The Gilded Age is raising the stakes this season by seemingly killing off a second main character.
During the Sunday, August 3, episode of the hit HBO series, George Russell (Morgan Spector) was shot in his study by a mysterious intruder. The screen cut to black as the shot was fired, which left George’s fate unclear.
“Those final scripts were a little delayed, so it took some time before I got them. But when I read the ending for that episode, I was just thrilled, because it’s such a left turn for our show,” Spector, 44, told Variety on Sunday about his character’s possible death. “It’s totally historically accurate. This kind of thing happened during that era, but it doesn’t feel like The Gilded Age.”
Spector didn’t rule out this season potentially being his last. “You should be very worried. In the 19th century, gunshot wounds from up close were extremely dangerous,” he noted. “Many people didn’t survive them. I don’t have a contract for next season yet, so who knows?”
Reliving TV’s Most Shocking Deaths
According to the actor, George’s shooting took inspiration from real life.
“When I read the script, it wasn’t that long after Luigi Mangione shot the United Healthcare CEO. I was like, ‘[The Gilded Age creator] Julian Fellowes is clairvoyant,’” he noted. “It redoubled my sense that there’s a way that this show, however subtly, however quietly, is really in dialog with our current moment, simply by virtue of there being structural similarities between the two eras.”
Spector could see how The Gilded Age was making reference to current events, saying, “Both of these time periods have massive wealth and massive inequality. Both of them are characterized by industrial titans who are kind of swinging the state around by its tail. The consequences of that can be violence.”
The historical drama, which premiered in January 2022, is set in the United States during the Gilded Age: the boom years of the 1880s in New York City. After facing criticism from viewers that the show didn’t take enough big narrative swings, the fourth season, which started airing in July, has taken Us by surprise.
George’s potential final scene on Sunday came just one week after The Gilded Age killed off John Adams (Claybourne Elder).
“The show is ‘The Gilded Age’ right? It’s a 30- or 40-year period of American history. The need for world building when you’re telling a story like that on a canvas that large is enormous. And so the whole first season, or much of the first season, was about introducing all these characters and letting you remember their names and their jobs,” Spector continued. “When you’re telling a big story like this, it’s like writing a 1,000-page novel. The first 100 pages are all about establishing who this or that person is.”
Most Heartbreaking TV Deaths of 2025 So Far: ‘9-1-1’ and More
He added: “And now we’re getting to paint on that canvas. Part of what’s fun about the show is that the stakes of very small gestures can be very high. That’s why these period dramas are exciting. They are the drama.”
As for where the show goes next? Spector revealed there were moments where the cast and crew didn’t expect to make more episodes of The Gilded Age.
“We were all on five- and six-year deals. During the strike, all of our contracts lapsed and that was also a period of incredible tumult in the business. There was that great Netflix correction, and there was a lot of structural challenge in the business, and we knew our show was very expensive,” he explained. “A lot of us felt like the fact that our contracts lapsed was an indication that we were on the edge. And then during the second season, towards the second half, all of a sudden it was like, ‘Oh, there’s an audience for this show that we weren’t sure was going to find us.’ There was this sudden groundswell of interest. When we got the call to come back, it was incredibly exciting because we all love working together.”
The Gilded Age airs on HBO Sundays at 9 p.m. ET.
