Only Murders in the Building creator John Hoffman doesn’t want to get sued.
The showrunner tells Entertainment Weekly that he based season 5’s trio of billionaires — played by Christoph Waltz, Renée Zellweger, and Logan Lerman — on real-life public figures with that level of extreme wealth. But now he’s wary to actually name-drop any of them.
“Unfortunately, many of those billionaires are litigious, so I’m also nervous to hit too close to home,” Hoffman tells EW with a laugh. “But there are some well-known people who are interested in longevity [of human life]. There’s some well-known people who are interested in design and boutique hotels in Manhattan, and tastemakers that have risen above the fold. And then the others are the sort of extended family of longtime money — there’s many examples of all of that. And then there’s the technology wizards and A.I. advancement and things like that. We kind go all into that territory with this whole season.”
Disney/Patrick Harbron
Christoph Waltz, Reneé Zellweger, Logan Lerman on ‘Only Murders in the Building’
When Hulu’s hilarious whodunnit series returns for season 5 (premiering Sept. 9), true crime podcasters Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short), and Mabel (Selena Gomez) begin investigating the suspicious, gruesome death of the Arconia’s doorman, Lester (Teddy Coluca), who was discovered in the courtyard fountain the morning after Oliver and Loretta’s (Meryl Streep) wedding. This new case will bring them into the orbit of three of the richest people in the world, who might be connected to Lester’s death.
When creating these three billionaire characters, Hoffman loved pulling “here and there” from real-life cases of people with extreme wealth.
“That felt both somewhat accurate and pointed and then somewhat inventive,” the showrunner says. “We’re a comedy, so we’re hitting it with a little bit of a soft, ridiculous touch at times.”
Zellweger plays Camila White, the arbiter of good taste and design in New York’s high society. As for which billionaire inspired her? Hoffman laughs as he quips, “You can fill in the blank. I mean, I will only say that, apparently, Martha Stewart bought an apartment in the actual Belnord [building], where we [film] our Arconia on the Upper West Side, last year. So she was a tiny bit of inspiration that way, and I hope she gets the joke of the fun of it, because Camila White is a very different person in many ways.”
Waltz plays billionaire tech wizard Bash Steeg, written with “a little wink wink at many of those in that business,” the showrunner says. He’s a powerful figure in A.I. advancement as well as … discovering the secret to immortality? Yeah, you read that right.
“[He’s] a person interested in extending his own life as long as he possibly can, and it makes the trio wonder [about] this big mystery secondary to the big mystery, ‘How old is Bash Steeg?'” Hoffman reveals. “And when it starts getting up into triple digits, or getting close to it, it starts to make them wonder, ‘My God, he may be onto something.'”
Logan Lerman plays the third billionaire, the young nepo baby Jay Pflug.
“Jay is the son of a very, very wealthy, wealthy, wealthy family, well-known in New York,” Hoffman reveals. “They were Pflug Faucets until they became Pflug Pharma — I’ll let [returning cast member] Richard Kind explain that joke.”
Disney/Patrick Harbron
Martin Short and Dianne Wiest on ‘Only Murders in the Building’
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The showrunner laughs before continuing, “But Logan was a dream to work with, as they all were. They all just found this odd connection with each other to make their own trio, much like our original odd trio.”
Expect to see this billionaire trio in a “good amount” of episodes this season — at least half, the showrunner promises. “And you’ll feel their presence when they’re not there, for sure. What happens if our delightful trio of investigative podcasters is smack in the middle of a power grab?”
And it all leads to the most important question of all: Could one of these billionaires (or even all three?) be this season’s murderer? “Someone as powerful as that, I wouldn’t take anything off the table,” Hoffman teases.
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