‘Hacks’ Season 2 Adds ‘The Conners’ Star and Disney Legend

Season 2 of Hacks is getting even more star-studded as the series adds a list of high-profile names to its cast including The Conners star Laurie Metcalf. The rest of the new additions include Ming-Na Wen (The Book of Boba Fett), comedian Margaret Cho (The Flight Attendant), and Martha Kelly (Euphoria).

Further details as to their characters haven’t been shared yet. Metcalf, Wen, Kelly are all scheduled for recurring guest roles while Cho is doing a guest appearance. 

Season 2 of the comedy, which is currently already in production, will continue following the building relationship between fictional struggling comedian Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and her writer Ava (Hannah Einbinder) as they take her new stand up act across the country. A premiere date hasn’t been set as of yet. 

The creators behind the show spoke with TV Insider following the first season finale, dishing on both the “dark mentorship” between their main characters as well as the show’s low point moment when Deborah bombed one of her sets. As both

“Well, we feel that Deborah did bomb,” the creators said of the set. “She’s telling the truth. She bombed. As much as we may see the work that goes into that show in the future, for us, it was really more about the decision that Deborah makes to do that show, to do the hard thing, than the content of the show itself. When you’re writing about comedy and you’re writing comedy, sometimes it’s great to see it… For us, it was not the most interesting thing to see. For us, seeing this woman make that decision was more interesting than the content of the show. As you see in the finale when she shows up in Boston, she almost does a version of what that is: a raw and vulnerable performance piece that we feel took the place of that for us. But you never know. Going forward you may see [it].”

As the duo grew over the course of the season, viewers watched the relationship grow into something that resembles love. “Well, I think love is and can be tumultuous and difficult and challenging and painful,” Downs said. “I think that, to me, means they’re very much in love.” But, as Aniello chimed in, “You don’t always end up with the people you love.”