By the time “Succession” Season 3 debuts on HBO, it’ll be pretty much two full years since the finale of Season 2. Of course, the huge delay didn’t have anything to do with creative strife or behind-the-scenes drama. Instead, “Succession,” much like every other TV series and film that was meant to shoot in 2020, was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But even though many series are now including COVID as part of their revised stories, the Emmy-winning HBO series isn’t going down that road, and there’s a sad truth behind why “Succession” is doing so.
Speaking to Vulture, Sarah Snook, one of the incredible actors in the “Succession” ensemble cast, talked about the effect COVID had on the series. And while it definitely did cause delays in filming and the eventual Season 3 release, viewers aren’t going to find COVID playing a big part in the new season. In fact, the folks creating “Succession” didn’t do rewrites on the scripts to include mask-wearing or anything like that. Why? Well, the unfortunate truth of the pandemic is that the virus affects people differently based on income status. People without money are getting hit much harder than the uber-wealthy, and that’s just a sad reality.
“These are really wealthy people,” said Snook. “And unfortunately, none of the world’s really wealthy people were going to be affected by the pandemic.”
And if you stop to think about how COVID might play a role in the lives of the Roy Family, it doesn’t really mean much. No one in the family is going to lose their job because of layoffs related to lockdowns. No one is going to be scared to see a doctor due to the fear of a huge hospital bill. And while you can maybe point to some of the Roy Family as not the smartest folks in the world, it’s highly unlikely their political opinions are going to be swayed by some half-assed meme that is shared on Facebook. With all that in mind, having COVID play a role in the new season might feel a bit forced.
Of course, there are also folks that enjoy when series skip past the COVID thing and provide a bit of an escape from the daily drama surrounding the deadly virus. So, in that sense, “Succession” might still be the nice escapist fantasy for many of its viewers when it returns to HBO sometime in October.