Succession.Photo: HBO
Warning: This article contains spoilers for season 4, episode 3 ofSuccession.
During the third episode of the show’s fourth and final season, media tycoon Logan Roy met his maker, dying from heart failure on a private jet en route to broker a business deal in Sweden while his children attended their brother Connor’s wedding.
It was a move that didn’t surprise actorBrian Cox, who played Logan, noting that the show’s title makes his death an inevitable part of the series because “you need something to succeed from.”
“It’s about succession. You need a corpse,” Cox, 76, told Vulture, explaining that the show’s creator Jesse Armstrong told him about his character’s fate before they started filming season 4. “If it was a different kind of show, it could have gone into a more mysterious frame —Is Logan dead?That kind of stuff. But I think Jesse realized it had to be the way it had to be, and he made the decision to do that.”
He went on to say that he’s glad he didn’t spoil the news of Logan’s death before the episode aired.
“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,” Cox said. “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.”
Brian Cox in ‘Succession’.Macall Polay/HBO
Though his character is dead, Cox told the outlet that he will appear in other episodes this season — though it seems he didn’t film those scenes withAlan Ruck,Jeremy Strong,Sarah SnookandKieran Culkin, who play his four kids.
“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,” said Cox.
And though Logan can easily be viewed as the villain of the series, Cox has far more affection for the fictional magnate. “He’s a very mysterious character in many ways. I have a lot of empathy for him. I think he’s very misunderstood,” Cox said to Vulture. “I think he’s a tragic figure, very much in the tradition of those tragic kings of Shakespeare.”
Successionpremiered on HBO in 2018 and follows the Roy family as they prepare for the next phase of their media conglomerate, Waystar RoyCo, amid Logan’s declining health. The series also stars J. Smith Cameron,Nicholas BraunandMatthew Macfadyen.
The cast of ‘Succession’ at the season 4 premiere.Taylor Hill/FilmMagic
Over the course of its first three seasons,Successionhas won multipleGolden Globes, Primetime Emmys andSAG Awards.
Creator Armstrong revealed the news thatthe fourth season would be the show’s lastin an interview with theNew Yorkerin February. He explained at the time, “There’s a promise in the title ofSuccession. 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?’ " Armstrong continued. “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.”
Armstrong added: “The ending needs to work on its own merits … I hope that no one ever thinks that we are outstaying our welcome—that we’re going to do a dud season or be stretching it out. I hope those concerns never occur to people.”
Jeremy Strong and Brian Cox on ‘Succession’.Craig Blankenhorn/HBO
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For his part, Cox agreed with the decision to end the show.
Successionairs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.
source: people.com
