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The sequel’s creator, Jesse Armstrong, announced that the upcoming fourth season will be the final run of the show, according to an interview with the New Yorker.
When asked what led to his decision to end the Emmy-winning HBO drama, Armstrong replied, “I never thought this could go on forever. The ending was always somehow present in my head. Ever since season 2, I’ve been trying to think, is it the next one, or the one after, or the one after?”
The showrunner also said he felt torn about saying goodbye to the show. “I feel deeply conflicted. I’m enjoying this time that we’re editing — where the whole season is there — but we haven’t released it yet,” he said. “I like the interregnum.”
Describing his process in the writing room, Armstrong said he approached his team by “coming in with kind of a suggestion” and being “really open to alternative ways of doing things.”
“I met with a few of my fellow writers before we started writing Season 4 around November, December 2021 and I was like, ‘Look, I think maybe that should be it. But what do you think?” he explained. “And we went through different scenarios: we could do a couple of short seasons, or two more seasons. Or we could go on forever and turn the show into something completely different and be a more racy, freewheeling type of fun show that would have good weeks and bad weeks. Or we could do something more muscular and complete and kind of go out strong. And that was definitely always my preference.”
The new one comes ahead of Succession’s fourth season, which premieres March 26 on HBO. Season four will feature a handful of new cast members including Annabeth Gish, Adam Godley, Eili Harboe and Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson. The series’ main cast includes Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook, Kieran Culkin, Alan Ruck, Matthew Macfadyen and Nicholas Braun.
The series, which centers on the Roy family and their wild plans for patriarch Logan Roy’s media empire (and love), debuted in 2018 and has since won two Emmys for Best Drama Series.
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When discussing when to announce the end of the series, Armstrong said he didn’t want to wait until the final season aired. “We don’t hide the ball on the show very often,” he said. “I feel a responsibility to the viewers, and personally I wouldn’t like the feeling of, ‘Oh, that’s it, folks. That was the end of it.” I wouldn’t like that in a show. I think I’d like to know it’s coming to an end.”