Following a five-season run on the hit Showtime series Billions, Damian Lewis has officially exited the show, which saw his cutthroat capitalist character, Bobby Axelrod, square off against Paul Giamatti‘s dogged attorney general, Chuck Rhoades. Without giving away too much of the season finale, Lewis confirmed to The New York Times that His time with Billions is over, marking the longest amount of time that he’s spent playing one character. However, he did leave the door open for perhaps one more cameo down the road.
“There’s an opportunity maybe for me to return,” Lewis said. “But for now, broadly speaking, Axe has been vanquished.”
Following the death of his wife, Helen McCrory, Lewis plans to stay in London for the foreseeable future and hinted that he may have “closed the chapter” on starring in American television. However, the actor was reluctant to speak about McCrory’s death, except to make it clear that it wasn’t his reason for leaving Billions. The plan was always for Axe to leave after five season. Via The New York Times:
Lewis said McCrory’s death did not explain his departure from “Billions.” He initially signed on for five seasons and “always just assumed that would be enough,” he said. Koppelman said the show, which premiered in 2016, had been building toward Axe’s departure for several years.
When the show returns in January sans Lewis, Giamatti will be facing off against Corey Stoll’s recently introduced character in the quest for more billions.
(Via New York Times)