Yahoo News Why Succession is ending with season 4 - and what's happening next
Succession spoilers ahead.
Logan Roy is about to yell "f**k off" for one final time as it's been confirmed the upcoming season four will be Succession's last.
The news hasn't come as a total shock – with creator Jesse Armstrong and the cast hinting as much for months – but still, the confirmation felt as much of a punch in the gut as the one Kendall, Shiv and Roman felt in the bitter season-three finale.
But while we wait for the next/final episodes to arrive, it seems that all is not lost, with opportunities for this uber-privileged world to expand beyond the walls of Waystar Royco.
So, what exactly is going on? Here's everything you need to know as we prepare to say goodbye to the Roys.
Why is Succession ending with season 4?
Succession has always been a show that, just like media mogul Logan Roy (Brian Cox), was wanting to go out on its own terms.
Since the end of season three, it's been suggested season four might be the set of episodes to finish off this tale. Co-creator Jesse Armstrong heavily implied in October 2022, ahead of writing season four, he was considering winding Succession down, though stopped short of saying it.
Brian Cox himself added in an interview with The Times: "I don’t know. No one’s had their contracts renewed. Who knows how long it will go on? We don’t want it to overstay its welcome, like [Showtime’s] Billions; that’s past its sell-by date. That will not happen with our show."
And in an interview with GQ, Jeremy Strong – who plays heir apparent/fallen-from-grace second son Kendall – swerved the question completely, simply stating: "It will feel like a death, in a way," when the series finally ends.
On February 24 2023, a month before the show returned to screens, Armstrong officially pulled the plug on the series in an interview with the New Yorker. Even then, he admitted he was worried about making that decision, not knowing if ending the series was the right one.
"I got together with a few of my fellow writers before we started the writing of season four, in about November, December 2021, and I sort of said, 'Look, I think this maybe should be it. But what do you think?'," he explained.
"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."
What are the chances of Succession spin-offs?
This is where it gets tricky, because the odds of a Succession spin-off differs depending on who you speak to – even within the higher execs of network HBO, who will be making the final decision.
Casey Bloys, HBO content CEO, said in February he didn't think it would happen, saying bluntly (via Variety): "I don’t think so" before quickly adding: "I always say 'never say never'."
Comparing the idea of a Succession spin-off to that of they're recent juggernaut House Of The Dragon, Bloys argued it wouldn't be as simple a transfer.
"When we started talking about doing a Thrones prequel that was something that HBO had historically never done," he explained. "I had some people internally saying, ‘This is crazy. What are you doing?’ That said, I think that there’s something about the universe that George created that lent itself to [spin-offs]. There’s a huge history, a lot of different families, a lot of different wars and battles.
"It doesn’t seem to me that there’s something in Succession where you would go, ‘Let’s follow just this kid’ or whatever. It doesn’t seem like a natural thing to me. But if [creator Jesse Armstrong] said I want to do this, then I would follow Jesse’s lead."
But in Armstrong's New Yorker interview, the writer and creator suggested he wasn't completely over his time within the Waystar Royco world – and hinted there may even be ideas in the pipeline.
"I think there's some pain in all these characters that's really strong," he said. "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 way we've worked on this. So that is another true feeling."
With this in mind, the final decision is really anyone's guess, with the finale of Succession as we know it (and more importantly, the fan reaction) playing a major part in what could become of the show's future.
Succession season 4 starts March 26, 2023. It will air on HBO in the US, and Sky Atlantic and NOW in the UK.
You Might Also Like
