Creator reveals real-life billionaires who inspired the new mob in Only Murders in the Building

So, the podcasters are back, and this season of Only Murders in the Building brings plenty of new faces, including three of New York’s newest “mob bosses,” who were actually inspired by real-life billionaires.

The new season follows Mabel, Charles and Oliver as they investigate the shocking death of Lester, the Arconia’s beloved doorman. Their search for answers soon brings them face-to-face with three mega-rich suspects. They’re wealthy, powerful and, naturally, highly suspicious.

Now, showrunner John Hoffman has revealed that the trio were inspired by real-life billionaires. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, he said, “Unfortunately, many of those billionaires are litigious. So I’m also nervous to hit too close to home.”

Renée Zellweger as Camila White

Zellweger plays Camila White, a tastemaker in New York’s high society who built her fortune through design and hospitality. Hoffman has hinted she’s loosely inspired by none other than Martha Stewart.

Explaining the connection, he said, “You can fill in the blank. I mean, I will only say that, apparently, Martha Stewart bought an apartment in the actual Belnord [building], where we [film] our Arconia on the Upper West Side, last year. So she was a tiny bit of inspiration that way. And I hope she gets the joke of the fun of it, because Camila White is a very different person in many ways.”

Christoph Waltz as Bash Steeg

Then there’s Christoph Waltz as Bash Steeg, a billionaire tech wizard with an obsession for immortality. Hoffman said he was written with a “wink wink” at certain industry pioneers.

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“[He’s] a person interested in extending his own life as long as he possibly can. And it makes the trio wonder [about] this big mystery secondary to the big mystery, ‘How old is Bash Steeg?’” he explained.

People on Reddit have linked Bash Steeg to Peter Thiel, the PayPal co-founder who invests heavily in anti-ageing research. And Bryan Johnson, the biohacker known for extreme routines to reverse his biological age. There’s even a touch of Elon Musk energy, because what’s a billionaire satire without some A.I. references?

In the show, Bash’s age itself becomes part of the mystery. Characters begin to wonder if he’s secretly been alive for more than a century. Creepy.

Logan Lerman as Jay Pflug

Finally, Logan Lerman plays Jay Pflug, a young nepo baby with more money than sense.

Hoffman explained, “Jay is the son of a very, very wealthy, wealthy, wealthy family, well-known in New York. They were Pflug Faucets until they became Pflug Pharma, I’ll let Richard Kind explain that joke.”

Jay’s family fortune comes from the fictional “Pflug Pharma,” which according to the Daily Mail, many believe is a parody of Pfizer. Although Pfizer hasn’t been run by its founding family for decades, the name “Pflug” feels like a playful nod to both Pfizer and Price Pfister. Either way, Jay is portrayed as the ultimate privileged heir, the sort you’d love to hate at a Manhattan cocktail party.

So, there’s just enough reality behind these characters to make them feel familiar, while still being ridiculous enough to fit into the comedy.

As for who the killer is this season? That’s still hard to tell. But honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out to be Jay.

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