‘Succession’ to end with season 4, creator confirms
‘I’ve never thought this could go on forever. The end has always been kind of present in my mind,’ creator Jesse Armstrong said
HBO drama Succession will end with season 4, it has been announced.
Back in June 2022, it was revealed that season 4 of the Emmy-winning black comedy-drama, about a family’s fight for control of a global media company, was officially underway.
However, creator and showrunner Jesse Armstrong has now announced that the upcoming new season will be the last.
“You know, there’s a promise in the title of Succession,” Armstrong told the New Yorker. “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?”
He continued: “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.”
He weighed up the idea of doing a “couple of short seasons” or two more seasons, adding: “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.’
Armstrong went on: “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.”
He added that reluctance to prematurely declare that season four was the last was due to the occasional emergence of “plot avenues, character dynamics” which have “demanded we follow them”.
‘Succession’ – which stars the likes of Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook and Kieran Culkin – has been met with huge critical acclaim since debuting in 2018, winning Outstanding Drama at the 2022 Emmy Awards in September for the second year in a row.
Season 4 of Succession will air on Sky Atlantic and NOW in the UK on March 27.