In a surprising reversal that’s sure to please Billions fans, Damian Lewis is returning to the hit finance series for its seventh season. The actor left the series after the conclusion of Season 5, which saw his lead character Bobby “Axe” Axelrod flee the country after being doggedly pursued by Paul Giamatti’s Chuck Rhoades.
Just one small caveat though. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lewis will reprise his role as Axe for “six of the new season’s 12 episodes,” so it doesn’t appear to be a full return at the moment. That could change as the situation seems to be fluid.
Lewis announced he was exiting Billions in October 2021, but the actor made it a point to note that the decision had nothing to do with the death of his wife Helen McCrory earlier that year. In an interview with The New York Times, Lewis said he only intended to do five seasons and felt that the Axe character had been fully mined creatively. However, in the same interview, he did leave the door open for a possible comeback.
“There’s an opportunity maybe for me to return,” Lewis said at the time. “But for now, broadly speaking, Axe has been vanquished.”
Lewis’ return follows a significant investment in the Billions universe by Showtime. The network is reportedly developing four spinoffs based on the high-stakes financial series, and we kid you not, two of those are tentatively titled Millions and Trillions. We will continue to hold out hope that Kajillions is in the mix.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)