Diksha Sundriyal
In HBO’s ‘War,’ the divorce of a tech billionaire and a film star turns into a war as both sides get more ruthless by the minute. The season begins with Carla Duval preparing to attend her film’s premiere while also setting the stage for a long-overdue split. While she tries to lay the groundwork without her husband, Morgan Henderson, knowing, he runs to his lawyers as soon as he gets wind of her plans. As the legal proceedings begin, it isn’t just about the couple anymore. The law firms representing them also have a lot at stake, which makes for a compelling drama. Created by George Kay, the legal drama maintains such a realistic tone that certain scenes seem pulled straight from real-life celebrity divorces, making the show even more interesting. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Idea for War Originated From a Real Incident
‘War’ is a fictional drama series created by George Kay. However, the kernel of the idea formed in his mind after witnessing the reaction of a woman whose divorce was finalized after 4-5 years of legal battle. The ‘Hijack‘ co-creator revealed that he had been on his way to the train when a woman in the queue behind him got a call, at the end of which she shouted, “Yes!” It turns out she and her husband had been trying to finalize their split, which dragged on for so long that its resolution breathed new life into her. Kay didn’t get more details about the woman or her divorce, but it did give him the idea for a legal drama, a genre he had long been trying to work in. He cited shows like ‘Ally McBeal’ and ‘The Good Wife,’ as well as other ’90s shows, as inspirations to try something in the legal genre.
A high-profile divorce seemed like the perfect place to start. Over the course of writing the series, he and the writers researched celebrity divorces, including those of Paul McCartney and Heather Mills and Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. Certain details of how things are handled in these situations informed several aspects of the series. For example, the first episode ends with Carla being served divorce papers while she is on the red carpet for her movie premiere. This refers to the infamous CinemaCon incident of 2022, in which Olivia Wilde was served custody papers regarding her children with her ex, Jason Sudeikis, while she was on stage to talk about her film, ‘Don’t Worry Darling.’
Kay confirmed that the real-life moment did influence the fictional scene. However, that is where the similarities to Wilde and Sudeikis, or to any other celebrity couple, end. He stated that while the initial idea was to go through every celebrity divorce to find such dramatic moments, it eventually made more sense to continue the story from the characters’ perspective. The writers considered things from Morgan and Carla’s points of view to develop their own ideas about how the fictional couple would act when pitted against each other. Apart from the couple, the law firms also play an integral role in the story, and to understand their workings, the writers consulted legal experts to advise them on the nature and course of legal proceedings in such cases.
The Actors Brought Depth and Nuance to the Characters
With the level of drama and conflict that unfolds on the page, George Kay knew that he needed actors of great caliber to pull off the complicated relationship between the protagonists. His first choice for Morgan was Dominic West, with whom he’d previously collaborated on ‘The Hour.’ Once West came on board, Kay wrote the rest of the script with the actor’s voice in his mind. Having been in the public spotlight for many years, ‘The Wire‘ star was excited to tackle that issue from the perspective of a tech billionaire. While he agreed that the character has inherent flaws, he wanted to make him a bit more likable to the audience without compromising his ruthlessness.
West listened to the podcast ‘Good Bad Billionaire’ to understand the possibility and the concept of a good billionaire. He described Morgan as a “benign” one who wants to do good in the world, but at the same time, exhibits the cold-bloodedness that made him so wealthy in the first place. When it came to the relationship between Morgan and Carla, he credited his decades-old friendship with Sienna Miller with bringing the familiarity needed between their characters. He and Miller talked a bit about what Morgan and Carla’s marriage would have been like before it found itself on the brink of divorce. But they let their chemistry do the rest. For Miller, playing an actress whose personal life is being examined under a microscope for the public’s pleasure was not an unfamiliar feeling.
Still, she noted that she and Carla function differently, which was interesting to explore. While her own experiences informed her understanding of the character, she played Carla as a unique person removed from herself. She did, however, endow the fictional actress’ wardrobe with her own fashion sensibilities. At the end of the day, the point of the story was to show that there are no heroes or villains in this conflict. The audience is not given a character to root for on a silver platter. Instead, we get to see the follies and struggles of both sides, and as more details come to light, rooting for one person becomes increasingly difficult, which is what makes this fictional drama so compelling.
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