Damian Lewis exits Billions after five seasons: "Axe has been vanquished"

The New York Times

Lewis stepped down from his role as hedge-fund titan Bobby Axelrod -- one of TV's last great antiheroes -- with Sunday's Season 5 finale. “There’s an opportunity maybe for me to return,” Lewis told The New York Times. “But for now, broadly speaking, Axe has been vanquished.” Lewis, who previously spent three seasons starring on Showtime's Homeland, said the exit ends what amounts to “easily the most time I’ve spent playing one character." It also comes months after Lewis' wife, acclaimed actress Helen McCrory, died in April of cancer. Lewis filmed much of his final scenes remotely from England. "Over five seasons on the pulpy markets-and-machers drama, Axe embodied the culture’s often contradictory feelings about the superrich," The Times' Jeremy Egner says of Lewis' character. "A self-made, self-described capitalist monster, he shamelessly destroyed anything — careers, lives, entire towns — that got between him and his next billion. But he did so with enviable audacity and panache, with an equally alluring penthouse-and-private-jet lifestyle." Lewis adds: “When I’m walking down the street in New York, it’s: ‘Axe, you the man!’ He’s a really despicable human being, but no one seems to care.” Lewis also said goodbye via Twitter: "A pleasure and a privilege to play Axe for 5 seasons with some of the smartest, funniest most talented cast and crew I’ve worked with," he tweeted. "I’ll miss the Billions family. Yep, some jobs are more than just a job…. Love." Meanwhile, Billions co-creator Brian Koppelman tweeted his appreciation of Lewis: "What an incredible joy to spend five years working so closely with the great @lewis_damian! @DavidLevien and I are beyond grateful to you, Damian, for the work, of course, and the fellowship, and for all you sacrificed to come do this with us." ALSO: Showtime teases Billions Season 6, premiering Jan. 23, 2022.