Succession’s creator, Jesse Armstrong, has announced that season four will be the last season of the show.
The news has shaken fans around the world who thought they had much more time with their favourite characters.
There seem to be numerous storylines left to tell and dozens of feuds still to battle out. Plus, fans would happily watch the four Roy children, heirs to global media conglomerate Waystar RoyCo, fight over their billion-dollar inheritance for at least a couple more years, if not decades.
Fans turned online to share their distress – and some hilarious memes.
One fan Tweeted: “I am grieving, i am mourning, i am in pain, i am ill over succession ending i don’t know how i’m ever recovering from this. kendall roy you will always be famous. gregory hirsch you are forever my baby girl. shiv roy you are my favourite evil ginger. logan roy i f**king hate you.”
Succession ending after season 4 pic.twitter.com/yzW8E3vhra
— Nick Sculley (@sculls_6) February 24, 2023
WHAT DO YOU MEAN SUCCESSION IS ENDING WITH SEASON 4 pic.twitter.com/lvI2rUy0BP
— jules (@ariistosachaion) February 24, 2023
succession is ending after season 4 pic.twitter.com/LJmgvALCOO
— elise | sarah snook’s emmy campaign (@bisexualcrises) February 24, 2023
Succession ending after season 4 this is my 911 pic.twitter.com/2yAcHz6ViB
— Bob (@tweetsbybob_) February 24, 2023
Speaking to The New Yorker, Armstrong explained the decision: “I’ve never thought this could go on forever. The end has always been kind of present in my mind. 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?
“I went into the writing room for Season 4 sort of saying, ‘I think this is what we’re doing, but let’s also keep it open.’ I like operating the writing room by coming in with a sort of proposition, and then being genuinely open to alternative ways of going.
“And the decision to end solidified through the writing and even when we started filming: I said to the cast, “I’m not a hundred per cent sure, but I think this is it.”
The news has also led some fans to believe that Logan (Brian Cox), the patriarch of The Roy Family, will almost certainly die in the fourth season: “So I guess the big Succession season 4 question is ... at what point in the season does Logan die? Mid way? Two eps from the end? Episode one?” one fan Tweeted.
Another said: “Realizing at some point in the next few months we might see logan roy kick the bucket.”
realizing at some point in the next few months we might see logan roy kick the bucket pic.twitter.com/R04vm7sfBz
— technicolor dreams (@screwbaIled) February 24, 2023
The news rather changes the way that people will watch the new season, which will premiere on HBO Max and Now on March 26. Now the focus, more than ever, will be on who will, once and for all, take the reigns of the media empire – and what the future of Waystar RoyCo will look like.
Speaking to The New Yorker, Armstrong said: “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. That’s nice, but it’s also a responsibility in the end—it feels quite perverse to stop doing it.”
