When Konrad Kay and Mickey Down first wrote the character of Sir Henry Muck for “Industry” Season 3, they envisioned a very specific type of tech founder they’ve seen “millions of times” before. But it wasn’t until Kit Harington was cast in the role that Henry really came alive.
“He went from a two-dimensional character logline to the Henry Muck you have in the show,” Down told TheWrap.
“I spent a lot of my 20s and early 30s playing various forms of heroes, and I got a bit sick and tired of it. So I started saying no to those roles and yes to roles which are little more nuanced, not that the roles I’ve played in the past aren’t,” Harington told TheWrap. “I wouldn’t go as far as to say he’s a baddie or a villain. He’s just a complex, strange guy who’s a product of his environment.”
Henry, the CEO of a green tech energy company named Lumi, was originally written both to expand the scope of “Industry” and dive into what Down referred to as the trend of “delusional altruism” of some tech founders. To explore the world of ethical investment and clean energy, Down and Kay decided they actually wanted to explore a company instead of just talking about one on the trading room floor. Not only would that make their “dense and quite dialog-driven” show about the ins and outs of the financial world more accessible, but it would give them a chance to explore a specific kind of figure in the industry.
“We didn’t want him to feel like a sort of Elizabeth Holmes or Adam Neumann,” Down said, while noting that Henry does have a sort of “grift them” mentality.
“There’s a very particular kind of tech founder or entrepreneur in the U.K. who is immensely privileged, went to all the right schools, the right universities, has an MBA and has been afforded so much success and privilege, through connections and through all the things I mentioned, that they actually feel that they can’t really fail,” Down said. “When they do fail, it’s someone else’s problem. And when they succeed, it’s their win.”
Down and Kay wanted to explore both sides of this figure, both the ego that comes with their success and the massive expectations around them.
“What I was drawn to with him was this feeling of entitlement that he isn’t even aware of, that he can’t be aware of,” Harington said. “He sits within this sphere that he can’t see out of and doesn’t ever understand what it is to be outside of that.”
It was actually Harington who reached out to Down and Kay about joining Season 3. A fan of the show, the “Game of Thrones” star told the creators that he wanted to be part of this universe during a conversation the three had at his agency.
“Kit knocked it out the park. We were very lucky to have him, and he added a valence the character that wasn’t really on the page,” Kay told TheWrap.
“You go into the show with preconceptions about the character I think, because Kit’s playing him. You’re like, ‘OK, this is Jon Snow. This is how I imagined him to be.’ But then he does things that are so shocking, reprehensible in places, but always from place — I hope — of understanding,” Down said. “He brought so much vulnerability to him, which was on the page, but wasn’t really in the conception of the character as much as it was after we met Kit.”
Securing its biggest star to date isn’t the only exciting part of the new season of “Industry.” For the first time ever, the Monday night show moved to HBO’s coveted Sunday night slot.
“The fans of the show are evangelical, like the people who really love the show, love the show,” Down said. “The fact that it’s in the Sunday night 9 p.m. slot is huge testament to everybody who works on the show. We feel hugely privileged that HBO have that sort of confidence in the work.”
New episodes of “Industry” air Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and stream on Max.
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