After five award-winning years, HBO’s hit show “Succession” will come to a close with season 4, writer and creator Jesse Armstrong has said. In an interview published Thursday, Armstrong told The New Yorker: “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,” he added. “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?”
In its satirical portrayal of the uber-rich Roy family battling for control as their patriarch ages, “Succession” has won 13 Emmys and inspired countless memes.
Armstrong admitted he felt conflicted about ending the show after four seasons, a decision HBO allowed him to make.
“It’s been a difficult decision,” he said, “because the collaborations – with the cast, with my fellow-writers, with (composer) Nick Britell and Mark Mylod and the other directors – they’ve just been so good.” As the writers’ room gathered in late 2021 to map out the latest season and even as filming began, Armstrong was still not set on ending the show after four seasons, he told the New Yorker. “I sort of said, ‘Look, I think this maybe should be it. But what do you think?’ And we played out various scenarios,” he recalled.
“We could do a few short seasons, or two more seasons. Or we could go on for years, and turn the show into something much more rangy, freewheeling, and fun, with good and bad weeks.” We could also go out with a lot of muscle, and go out with a lot of punch. And that’s always been my preference.”
Despite deciding to end “Succession,” Armstrong did not rule out returning to “another part of this world,” with “allied characters, or some of the same characters,” if demand arose. “Maybe there’s something else we can do that harnesses what has been good about the way we worked on this,” he said. On March 26, HBO and HBO Max will air its final season.
