‘Hacks’ Cast and Creatives Reflect on the Series’ Legacy

Following the dramatic events of season four, the creators sought to explore how Deborah Vance confronts her own mortality and public image. Lucia Aniello noted that Deborah’s encounter with misreportings of her life “puts the kind of idea of legacy and how to live a life and how you want to live a life really into focus for her.” Aniello added that as the final season progresses, “we explore a lot of different ways that she wants to have the relationships she wants to have, the lasting legacy she wants to have for Las Vegas, and for her work as well.”

The final season also provided the writers room with a last opportunity to bring long-gestating bucket-list storylines to the screen. Jen Statsky shared that an episode involving The Amazing Race was “something we talked about since season one,” while Aniello highlighted storylines involving “Ava dating a magician slash sex worker” and Deborah reflecting on her past. Downs revealed another standing ambition: “We always wanted to do an autograph convention, you know, like the Hollywood show, or the night of 1,000 stars.” He also cheered a specific directorial wish, stating, “I’ve always wanted to have a camera go in the mouth, and we did it in episode seven in ‘The Nightmare’,” he laughed.

The upcoming season directly addresses contemporary entertainment industry anxiety through a storyline focused on artificial intelligence and corporate control. Addressing the industry landscape, Jean Smart remarked, “we’re going through a really strange time and upheaval in our industry where big corporations really are taking over and calling the shots. It’s very scary.” Smart noted that Deborah Vance reaches a breaking point where “she’s just been pushed to the limit, and that’s where she just [thinks] ‘that’s it!’ She just goes for it.”

Statsky elaborated on the show’s critique of AI, emphasizing the human element intrinsic to creative work: “there’s this massive push by tech to optimize every part of our lives… You don’t need to optimize everything because the grit and the struggle is part of it. That’s like part of the creative process. It’s what makes things good. It’s what makes things human.” Downs echoed this sentiment regarding creative integrity: “when it comes to the creative process, that’s something we don’t need to optimize. That’s one thing that’s like, please leave it alone.”

When asked about the role of LGBTQ+ identity in the series, Hannah Einbinder pointed to Deborah Vance’s central standing as a queer icon and praised the authenticity of the show’s writing. “Deborah Vance is the epitome of a queer icon,” Einbinder stated. “Ava is a product of queer people creating a vivid and authentic character. And when I first read this character on the page, I was like, this is a fully realized human being. There are no tropes. There’s no parody. It is what happens when people write to their experience.

Summarizing the show’s spirit, Aniello offered a new phrase coined on set: “Now, Fabulous Dabulous is super fabulous. And I think that that’s what the legacy of the show ends up being, is fabulous dabulous.” She added, “it’s about continuing to strive for joy in every moment, queer joy, and that is what our show, I think, often is striving to do, is to be completely fabulous dabulous.”

With production concluded across Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Paris, the cast admitted that saying goodbye to their characters proved intensely emotional. Megan Stalter humorously recounted her dramatic final day on set: “leaving the show was like having a golden fork ripped from my hands and now I have a stupid plastic fork.” Stalter added, “we looked at each other… and we were like, oh my gosh, that was it. And it was really sad and horrible.”

Smart and Einbinder both reflected on the surreal experience of wrapping permanent sets and parting with their roles. Smart recalled the emotion of hearing “series wrap” called on individual rooms of Deborah’s house: “The first time it happened, they said, okay, that’s a wrap, that’s a series wrap on Deborah’s bedroom… I’m gonna miss Deborah too. I’m not ever gonna play Deborah again? Well, that’s not possible.” Einbinder agreed, sharing how attached she felt to her character: “they’re real to us so, it’s crazy.”

The fifth and final season of Hacks premieres April 9 on HBO Max.