HBO‘s “Succession” ends later this month, and creator Jesse Armstrong wants to pull out all the stops for the series finale. IndieWire (via Variety) reports that the show’s composer, Nicolas Britell, leaked how long the show’s final episode will be—and it’s the length of a feature film. “It’s 90 minutes,” Britell said to Varietyu. “It’s a huge episode — like a movie.”
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How’s that for a sendoff? Moreover, “The Menu” director Mark Mylod, who’s also an executive producer on “Succession,” will helm the finale episode. The 90-minute finale will culminate whether or not the Roys (Kieran Culkin‘s Roman, Jeremy Strong‘s Kendall, and Sarah Snook‘s Shiv) will achieve the potential buyout of their family’s media company Waystar Royco to Alexander Skarsgård‘s Lukas Matsson following the death of their father, Brian Cox‘s Logan Roy. Logan’s death in episode 3 of this season was a viral news story in itself, so expect Armstrong to have even bigger surprises in the finale.
It’s been a whirlwind year for “Succession” fans ever since Armstrong announced in a New Yorker interview that the show’s fourth season would be its last. Armstrong’s reasoning? He wanted the series to go out on a high note and not overstay its welcome. “I got together with a few of my fellow writers before we started the writing of Season 4, in about November, December, 2021, and I sort of said, ‘Look, I think this maybe should be it. But what do you think?'” Armstrong said. “And we played out various scenarios: We could do a couple of short seasons, or two more seasons. Or we could go on for ages and turn the show into something rather different, and be a more rangy, freewheeling kind of fun show, where there would be good weeks and bad weeks. Or we could do something a bit more muscular and complete, and go out sort of strong. And that was definitely always my preference.”
How does the “Succession” cast feel about the show’s abrupt ending? Brian Cox couldn’t care less, but Jeremy Strong told EW it led to an exciting challenge as an actor, reminiscent of a “double black diamond” ski slope. “Certainly, there’s an awareness on the periphery that this is it, but in a way there’s no room for that,” Strong said. “You can’t both be saying goodbye to a television show and be doing what you need to do at the same time — or I can’t. I will say that the final episode, the culmination of everything, where Jesse really brings everything to its crisis, was like a double black diamond to go down. That’s what you want as an actor, and so that was incredibly fulfilling.”
“Succession” first premiered on HBO in 2018, and its first three seasons racked up 48 Emmy nominations and 13 wins; not too shabby. But now the show ends for good on May 28. Is this really it for the world of “Succession”? For this particular story, yes, but Armstrong hasn’t ruled out a spinoff of sorts. “I have caveated the end of the show, when I’ve talked to some of my collaborators, like: Maybe there’s another part of this world we could come back to, if there was an appetite?,” said Armstrong. “Maybe there’s something else that could be done, that harnessed what’s been good about the way we’ve worked on this. So that is another true feeling.”
In any case, “Succession” ends on May 28, when the series’ final episode premieres on HBO. Now the question is: how many Emmys will this season swipe up?