Thursday, February 23, 2023

HBO's 'Succession' to End After 4 Seasons

Jesse Armstrong - the Emmy Award-winning creator and showrunner of HBO's Succession - has today announced via an interview with the New Yorker that the drama's upcoming fourth season will be its last.






Armstrong noted that "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?"

"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 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 where me and my close collaborators knew that this was probably it, or this was it, but hadn't had to face up to it in the world. It's been a difficult decision, because the collaborations - with the cast, with my fellow-writers, with Nick Britell and Mark Mylod and the other directors - they've just been so good. And I feel like I've done the best work I can do, working with them. And HBO has been generous and would probably have done more seasons, and they have been nice about saying, it's your decision. That's nice, but it's also a responsibility in the end - it feels quite perverse to stop doing it."

The drama stars Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook, Kieran Culkin, Alan Ruck, Matthew Macfadyen, Nicholas Braun, J. Smith-Cameron, Peter Friedman, David Rasche, Fisher Stevens, Hiam Abbass, Justine Lupe, Dagmara Domińczyk, Arian Moayed, Scott Nicholson, Zoë Winters, Annabelle Dexter-Jones, Juliana Canfield and Jeannie Berlin.

Armstrong executive produces with Adam McKay, Frank Rich, Kevin Messick, Jane Tranter, Mark Mylod, Tony Roche, Scott Ferguson, Jon Brown, Lucy Prebble, Will Tracy and Will Ferrell.

The fourth and now final season premieres Sunday, March 26 at 9/8c.