The creators of HBO and BBC‘s Industry wanted to cast Jennifer Jason Leigh as Harper Stern’s mother before ultimately cutting her from the script, they’ve revealed.
- READ MORE: The ending of ‘Industry’ season four explained: Did Harper manage to win the battle against Tender?
Harper, played by Myha’la, hasn’t often discussed her childhood across the financial thriller’s four seasons, but it’s made clear that her mother was abusive, causing conflict between Harper and her twin brother, JD, and continuing to have a hold over the character in adulthood.
However, her mother remained off-screen, giving creators Mickey Down and Konrad Kay the question of who to cast when she would make a physical appearance.
Speaking on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast, Kay explained, “We were really worried about casting the actress, [and] what it would mean to put them on screen together. It would almost be you’re filling in too many gaps.”
They said that they’d considered Leigh to be the right actress for the role, before coming to the conclusion that it would make more sense never to show the character on-screen.
“I think the actual haziness of [not showing Harper’s mom] gave Myha’la more to play,” Kay added. “It makes it more universal.”
Keeping the relationship off-screen led to the moment in the fourth season, which aired earlier this year, in which Harper finds out that her mother has died. The character keeps trying to bring down the payment processing startup Tender rather than stop and make plans to go home for the funeral.
And Harper’s first time trying to forge a real relationship arrived when she tells Kwabena Bannerman (Toheeb Jimoh) about the death of her mother.
Down argues that the effect Harper’s mother has on her wouldn’t have been the same had they cast her physically. “It allows the audience to project whatever she was like onto the character,” he said. “I don’t think, honestly, we would be able to cast it in a way — it is a weird thing to say — that would do the character justice, because she’s such a huge presence in Harper’s life without ever seeing her. I think it would just undercut the power of it.”
Season four of Industry premiered on January 11 with one new episode of the show arriving each week before it wrapped up on March 1. It made NME’s list of shows to look forward to in 2026, describing the show’s weekly rollout as “a sure sign that Industry’s stock is still rising.”
Season four received rave reviews from critics. It received a five-star review from The Guardian, who noted that after the show “hit its stride” in its third season, “season four is even better, truly top-tier television that’s surely destined for end-of-year lists, a serious feat when we’re barely a week into January.” Other critics described it as “jaw-dropping” and “ambitious”.
Shortly before the fourth season ended, Down and Kay announced on social media that the show had been officially recommissioned for a fifth run of episodes.
IND5. https://t.co/NvotYs2e8kpic.twitter.com/yufJ3uh3Pl
— Konrad Kay (@konradmkay) February 25, 2026
While they wrote, “We’re privileged to have joined the small, esteemed club of dramas that have run for five seasons on HBO,” they also confirmed that the fifth season would be the last.
“For some time now we have been thinking about how best to end the show on an unparalleled high,” they said. “Unlike some of our characters, we know when to leave a party….We’d like to thank our evangelical fan base, especially those who have watched from day one. Finally: we owe everything to our crew and the best cast on TV for making our writing live. The characters will live on because of their world-class performances.”
There’s no release date yet, but there’s been a new season roughly once every two years or just under, so season five could arrive at the end of 2027 or in 2028.
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