The next season of Succession will be the last

Weeks out from its release, creator Jesse Armstrong says he wants the Emmy-winning series’ ending to be ‘muscular and complete’.

Brian Cox in Succession, which will end following its fourth season. Picture: HBO.

Succession creator Jesse Armstrong has confirmed that the next season HBO’s smash-hit drama will be the last.

In an interview with The New Yorker, Armstrong said that season four of the Emmy-winning show, which will debut in March, is “pretty definitively the end”.

Ahead of penning season four, Armstrong said that he got together with his writing team and workshopped several scenarios for the future of the series. There were suggestions of doing a few short seasons, or two proper seasons before the team settled on calling it a day.

British screenwriter Jesse Armstrong accepts the award for Outstanding Drama Series for Succession at the 74th Emmy Awards. Picture: AFP

He said that he was toying with the idea of turning “the show into something rather different, a more rangy, freewheeling kind of fun show, where there would be good weeks and bad weeks”.

“Or we could just do something a bit more muscular and complete, and go out sort of strong. And that was definitely always my preference.”

The decision to end the show, Armstrong said, was “tortured”.

“There’s a promise in the title of Succession. I’ve never thought this could go on forever. The end has always been kind of present in my mind.”

Armstrong said that he felt a “responsibility to the viewership” to reveal that the show would end before season four aired. “We don’t hide the ball very much on the show.”

“The show is against bulls..t, and I wouldn’t like to be bulls..ting anyone when I was talking about it.”

Australian actor Sarah Snook in Succession. Picture: HBO

Though, he admitted he liked the idea, creatively, of announcing it at the end of the season. “Because then the audience is just able to enjoy everything as it comes, without trying to figure things out, or perceiving things in a certain way once they know it’s the final season.”

He said that he feels “deeply conflicted” and “sad” about the show ending. “I have the circus-has-left-town feeling that everyone gets who works on a production that’s good, and this one particularly so,” he added.

“I imagine I’ll be a little bit lonely, and wandering the streets of London in a funk, and wondering, ‘What the f– did I do?’”

Brian Cox in a scene from Succession. Picture: HBO

Succession, which stars Adelaide actor Sarah Snook, Brian Cox, Kieran Culkin, Jeremy Strong, Alan Ruck, Matthew McFayden, Nicholas Braun, and J. Smith-Cameron, has won 13 Emmy Awards, and five Golden Globes.

A logline for the next season hints that audiences will see the sale of Waystar Royco to Alexander Skarsgard’s tech visionary Lukas Matsson, promising “existential angst and familial division among the Roys as they anticipate what their lives will look like once the deal is completed.”

Succession season four will begin streaming on March 27 on Binge.