Two weeks after Showtime officially renewed Billions for season 7, Damian Lewis has confirmed he’ll be reprising his role as cutthroat billionaire Bobby Axelrod.
“Bobby’s back,” Damian Lewis told Stephen Colbert during his most recent appearance on The Late Show.
“Axe is back, and it’s exciting. He’s not been around for a couple of seasons.”
Lewis initially departed from the hit finance drama at the conclusion of season 5, shortly after the passing of his real-life wife Helen McCrory (Peaky Blinders).
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A combination of personal tragedy and Bobby Axelrod’s story reaching (what we assumed was) its natural conclusion influenced the British thespian’s decision to exit stage left. Lewis revealed he’d planned to stay close to home with his teenage children in light of the “sadness in our family.”
“It’s difficult to keep mining, creatively. We know who he is,” Damian Lewis had said of his character to The New York Times.
For the uninitiated, Lewis’ Axelrod fled to Switzerland as a means of evading the full legal fury of long-time nemesis, New York State Attorney General Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti). His freedom does, however, came at a cost of his entire fortune. Or in the words of Axe himself while speaking with rival billionaire Mike Prince (Corey Stoll): “So… this is what it is to lose.”
Billions season 6 marked the first franchise instalment without Damian Lewis. Although it certainly won’t mark the last…
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In the wake of Paramount’s merger with Showtime, the suits pulling all those strings behind the scenes have decided that Yellowstone shouldn’t be the only expanded universe in their collective stable.
According to Entertainment Weekly, the network has mapped out a total of four different spin-offs, including one titled Millions and another titled Trillions. Millions will be an offshoot of the main series and young up-and-comers in finance, while Trillions promises to be a “soapier” affair involved with the mega-rich sect of society a la Dynasty.
“Billions creators Brian Koppelman and David Levien are currently working out what the first spin-off will be, one that’s set in Miami. They are also overseeing development of a potential spin-off set in London,” reports Nick Romano of EW.
According to Deadline, production is already well underway for Billions season 7 – catch Damian Lewis as Bobby Axelrod later this year.
