HBO’s hit series “Succession” will come to an end with the upcoming fourth season that’s set to debut on the network in March…
The Roy family saga will come to an end sooner than expected.
On Friday, “Succession” creator Jesse Armstrong announced that the hit HBO series, which has taken home 13 Emmys while being nominated for 49 overall, will conclude with the upcoming fourth and final season that’s set to debut on March 26.
Armstrong had previously teased that he expected “Succession” to finish with four or five seasons but it’s still a surprise given that the show is already set to return in March yet no previous announcement had been made that the series was coming to an end.
According to Armstrong, he wrestled with the idea about when to announce that “Succession” would end with season 4 but ultimately decided that he owed it to the audience to confirm the news rather than let all the episodes play out and then suddenly say it’s over.
“There are a few different aspects,” Armstrong explained to The New Yorker. “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.
“And, also, there’s a bunch of prosaic things, like it might be weird for me and the cast as we do interviews. It’s pretty definitively the end, so then it just might be uncomfortable having to sort of dissemble like a politician for ages about it. Hopefully, the show is against bullshit, and I wouldn’t like to be bullshitting anyone when I was talking about it.”
As far as the timing goes, Armstrong says that the decision to end “Succession” really came down to the storytelling that was happening in the writer’s room as they were preparing episodes for the upcoming season.
Armstrong had always been adamant that he didn’t want “Succession” to carry on past its expiration date or just continue doing season after season because the ratings were good.
“You know, there’s a promise in the title of “Succession.” I’ve never thought this could go on forever,” Armstrong said. “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 percent sure, but I think this is it.” Because I didn’t want to bullshit them, either.”
Despite his hesitation to say the show was ending, Armstrong felt closure when the season was finishing with production, which allowed him to decide the fourth season would be the last.
When it comes to the narrative ending, Armstrong admits that he didn’t always have an exact finale in his mind until he started working on season 2 but then he was able to see a clear cut way that he wanted to end the show, which is what will unfold during “Succession” season 4.
“I think, growing from about Season 2, I started to know where I thought it should end,” Armstrong said. “I don’t keep that secret because that’s what the writing room is there for: to test the ideas out.
“The show is an artifice—you are making up the story. And yet there are certain ideas which feel organic and some which feel inorganic, and I guess the writing-room process for me is a great way of making a piece of artifice feel organic to us, and to myself.”
When “Succession” season 3 ended, Logan Roy had once again gotten the best of his children despite three of them teaming up to stop him from trying to sell Waystar-Royco to a tech developer named Lukas Matsson. The plot to overthrow their father was spoiled when Shiv’s husband Tom decided to turn against his wife and tell Logan exactly what his children were planning.
Now as “Succession” season 4 begins, Logan is still trying to finalize the sell while Kendall, Shiv and Roman are doing everything possible to stop him and maintain their own futures with the company.
The fourth and final season of “Succession” will debut on HBO on March 26 with new episodes following every Sunday night at 9 p.m. ET/ PT.
