Following hints that his sequence was approaching a conclusion, Succession creator and showrunner Jesse Armstrong confirmed on Thursday that his HBO hit will finish with its upcoming fourth season. “It’s fairly definitively the top,” the five-time Emmy winner instructed The New Yorker. “We may have stated it on the finish of the season…however, additionally, the countervailing thought is that we don’t cover the ball very a lot on the present. I really feel a accountability to the viewership.”
Succession, which examines the murky energy dynamics between a strong ageing media mogul and the grownup youngsters angling to hold on his legacy, has developed into one in all HBO’s most profitable sequence since its bow on the community in 2018. Armstrong has gone undefeated within the drama writing Emmy class, taking that trophy for every of the primary three seasons, whereas the present itself has received the highest excellent drama sequence prize for its final two seasons. HBO reported that the season three finale delivered a series-high viewers of 1.7 million amongst same-day viewers, and that common episodic viewership was up greater than 50% over season two.
“I’ve by no means thought this might go on perpetually. The tip has at all times been sort of current in my thoughts. From Season 2, I’ve been attempting to assume: Is it the following one, or the one after that, or is it the one after that?” Armstrong instructed The New Yorker of his resolution to finish the present. “We may do a few brief seasons, or two extra seasons. Or we may go on for ages and switch the present into one thing slightly totally different, and be a extra rangy, freewheeling sort of enjoyable present, the place there could be good weeks and unhealthy weeks. Or we may do one thing a bit extra muscular and full, and exit kind of robust. And that was positively at all times my choice.” Of whether or not he may change his thoughts and proceed the present, Armstrong added, “this succession story that we have been telling is full…however the feeling that there may very well be one thing else in an allied world, or allied characters, or a number of the similar characters—that’s additionally robust in me.”
The third season constructed to siblings Kendall (Jeremy Robust), Shiv (Sarah Snook), and Roman (Kieran Culkin) overcoming longstanding rivalries by banding collectively to try to oust their father, Logan (Brian Cox), just for the plan to be spoiled by Shiv’s husband, Tom (Matthew MacFadyen). The finale ends with Logan as soon as once more on prime. “Logan is regularly expressing his need for this kind of imperial or monarchical—I’m attempting to keep away from the phrase ‘succession,’ however—succession,” Armstrong stated of the patriarch’s mindset going into season 4. “And on the similar time, as a human being, he desperately needs to win. That features profitable over these folks he sees earlier than him, to whom he needs to present energy and affect. He needs them to have the ability to inherit it. He’s a superb vessel for that paradox.”
The fourth season will start on a party for Logan, simply because the sequence premiere did. The plot for the place this ultimate stretch of episodes may go stays firmly below wraps in any other case, although Armstrong did inform The New Yorker there could also be some potential to remain on this world past no matter conclusion he reaches. “Perhaps there’s one other a part of this world we may come again to, if there was an urge for food?” he stated. “Perhaps there’s one thing else that may very well be finished, that harnessed what’s been good about the best way we’ve labored on this.” For these already in mourning, we are able to solely hope.
Succession’s fourth and ultimate season premieres March 26 on HBO.
