*WARNING: Succession season four spoilers below*
When Logan Roy was killed off in the most recent episode of season four, viewers of Succession were completely taken aback. It turns out that actor Brian Cox had a lot to do with that.
In the brutal HBO Max drama, in which he costarred with Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook, Kieran Culkin, Matthew Macfadyen, Alan Rusk, and Nicholas Braun, the 76-year-old played the father of the Roy family to perfection.
Logan passed away on his private jet while en route to Sweden in the most recent episode, which was shown in the US on Sunday night. His heartbroken children were left with no choice but to say their final goodbyes over the phone in heartbreaking moments.
Many people were horrified when it was revealed that the character had actually attended a funeral while it was being filmed, implying that someone else had actually died in place. Brian had come up with this idea.
When asked in a recent interview with Deadline if he was “totally out” of Succession, he smiled and said, “I mean, I did really turn up for the funeral.
‘On my funeral day, they were going to do a scene with me, a fake scene with me at the church, so, just to throw people off the scent.’
In the end, there wasn’t enough time to shoot the scene in question, so show producers told the Churchill actor who was headed to the set that he didn’t need to arrive any longer.
‘And I said, I do. And they said, what? I said, I’m coming in. They said, yeah, but we’re not doing the scene. I said, look, I’m coming in, because I know there’s going to be a whole lot of paparazzi there, and they’re going to be wondering what that funeral is. I am coming in,’ he recalled.
‘So, I said to my driver, I said, Joe, let’s go, we’re going. So, and as soon as I got out of the car, there were paparazzi shooting me left, right and center, and therefore, they thought, Logan’s at the funeral, what is he doing?
‘If I hadn’t done that, if I hadn’t come, they would’ve gone, it’s Logan’s funeral. And I was the one who took that responsibility. They didn’t even think of it. They were so rushed, and so much [of] this last season was very difficult to film.’
Could you imagine a more Logan Roy story and do we want one?
Just before season four’s production began, Brian was notified that his character would pass away; Jesse Armstrong, the show’s creator, said the third episode would be his last.
Speaking to Vulture about the weight of that secret, he said: ‘Once I’m gone, I’m gone. It was hard to keep a secret all that time. It was a long time. When did I die? God, I think it was last July.
‘From one sense, it is [a relief]. I’m very proud of myself because I’ve never been able to keep secrets and this is one secret I actually did rather well on.’
Pouring cold water on thoughts of a ‘goodbye’ moment with the cast, he added: ‘I do pop back and I have a couple scenes later on, which is flashback stuff. But I didn’t really see the cast very much.
‘I suppose the last big thing we did together was a retake of the karaoke. There, Logan really says, to me, the truest line in the show: “I love you, but you’re not serious people.”’
Succession airs on HBO Max on Sundays in the US, and is available to stream on NOW in the UK.