Hacks Stars Reflect on Finale, Float Spinoff Ideas
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- Hannah Einbinder said promoting 'Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma' with Gillian Anderson — who fields constant 'X-Files' questions — has reframed her view of 'Hacks' as something she'll revisit 'for the rest of my life.'
- Paul W. Downs said he'd love a Jimmy and Kayla spinoff with Megan Stalter but doesn't want anything to follow the planned finale: 'I want that to be the last thing people remember.'
- Downs pitched 'Hacks' spinoff ideas including 'Mayor Jo in her first election' and 'Marty coming to Vegas in the '70s,' with Einbinder comparing the Mayor Jo concept to 'Better Call Saul' vibes.
- Downs, Lucia Aniello, and Jen Statsky have multiple projects in development, including one with Kaley Cuoco and an HBO limited series Downs described as 'an hourlong limited' with 'a slight tone shift' but 'definitely going to be humor.'
- Einbinder said she told the trio she wants to be their 'non-problematic Rob Schneider' and 'pop up in everything they do forever.'
- Einbinder shared that she found a Season 1 video diary she'd recorded, saying in it 'I think these people are going to mean so much to me' — contrasting with her pre-'Hacks' life opening for comics and working at a coffee shop before COVID cost her both jobs.
- Downs called Einbinder 'a revelation' in the upcoming slasher film 'Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma,' which opens August 7.
Why it matters: For 'Hacks' fans, Downs's insistence on protecting the finale means no immediate Jimmy-Kayla continuation, but his pitched spinoff hooks — Mayor Jo's 'Better Call Saul'-style origin, Marty in '70s Vegas — keep an HBO universe alive beyond Season 5. The creative trio also has a Kaley Cuoco project and an HBO limited series in the pipeline, extending the 'Hacks' brand past the original show's run.
