Succession creator considered different endings for the series

Speaking to RadioTimes.com and other press, Armstrong said of the final episode: “I've had different pitches in the room for different endings. This [final] one we've talked about certainly since the previous season as something we might be heading towards.”

The official synopsis for the HBO drama's fourth season reads: "In season 4, the sale of media conglomerate Waystar Royco to tech visionary Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) moves ever closer.

"The prospect of this seismic sale provokes existential angst and familial division among the Roys as they anticipate what their lives will look like once the deal is complete.

"A power struggle ensues as the family weighs up a future where their cultural and political weight is severely curtailed."

While details about that fateful final episode are understandably being kept under wraps, we do know that fans can expect to be surprised.

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Speaking at the UK premiere for season 4 on Thursday (23rd March 2023), Armstrong said: "It’s a real team show so I discussed it with, especially, my fellow writers.

"I said, ‘I think this is it’ – but we were [also] like, ‘Maybe it isn’t,’ and tried to argue the other case. So it was a bit of a court: the prosecution being ‘This should be it’ and the defence being ‘Maybe there’s another way to squeeze some more out of it.'"

Armstrong continued: "But I think in the end, we just thought, when we looked at the different shapes, and when people see this season, I think you'll feel that it feels both hopefully a bit surprising, but also kind of natural. That's what we want, it [to] feel natural, the end of this season, when you see it, I think."

While fans were initially surprised at the news of this fourth season being Succession's last, Armstrong has stated that it was something he was considering earlier, stating: "I think, growing from about Season 2, I started to know where I thought it should end."

He told The New Yorker: "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.' Because I didn’t want to bulls**t them, either."

Additional reporting by Morgan Jeffery.

Succession returns on Monday 27th March at 9pm on Sky Atlantic and NOW – sign up for Sky TV here. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight.

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