The creator of Only Murders in the Building has revealed the new season’s billionaire characters are inspired by prominent, real-life public figures.
The fifth season of the hit Disney+ show follows truecrime podcasters-turned-sleuths Mabel (Selena Gomez), Charles (Steve Martin), and Oliver (Martin Short) as they investigate the death of their building The Arconia’s beloved doorman Lester (Teddy Coluca).
Lester met a tragic end in season four after his bloody body was found in the courtyard fountain at the New York apartment complex where the series is set, with the murder-solving trio now racing against time to unmask his killer.
Their investigation will put them in the path of three mega-wealthy people as new characters played by Renee Zellweger, Christoph Waltz, and Logan Lerman are introduced to viewers in episode one.
Ahead of the release of season five, the series’ showrunner John Hoffman told Entertainment Weekly that they are all based loosely on real billionaires.
While Hoffman doesn’t explicitly name the ‘litigious’ moguls that inspired the trio’s characters, he dropped a few clues that have led to people speculating about their identities.
‘Unfortunately,any of those billionaires are litigious, so I’m also nervous to hit too close to home,’ Hoffman quipped. ‘But there are some well-known people who are interested in longevity [of human life].
‘There’s some well-known people who are interested in design and boutique hotels in Manhattan, and tastemakers that have risen above the fold.
Bridget Jones star Renee Zellweger (above) joins the cast as Camila White, a Manhattan billionaire and influential high society ‘tastemaker’ who is a prominent figure in the hospitality industry
‘And then the others are the sort of extended family of longtime money – there’s many examples of all of that. And then there’s the technology wizards and AI advancement and things like that,’ he teased.
Bridget Jones star Renee plays Camila White, a Manhattan billionaire and influential high society ‘tastemaker’ who is a prominent figure in the hospitality industry.
Hoffman seemingly confirmed that Camila is loosely based on lifestyle guru Martha Stewart when he told the publication that she has a connection with the show.
She reportedly bought an apartment in the impressive, 1906 building – The Belnord – that depicts the Arconia in the series, as Hoffman said: ‘[Martha] was a tiny bit of inspiration in that way.’
However, he cautioned viewers, Renee’s Camila White is also a ‘very different person’ to the media personality ‘in many ways’.
Oscar winner Christoph’s tech genius billionaire character is a ‘little wink wink’ at several industry pioneers, he said.
However, it is Bash Steeg’s quest for immortality that has linked him to figures like ex-PayPal CEO Peter Thiel and mind-mapping firm Kernel’s former CEO Bryan Johnson.
Hoffman described him as a character ‘interested in extending his own life as long as he possibly can’, with his age becoming a ‘big mystery’ in itself.
Oscar winner Christoph’s tech genius billionaire character Bash Steeg has been written with a ‘little wink wink’ at several industry pioneers, showrunner John Hoffman teased
Rounding out the cast of the eccentric billionaires that feature prominently on the latest season of Only Murders in the Building is Logan, who plays nepo baby Jay Pflug (above)
While billionaire tech investor Thiel has backed the Methuselah Foundation that undertakes anti-ageing research in the hope of making ’90 the new 50 by 2030′, biohacker Johnson is notorious for his quest to reverse his age.
Rounding out the cast of the eccentric billionaires that feature prominently on the latest season of Only Murders in the Building is Logan, who plays nepo baby Jay Pflug.
For his latest project, the Perks of Being a Wallflower star plays the ‘son of a very, very wealthy, wealthy, wealthy family, well-known in New York’, Hoffman told Entertainment Weekly.
He dropped another clue about Jay’s real-life inspiration when Hoffman revealed the fictional Pflug family is a prominent player in the pharma industry – as fans guessed the surname was a play on Pfizer – pharmaceutical giant that developed one of the Covid vaccines.
After his interview was published, fans of the hilarious whodunnit took to Reddit to share their best guesses of who Hoffman based these characters on.
‘Jay Pflug is a parody to the German-American Pharma Company Pfizer,’ one person wrote. ‘He is the son of a very wealthy pharmacy family with German background.’
Another guessed the ‘billionaire into life extension’ was Peter Thiel, while a third suggested he is likely to be a ‘Thiel/Musk parody given his age’.
One message read: ‘So Waltz is definitely Peter Thiel (likely with some Elon Musk thrown in I bet) while Lerman is a descendant of the Pfizer family(?)’
Several users pointed out that Pfizer is not controlled by a single family; the firm was founded by Charles Pfizer, a German who immigrated to America in 1849, and his cousin Charles Erhart.
During its early years, the business was run out of a building in Brooklyn.
According to its website, Charles’ youngest son Emile was the last member of the family to be actively involved with the company in his role as president from 1906 to 1941.
Writing on Reddit, one person said: [Jay’s surname is] Probably a play on Price Pfister and Pfizer, though I don’t think there is any relation other than the Pf prefix on the founder’s names.’
The first three episodes of Only Murders in the Building are currently streaming on Disney+ in the UK.
