS: That\u2019s the thing, and then you don\u2019t know what happens. The universe could turn in on itself.<\/p>\n

\n\tSTATSKY: it was too powerful to go there.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDOWNS: And then there could be another extended term for Trump. You just don\u2019t know what\u2019s gonna happen.<\/p>\n

\n\tSTATSKY: Butterfly effect, you know.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: I\u2019m a huge Broad City fan. Do y\u2019all still talk to that whole crew?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDOWNS: 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\u2019s in New York. Abbi [Jacobson] is in LA but also in New York too<\/p>\n

\n\tSTATSKY: Yeah, we\u2019re all still in touch\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDOWNS: We are family.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tMegan Stalter, Paul W. Downs, Hannah Einbinder and Jean Smart in \u2018Hacks\u2019<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Well, I\u2019d love to see a Broad City movie one day. I think that would be awesome.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tANIELLO: You know, we always talked about the idea. To me, a Broad City movie is more likely than a Hacks movie.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDOWNS: I do think it would be really fun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SPOILERS: This post contains details about the Hacks series finale With the emotional gut punch that was last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":686441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[298318,88,1065,1035,1010,293789,213082,213083,92],"class_list":["post-686440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-broad-city","tag-entertainment","tag-hacks","tag-hbo","tag-hbo-max","tag-jen-statsky","tag-lucia-aniello","tag-paul-w-downs","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=686440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/686441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}