It almost wasn’t the end.
The fourth and final season of ‘Succession’ wrapped up on March 28 with the revelation that Tom Wambsgans (Matthew MacFayden) — not Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong) — would be Waystar Royco’s new CEO in the wake of the death of Logan Roy (Brian Cox).
But the highly acclaimed series almost continued.
In a new interview in Variety, “Succession” star Kieran Culkin tells fellow actor and longtime friend Claire Danes that the show’s creator, Jesse Armstrong, considered doing additional seasons.
He “pitched an amazing fifth season and then another and another,” seemingly off the top of his head, Culkin said of Armstrong.
And, as the fourth season was being filmed, Armstrong kept the stars guessing as to whether the show would go on.
“There were some of us that were so sure that there was not going to be another season,” Culkin told Danes.
“Sarah Snook [who played Shiv Roy], the entire time, until the very end was like, ‘There’s going to be a fifth season.’ And had very clear ideas on what it was. And it was after the table read for the final episode, he told us.”
Culkin said it felt like the show’s natural end.
“[Armstrong] explained the entire season to me,” he said. “And then when he got to the end, I said, ‘Well, that seems like that’s the end of the show.’ And he goes, ‘Yeah, it does, doesn’t it?'”
Despite having ideas for more seasons, Culkin said Armstrong “felt like the story was complete.”
Strong recently revealed an alternate ending he considered for the show.
The final scene found him in Battery Park, but he told Vanity Fair he considered having his character jump into the frigid river, potentially ending his life.
“I begged [Armstrong and director Mark Mylod], ‘Can we go to the water? I want to keep walking.’” he said.
“We ended up at the bitter end of Battery Park, facing the water. I’d never seen waves like that in the East River. It felt biblical.”
