Will There Be a Spinoff? Bosses Break Down Deborah and Ava’s Parisian Adventure (Exclusive)

Hacks has come to an end, but the episode promised it’s not the end of Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and Ava Daniels’ (Hannah Einbinder) story as showrunners Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky break down the twists and turns of the series finale episode. Warning: Spoilers for the Hacks series finale ahead!

The finale opened with Ava filming her TV pilot, showcasing her role as boss over the Who’s Making Dinner? reboot, and fresh off the opening of The Diva casino alongside Marcus (Carl Clemons-Hopkins) and Marty (Christopher McDonald), things seemed as if they were in their rightful spot, but a lunch out on the Vegas strip revealed the truth: Deborah’s presumed cancer hadn’t been eliminated and had actually spread.

Determined to take fate into her own hands, she told Ava that she wanted to take a trip to Paris and offer her a chance to experience so many wonderful things with the intention of ending the journey at a clinic that would help her with an assisted suicide. Ava’s understandably distraught and refuses to go initially before caving and meeting Deborah at the airport.

They hit up various locales around Paris, including the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre, and spots along the Seine, even hitting up clubs, restaurants, and antique markets. It’s the trip of a lifetime, but Ava’s still not on board with Deborah’s plan. While she agrees to respect her friend’s wish, their banter at the train station, moments before they’re about to part ways, is what sparks a change in Deborah. She isn’t done writing jokes, and she wants to keep at it with Ava.

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So, she changes her mind, much to Ava and Jimmy’s (Paul W. Downs) delight, leaving fans with a closing shot of Ava and Deborah walking down the Vegas strip together. Below, Aniello and Statsky open up about filming in Paris, discuss potential for spinoffs or movies, and unravel the real reason Deborah decided to live.

The finale opens with an incredible oner following Ava through the set of her Who’s Making Dinner? pilot. What was so important about showcasing that side of her journey before the series ended?

Lucia Aniello: As you know, that’s mimicking the very opening shot of our series, which was very cool to have a full circle moment where you start with Deborah, and now we end with Ava. Because so many of the people in that shot were our actual crew, it was really nice for Hannah to be able to be very Hannah, which is loving the crew and having such a deep relationship with them. And I think it lent itself to the idea that Ava, as we’ve seen her struggle to be a boss in Season 4, she’s struck a really nice balance at this point of understanding what it’s like to be a good boss, and she’s learned so many lessons from Deborah in that way that it’s really nice to see how all those lessons have paid off and being able to have a shot at her dream, which is to have her own show, which is a reboot of Deborah’s show, but instead of it being about Deborah and Frank, it’s about Deborah and Ava, her new partner.

You managed to capture so many scenes in iconic spots around Paris, including the Louvre. Which was the most challenging aspect of that process?

Jen Statsky: It was a joy to get to shoot there, obviously. As it was laid in Season 3 when Deborah and Ava are on the hike, they’re talking about seeing the world and how Ava hasn’t really seen much of it, and how she has never had real bread, so it was satisfying to get to give these characters that moment where Deborah is gifting to Ava that experience and travel and all that. So, from a story perspective, a character perspective, it was very satisfying, and then obviously, it was lovely to be in there, and the French crew was so incredibly kind and talented and welcoming, but yeah, there definitely were challenges that came with it.

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The Louvre was in the midst of post-jewellery heist, a bit of strikes and changes at the top, and so our filming was very, very flexible; let’s say we didn’t quite know when the final shot of Hacks was going to happen, but we eventually got in and got it, and we’re very grateful to them for that.

I didn’t even think about the heist!

Lucia: Yeah, and there was a lot of, “Is this gonna happen? Is it not gonna happen? Is it gonna happen?” And so we ended up actually scouting Versailles.

The opening of The Diva casino reads as a moment where Deborah is making sure all of the people who are important to her are set up for success. Was that the intention, considering her diagnosis? 

