The final season of Hacks is pulling out all the stops with a 46-year age gap romance between Jean Smart and The Summer I Turned Pretty‘s Chris Briney.
Showrunner Jen Statsky confirmed on Tuesday, April 7, that Briney, 28, will appear in the fifth and final season of the show as an “international rock star” and a romantic interest for Smart’s Deborah.
“We always want to portray Deborah as the full, dimensional character that she is and show that women don’t stop having sex and being sexy at any age,” Statsky told Deadline. “We also always thought it’d be funny and interesting that she would date this international rock star that maybe wasn’t exactly her type and dressed a little bit more like her than other people she dated. And so that was just always a story line that excited us.”
Smart, 74, meanwhile, recalled having concerns about how Briney, 28, would react.
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“I did think, ‘Oh, God, I hope he isn’t just cringing,’” she added. “He’s thinking, ‘Oh, I’d really like to be on that show, but oh, damn, really?’”
The actress continued: “He made me feel very comfortable. And we had fun.”
Statsky went on to tease more upcoming story lines outside of the age-gap romance.
“In this final season, what we’re so excited for people to see is we get to do so many stories that we’ve been really waiting and wanting to do,” she continued. “But it just wasn’t quite right in earlier seasons, or it felt like we needed the relationship between Ava and Deborah to deepen before we did it.”
She concluded: “So that was just one of the story lines that we knew would be funny but also really sexy and real and grounded and important to show that, yeah, why wouldn’t these two get together?”
Hacks is Briney’s second TV role, which comes fresh off his run as Conrad on The Summer I Turned Pretty. The Prime Video series, which is based on Jenny Han‘s book series, followed the love triangle between Belly (Lola Tung) and the Fisher brothers, Conrad and Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno). The Summer I Turned Pretty, It’s Not Summer Without You and We’ll Always Have Summer served as inspiration for the show’s three seasons.
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“It’s been really cool to see people rally around this world and have their different opinions and theories. I try my best to stay away from it all and let them have their fun,” Briney told Harper’s Bazaar in September 2025. “I do my job, and then you put it out there and let people [think what they think]. But from what I’ve heard, people have been very supportive of Conrad, which is great. I have played him [this season] as if it was him getting what he finally earns. He earns his moment by the end.”
While viewers were expecting the series to end after season 3, Prime Video announced that same month that there will be a movie to wrap up the story.
“The Summer I Turned Pretty has struck a chord with audiences everywhere, creating moments of joy, nostalgia and connection that have made it a global sensation,” Courtenay Valenti, who is head of film, streaming and theatrical at Amazon MGM Studios, and Vernon Sanders, who is global head of television at Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, shared in a statement at the time. “We’re proud of the series’ extraordinary success and couldn’t be more excited to partner again with Jenny Han to bring fans an unforgettable next chapter.”
In addition to The Summer I Turned Pretty, Briney has appeared in films Dalíland and Mean Girls. He has also done voiceover work for several audiobooks.
Hacks airs on HBO Max Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET.
