Succession will officially cease after the next fourth season.
Jesse Armstrong, the creator of the HBO drama starring Brian Cox, Matthew Macfadyen, and Sarah Snook, has confessed that the show’s finale has always been ‘present’ in his mind, and he has been actively pondering when to end it since the second series.
He said: ‘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 two, I’ve been trying to think: Is it the next one, or the one after that, or is it the one after that?’
Jesse recommended ending the programme, which follows media billionaire Logan Roy (Brian) and his family’s battle for his legacy, before he and his colleagues even began scripting season four.
He told The New Yorker magazine: ‘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?”
‘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 four sort of saying, “I think this is what we’re doing, but let’s also keep it open.” ‘
Jesse adds that even when they started filming Season 4, he wasn’t “100% confident” that was it, and that it was a “tough choice” to finish Succession.
He added: ‘I feel deeply conflicted. I quite enjoy this period when we’re editing – where the whole season is there – but we haven’t put it out yet. I like the interregnum.
‘And I also quite liked the period when my close collaborators and I knew that this was probably it, or this was it, but hadn’t had to face up to it in the world.’
Jesse was praised as a “amazing talent” by Brian last year, although he revealed that he sometimes received his Succession scripts two days before filming.
He said: ‘Getting a script is like getting gold. I like to learn the lines.’
Succession returns to HBO Max in the US on March 26 and will land on and NOW in the UK on 27 March.