The dark suspense that drives Succession, the hit HBO tale about a wealthy media dynasty, will have an extra twist of tension in the upcoming fourth series.
Its creator, the British writer Jesse Armstrong, has revealed that the episodes aired in March will be the show’s final outing, but he has also hinted that he is considering a spin-off drama that would follow one of the popular show’s Machiavellian central characters or bleak themes.
Armstrong might have some convincing to do, however. Whatever his fellow writers on the show decide, the boss of HBO, the powerful entertainment production house based in Los Angeles, believes a sequel would not “seem a natural thing”.
Speaking to the showbusiness journal Variety, Casey Bloys cast doubt on the prospects of a spin-off. “I don’t think so,” he said, adding, “It doesn’t seem to me that there’s something in Succession where you would go, ‘Let’s follow just this kid’ or whatever.”
Armstrong’s suggestion that he could go further with the show in a different format came after he revealed he was “conflicted” about his decision to terminate the seething machinations of the Roy family.
“I feel sad, and I have the circus-has-left-town feeling that everyone gets who works on a production that’s good, and this one particularly so,” he told The New Yorker last week. “I imagine I’ll be a little bit lonely, and wandering the streets of London in a funk.”
The writer, who established his talent in Britain as co-creator of the Channel 4 sitcom Peep Show, said he had known where the story should end from around the second series, but admits it is, in some ways, a “perverse decision” to pull the plug on such a successful drama.
“I’ve never thought this could go on forever. The end has always been kind of present in my mind,” he said. “But the feeling there could be something else in an allied world, or allied characters, or some of the same characters – that’s also strong in me. Maybe there’s another part of this world we could come back to, if there was an appetite?”
Bloys has indicated he has not conclusively ruled out the prospect of a new show. “I always say ‘never say never’ ,” he told Variety. If Armstrong were keen, he explained he would give him a fair hearing. The possibility of airing a Game of Thrones prequel has already broken a pattern for HBO and was initially unpopular, Bloys said. “I had some people internally saying, ‘This is crazy. What are you doing?’”
Armstrong’s decision to wave goodbye to Succession was motivated, he said, by his fear of disappointing his audience. “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. I know they do when I’m watching other people’s shows, even ones I admire and like,” he explained.
