Yahoo News Succession boss explains why show will end with season 4
Succession season 4 is going to be the comedy-drama's final outing, according to its creator Jesse Armstrong.
Satirising the super-rich through the squabbling media kings, the Roy family, this HBO series comes from Peep Show co-creator Armstrong and boasts a razor-sharp ensemble cast including the likes of Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook, Kieran Culkin, Hiam Abbass, Justine Lupe, Fisher Stevens, Matthew Macfayden, Nicholas Braun and J Smith-Cameron.
Ahead of its fourth run, which premieres in late March, Armstrong spoke to The New Yorker about the end of the road.
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"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," he said when asked about whether Succession will get a fifth season.
"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?"
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Armstrong, who previously hinted that Succession would end sooner rather than later, went on to further explain: "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?'
"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.
"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."
Armstrong added that during filming, he hadn't wanted to "definitively" confirm the show's end during filming, just in case they discovered "plot avenues [or] character dynamics, which have demanded we follow them".
He said that he had not wanted "to definitively close off the possibility of that happening this season – at least until it got weird to not say, O.K., I think this really is it."
Succession returns for season 4 on March 26, airing on HBO in the US, and on March 27 on Sky Atlantic and NOW in the UK.
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