Hacks Season 3 Levels Up With Guest Stars, Unexpected Trysts, and Tom Cruise's Coconut Cake

With multiple Emmy Awards to its name and the full support of Warner Bros. Discovery, Hacks has never been the little comedy that could, but it's poised to reach even greater heights in Season 3. For the first time in the show's run, comedy legend Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) has reclaimed her place atop the mountain, and co-creators Paul W. Downs, Lucia Aniello, and Jen Statsky make the most of her elite status, recruiting a host of new guest stars to play powerful figures in Deborah's orbit. Tom Cruise's famed coconut cake even makes an appearance — and it becomes the very thing that reunites Deborah and her young writer Ava (Hannah Einbinder), whom she fired at the end of Season 2 in hopes that Ava would seek out her own career opportunities.

Deborah and Ava's "truce," as Aniello described it in a recent Vanity Fair preview, brings them together at a key moment in time, but as their lives continue to become more intertwined, they begin to question whether their relationship is healthy. Of course, Hacks never let a little introspection get in the way of a good time: In Season 3, the dynamic duo find themselves in even more ridiculous situations, from a fraternity party to a celebrity golf tournament. Add in a dose of romance — Ava falls into bed with her ideological opposite, a Republican oil heiress played by Christina Hendricks — and the stage is set for the show's most ambitious outing yet.

As Hacks prepares to level up, we've compiled everything you need to know about Season 3, from the famous faces joining the cast to the crises that await Jimmy (Downs) and Kayla (Megan Stalter), the comedy world's most inefficient assistant:

When Does Hacks Season 3 Premiere?

Hacks Season 3 premieres Thursday, May 2 on Max. The new season will consist of nine episodes, with two dropping every week until the standalone finale on May 30 — just under the wire for Emmys eligibility.

What Is Hacks Season 3 About?

Set one year after Deborah released her self-funded comedy special, Hacks Season 3 finds the stand-up comic riding high on her renewed fame. Things couldn't be better for Deborah: She's not only booking big-time gigs, but has finally earned the respect of her peers, including Tom Cruise, who sends her his infamous coconut cake in recognition of her "having made it" in Hollywood, Statsky told Vanity Fair. (Nevermind the fact that Deborah has been a successful comic for decades.)

But even with all the attention and positive press, Deborah isn't satisfied. "She finds another goal to work towards that is her hardest challenge yet," teased Statsky. Smart explained that the storyline "renews [Deborah's] drive — the good parts of that drive and the bad parts," adding, "I never thought we'd see her in the light that we see her."

Deborah and Ava have been through a lot over the past two seasons (a lawsuit, a nation-wide tour, and a breakup, just to name a few), but Deborah's new venture tests the boundaries of their relationship like never before. Their bond as mentor and mentee remains intact, but over the course of the season, Ava comes to question their complicated power dynamic and considers what her future holds outside of Deborah's not-so-warm embrace. As Ava mulls her options, she and Deborah end up in a series of "funny and interesting unique situations," Statsky said, culminating in a dramatic conclusion. As Smart promises, "What happens is completely unexpected."

Season 3 also furthers the journeys of supporting characters, including Jimmy, Deborah and Ava's agent, and Kayla, his assistant. Jimmy and Kayla ended last season with a breakup of their own — after years at Latitudes, Jimmy quit in the middle of a meeting and declared his intention to start his own management company — and a year later, they're still figuring out how to make things work.

Though Jimmy and Kayla previously existed on the fringes of Deborah and Ava's story, they're more integrated into the main narrative in Season 3, as their goals are now intensely "aligned" with those of the central duo. "There are ups and downs for them. You also get to see Kayla in more vulnerable moments. And Jimmy too," Downs told Vanity Fair. "You see more of the Hacks version of those two characters than we've seen in the past."

Beyond Christina Hendricks, Who's Joining the Hacks Cast?

Hacks is no stranger to memorable guest appearances — Laurie Metcalf won an Emmy for her performance as tour manager Weed in Season 2 — but this season, the creative team really flexes their muscles. Christina Hendricks, fresh off a dazzling turn in Apple TV+'s The Buccaneers, joins the cast as a conservative oil heiress and local TV maven who shares a steamy moment with Ava, as seen in the teaser and first-look photos. Deborah has a tryst of her own with a man played by Tony Goldwyn, though specific details about his character have not yet been announced.

Other Season 3 additions include Helen Hunt as a network boss who may or may not have a personal history with Deborah; Christopher Lloyd as the grandson of a silent film star; and Dan Bucatinsky and George Wallace in as-yet-unspecified roles. With so much going on around Deborah and Ava, returning players Marcus (Carl Clemons-Hopkins), the CEO of her empire, assistant Damien (Mark Indelicato), and housekeeper Josefina (Rose Abdoo) will have their hands full, but if anyone can wrangle the season's newcomers into submission, it's these three.

Here's Your First Look at the New Season of Hacks

Ahead of Hacks Season 3's festival premiere — the first two episodes screened at SXSW on March 9 — Max released a cache of first-look photos that tease what's to come for Deborah, Ava, and the rest of the ensemble. The images preview just how far outside their comfort zone the group gets in Season 3 (even if Ava seems to be living her best life in that frat basement).

The first teaser for Season 3, released March 1, also offers a glimpse of Deborah and Ava's reunion, the glamorous perks that come with Deborah's renewed success, and the surprising romances that develop over the course of the season:

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Claire Spellberg Lustig is the Senior Editor at Primetimer and a scholar of The View. Follow her on Twitter at @c_spellberg.