Lucia: I think for everyone but Damien, she kind of knocks down his pay a little bit… I’m just kidding, but yeah, she does want to make sure all of her people are well, you know, DJ now has a show on QVC, Marty and Marcus are gonna be running The Diva, everybody like you’re saying is in a good place, and as you see in the penultimate episode, [Deborah] really understands that she wouldn’t be where she is without the help of all these people and that’s definitely not something I think you would have heard from Deborah in Season 1, 2, or 3 even, but I think this season she’s been a bit more reflective about what really matters to her and, and coming to terms with that and, and making softer choices in her life and I think it’s a cool thing to get to see Deborah be a little bit more vulnerable with so many people.

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Ava is understandably upset when Deborah reveals he plan to partake in assisted suicide following her cancer diagnosis. Was her position meant to reflect the audience’s feelings of that choice? Both women make great arguments in the case for and against supporting Deborah’s choice. 

Lucia: Isn’t that so Hacks? [Laughs].

Jen: Yeah, I think that’s exactly it, right? What we always have intended to do since day one with this show was make sure that neither character was condemned in the writing as fully right or fully wrong and to present complicated issues and personal issues and cultural issues and explore different views on them, and so, in that way, Ava is very much so the audience reacting to this idea and we wanted to authentically portray what it would be like if a loved one had told you this and the different stages of grief you would go through as Ava does. But we also wanted to give Deborah dignity and treat her situation with the seriousness it deserves that she’d also have a very clear point of view. This character you’ve seen for five seasons now is someone who, a huge vice of hers is control, and she’s really grappling with this idea up until the very last moment, still trying to control, ultimately, the thing that none of us can control.

Why is it the banter about jokes that breaks Deborah out of choosing assisted suicide and not Ava’s own pleas?

Jen: She realises the joy of writing with Ava and creating with her and laughing with her is worth living for, and that has ultimately been the point of the show. And, also, your question about like, “Well, why isn’t it when Ava says to her, ‘please don’t leave me,’ why isn’t that the choice?” I think that if you were to make that choice for someone else solely, it would be a codependent choice. What I think is beautiful is that they share in this joy. The joy of laughing and creating together is something they both have, and so, sure, Deborah’s doing it for Ava, but also ultimately for herself because it’s the thing she’s come to realise matters the most to her.

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Deborah makes the comment that she might have one more hour in her, alluding to a standup special. Are you done with these characters or would you like to continue their story in a movie? 

Lucia: We’re in a really interesting place where we love the characters so much, we already miss them, and it’s been weeks since we were still with them in so many ways, but I do think that this is, in all likelihood, the end of their story. Probably, probably… Jen, I think, said in one of the podcast episodes, “You’ve gotta see how the rest of our career goes first.” [Laughs]. We might be coming back; we may come back. Probably this is the end, but I think hopefully that we left it in a place where you can have, you know, whether it’s fanfic or whatever, continue the story on knowing that they are together and still writing together… as are we.

Jen: But yeah, if something happens and my career goes awry, I might be grasping at relevancy, and then I have to try to reboot it alone, and it’s bad.

Lucia: Well, I don’t see your career going badly and mine going well if we’re still working together.  I don’t know.

Jen: Yeah, that’s true.

Lucia: A little bit of an all-or-nothing situation.

Jen: I think this is like in a scenario where we get in a horrible fight over…

Lucia: Paul.

Jen: Over Paul, yeah. When like, I finally confess my love for one of you, when I decide which one of you I’m in love with and I confess my love, and then it goes awry.

Lucia: Right, yes, OK, so if that is what happens…

Jen: So, if you see the trailer for the Hacks movie.

…Something’s gone horribly wrong?

Lucia: Or right for somebody, you know, like we don’t know how things are going to shake out in this hypothetical situation, but what we know is, if you do see the trailer, Jen felt brave. [Laughs].

So, there’s no hope for a Jimmy, Kayla, and Randi spinoff now that they’re in charge of Lattitude?

Lucia: We would definitely be interested in exploring it. We would love nothing more. I don’t think it’s in the cards at the moment, but we love them.

Jen: Yeah, we love them. We’re happy that Jimmy and Kayla and Randi got what they deserve and where they’re at, and we love them and, and who knows? Who knows in this life, right?

Hacks, Seasons 1-5, Streaming now, HBO Max