‘Succession’ Coming to an End With Season 4
Succession has undergone one of the most successful award-winning streaks in television history, practically sweeping the Emmys with each of its three seasons. Now, with the fourth one coming out in a month, the series’ showrunner Jesse Armstrong has confirmed this will be the last ride with the Roy family.
It happened in an interview with The New Yorker, and even the writer was surprised about the timing of the announcement. The series was confirmed by the network to be heading into a fourth season back when the third premiered in October of 2021, and Brian Cox, the show’s lead, back then said there wouldn’t be more than one or two seasons. He also said last September that, while he didn’t know if the fourth season would be the last, the cast’s contracts hadn’t been renewed yet.
Casey Bloys, head of the network, has repeatedly said that it is up to Jesse Armstrong to end the story on his terms, and it looks like this is exactly what he’s doing. He didn’t want to announce this was the case from the beginning, but he also didn’t want to wait until the season was over to say “That was it!”, as he explained:
“There are a few different aspects. One, we could have said it as soon as I sort of decided, almost when we were writing it, which I think would be weird and perverse. We could have said it at the end of the season. I quite like that idea, creatively, because then the audience is just able to enjoy everything as it comes, without trying to figure things out, or perceiving things in a certain way once they know it’s the final season. But, also, the countervailing thought is that we don’t hide the ball very much on the show. I feel a responsibility to the viewership, and I personally wouldn’t like the feeling of, ‘Oh, that’s it, guys. That was the end.’ I wouldn’t like that in a show. I think I would like to know it is coming to an end.”
He then added that the ending of the season will feel like a definitive end to the series. He went on to explain how he knew this had to be the end for the story, and it looks like it came pretty organically to him, but also teasing that the series will end by delivering on the promise set by the pilot episode — choosing the heir to Waystar Royco:
“It’s been a bit tortured, and I felt unexpectedly nervous about talking to you, because it’s all theoretical until this point, and I have tried to keep it theoretical for a whole number of reasons. Who knows about the psychological reasons, but the creative ones were that it felt really useful to not make the final, final decision for ages. You know, there’s a promise in the title of ‘Succession.’ I’ve never thought this could go on forever. The end has always been kind of present in my mind. From Season 2, I’ve been trying to think: Is it the next one, or the one after that, or is it the one after that?
I got together with a few of my fellow-writers before we started the writing of Season 4, in about November, December 2021, and I sort of said, ‘Look, I think this maybe should be it. But what do you think?’ And we played out various scenarios: We could do a couple of short seasons, or two more seasons. Or we could go on for ages and turn the show into something rather different, and be a more rangy, freewheeling kind of fun show, where there would be good weeks and bad weeks. Or we could do something a bit more muscular and complete, and go out sort of strong. And that was definitely always my preference. I went into the writing room for Season 4 sort of saying, ‘I think this is what we’re doing, but let’s also keep it open.’ I like operating the writing room by coming in with a sort of proposition, and then being genuinely open to alternative ways of going. And the decision to end solidified through the writing and even when we started filming: I said to the cast, ‘I’m not a hundred per cent sure, but I think this is it.’ Because I didn’t want to bullshit them, either.”
It seems like he hasn’t fully wrapped his head around the idea that this will be the end, and yet, the show will clearly conclude with the tenth episode of the season. He also added that he started to have the idea of where the show would end when doing season 2, and it seems like that vision has come to fruition.
We will learn all about it when Succession season 4 airs, starting on March 26. Stay tuned!
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
