Deadline recently had an interview with Brian Koppelman and David Levein, creators of the show Billions. The interview allowed for Koppelman and Levein to go in depth on the season finale and why thy made the creative choices that they did. Along with that, the creators also dsicussed the writers strike and how the show was impacted by it.
Billions, according to AceShowBiz, is “a fictional drama that takes an insider look at the world of high finance by tracking the approaching collision between two titanic figures – the hard charging, politically savvy U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhoades (Giamatti), and the brilliant, ambitious hedge fund king, Bobby ‘Axe’ Axelrod (Lewis). It’s law versus money, with power, sex, and the soul of New York in the balance, as hard-charging U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhoades (Giamatti) squares off against billionaire hedge fund king Bobby “Axe” Axelrod (Lewis). Maggie Siff stars as Wendy Rhoades, Chuck’s estranged wife and the top performance coach in the hedge fund world. Malin Akerman plays Lara Axelrod, Axe’s fiercely loyal and street-smart wife. Season two finds the characters vying for control in a changing world that presents an existential threat. For all of them, it’s a choice between evolution and extinction.”
In the most recent season, fans were left with questions regarding the characters as well as the ending. In the interview with Deadline, the creators revelead that they chose to dismiss a relationship with Wendy and Axe due to the creators feeling that “it just felt like creating this relationship that had so many different facets except that piece was the way to go.” Koppelman and Levein also discussed the writers strike, claiming that, “We were not able to be part of the filming of the last episode. Luckily, we’d written the whole thing. It was fully locked and finished, but we couldn’t table read the last episode.”
Towards the end of the interview with Deadline, Koppelman and Levein said that Axe is a very interesting character because he “knows exactly who he is, certainly by the end of the show. The problem and the danger for some of the characters is when they lose track of who they are and think they are something else, that’s when they become vulnerable.”