Succession creator, Jesse Armstrong, has said that the show will end after its upcoming fourth season.
Armstrong confirmed that the hit HBO drama would end in a recent interview in the New Yorker magazine.
In the interview, Armstrong said that “In the interview, Armstrong said 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?”
He said that the decision to end the show after season four became solidified during the writing process of the upcoming series. “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.”
Armstrong admitted to feeling “conflicted” and “sad” about the decision “I have the circus-has-left-town feeling that everyone gets who works on a production that’s good, and this one particularly so. I imagine I’ll be a little bit lonely, and wandering the streets of London in a funk, and wondering, What the fuck did I do? I’ll probably be calling you up in about six months asking if people are ready for a reboot.”
He also left open the possibility of future spin offs from the Succession universe. “I do think that this succession story that we were telling is complete. This is the muscular season to exhaust all our reserves of interest, and I think there’s some pain in all these characters that’s really strong. But the feeling that there could be something else in an allied world, or allied characters, or some of the same characters—that’s also strong in me. I have caveated the end of the show, when I’ve talked to some of my collaborators, like: Maybe there’s another part of this world we could come back to, if there was an appetite? Maybe there’s something else that could be done, that harnessed what’s been good about the
Jon Creamer
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