Téa Leoni Joins ‘Only Murders In The Building’ For Season 5 As Co-Creator John Hoffman Teases Ideas From The Writers Room

SPOILERS: The below reveals major plot points from Hulu‘s Only Murders in the Building Season 4 finale.

Surprise! Téa Leoni (Madam President) has joined the cast of Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building for Season 5, sources close to production confirm to Deadline.

Leoni appears in the final minutes of the Season 4 finale as Sofia Caccimelio, wife of Nicky “The Neck” Caccimelio, a missing person with ties to the Caputo crime family mentioned previously in Episode 9 this season.

“I think she’s the great tease at the end of the finale and a little bit of an intriguing bump forward,” co-creator John Hoffman tells Deadline. “She’s an extension of the little news report in Episode 9 that Mabel makes note of at the hospital. [Sofia] is the wife of the Dry Cleaning King of Brooklyn, and maybe a couple of dry cleaning outlets in Manhattan, as well, we may come to know.”

He continued, “But beyond that, it’s a world opened up potentially that we haven’t talked about too much yet in New York, so she holds a lot of intrigue.”

Hoffman shared that he and Leoni have been texting for weeks. He said, “She is the best! We’ve had the best conversations about where she might go.” Last week when Hoffman spoke to Deadline, he said Leoni could potentially join the Season 5 cast but it had yet to be confirmed.

When asked if the Caccimelios are connected to anything from earlier seasons, Hoffman revealed, “I think there are references to what Oliver [Martin Short] said when he dealt with financing for his shows; so, yeah, there may be some crossover that way. Potentially, some danger could be involved in helping. There are some moves that might come in Season 5 that change the whole equation.”

He added about themes they’ve been playing with in the writers room, “We were talking earlier today about what’s New York right now. So there is a classic version of that, and then what does it look like today? That’s intriguing to me.”

The classic New York and today’s Big Apple as a theme for Season 5 makes sense, following the death of Lester the Doorman (Teddy Coluca), who no doubt has insight into the city and the building that goes back decades.

Season 4 of Only Murders in the Building is available to stream in its entirety right now.