Hacks fans have something to look forward to.
The hit Emmy-winning series starring Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder will officially return for a fifth season. The news came ahead of the season 4 finale, where we saw Deborah (Smart) and Ava (Einbinder) travel to Singapore so that Deborah could perform onstage and avoid her noncompete that barred her from performing (in English) for 18 months. But when TMZ falsely reports that Deborah has died (and the obituary says that she’s retired), she’s motivated to return home and reclaim her legacy.
Here is everything we know about season 5 so far.
Was Hacks renewed for season 5?
Yes! On May 27, Hacks was officially renewed for a fifth season.
Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder celebrated the renewal in a video posted to the “streamonmax” Instagram account. “I’m so excited,” said Smart. “Hacks just got officially picked up for season 5. I’m thrilled! Congratulations to my cast and everybody in the production. And to all of our Hacks fans out there, please join us again for season 5. Yay!”
Einbinder echoed those sentiments. “It’s official,” she said. “We’re coming back for season 5, baby! And don’t worry, I will continue to pitch the lesbian arc.”
For those who closely follow the show, the announcement of a fifth season should come as no surprise. Last year, show creators Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, and Jen Statsky sat with The Hollywood Reporter to discuss their “ideal” five-season plan for the series.
Statsky said that Smart was likely to be on board, saying, “She’s somebody who’s like, ‘Let’s not dilute what it is. Let’s make sure it stays high-quality.’”
Downs agreed. “When we first met with her, we talked about this plan without being too specific,” he said. “She and Hannah both read the scripts as they are written. They don’t want us to say, ‘OK, here’s what’s happening this season.’”
Who will be in the cast?
It’s safe to say that Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder will return as Deborah and Ava, respectively. Paul W. Downs and Megan Stalter are also likely to reprise their roles.
Will season 5 really be the show’s last?
Maybe. In a recent interview with Variety, Downs elaborated on their aforementioned five-season plan. “We are now breaking up season 5, and we have to see how many episodes it will take us to get to where we know we’re going to go,” he said. “The final scene of the final episode has been in our minds since 2015, and we’re excited to get there. But that may take more episodes than we can fit in the season.”
He continued, “The truth is that we’ve been really lucky to be able to tell the story in the way that the writing requires, and we’re gonna do that again. And so if we can’t get to that final chapter in 10, and it might be more—we just don’t know. That’s the truth. We know where we’re going, we just don’t know how long it will take to get there.”
When will production on season 5 begin?
In a recent interview, Downs told Deadline that he thinks they’ll be back on set this fall. “We have been writing,” he said. “We’re in process.”
Have Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder discussed season 5?
Yes! In a recent interview with Deadline, when they were asked how they’d have their characters’ stories end if they were the ones writing the show, Smart responded, “I’ve thought about that so often and I can’t really picture it. I have no idea what they have in mind, and they’ve had it in mind for years. I just haven’t asked.”
Einbinder agreed. “It’s so hard to say because it’s so hard to know what the whole season brings,” she said. But she still hypothesized about what season 5 could mean for her character, Ava. “I do think when I look at Ava’s life, it does feel like her whole life has been about Deborah. And I would love to see them maintain a relationship, a real relationship, whilst filling out the rest of their lives. Deborah has a grandchild. Ava should probably connect to people her age and her community. I would love to see her nurture relationships.”
Smart added, “Yeah, then to be able to let each other go, but stay totally in each other’s lives.”
They both loved the storyline in the show when their characters were long-distance and constantly texted each other and talked on the phone; their new friendship could be more of the same. “That was really good,” Smart said.
She then thought about what would become of her character, Deborah. “I don’t know if she’ll get back with Marty,” she said. “He’s supposed to get married to somebody.”
This story will be updated.
