Hacks will end in a way no one expected, according to series star Jean Smart.
During an interview with Variety ahead of the Emmy-winning series’s last season premiere, Smart said the “twist” at the end of season left her “concerned.”
Smart explained, “I never asked them in all these years how the show was gonna end. I wanted to be surprised, but then when I found out, at first I was concerned—and a little taken aback.”
“But the more I thought about it, I thought, ‘OK, I can see that,’” she continued. “And then there’s a twist at the end. But I won’t spoil it.”
Added co-showrunner, Lucia Aniello, about the series’s ending, “A lot of things we’ve been building on for all five seasons finally pay off.”
Season 4 found Smart’s Deborah Vance at odds with co-star Hannah Einbinder’s Ava, after bouts of betrayal and blackmail. The new season resets the relationship, the stars shared. “We go into the year on the same team, totally not adversarial at all like the past,” Einbinder told the site.
Added co-showrunner Paul W. Downs, “They come back to Vegas with a mission to rewrite Deborah’s legacy. It’s a little bit back, in a way, to Season 1, because it’s like the gang is back together.”
Smart said there are still plenty of surprises in store, however, including one that makes her nervous.
“There’s one storyline I can’t wait for people to see—but I’m also scared for people to see,” Smart said, referencing an episode in which Deborah and Ava pretend to be dating for a weekend. “It’s hilarious. The only time in six years that I broke up on the set and could not get to a line!”
Though she hates to say goodbye to the series, Smart said she’s glad it will end with what she ultimately decided is a “perfect” final season.
Hacks has been Emmy-nominated 48 times so far, earning six trophies overall, including four consecutive wins for Smart for Outstanding Lead Actress and one for Einbinder for Best Supporting. Its fifth and final season premieres on HBO on April 9.
