Succession's Creator Feels 'Deeply Conflicted' Over The Series Coming To An End

Whether we like it or not, "Succession" is coming to an end after only four seasons on the air. Fans have not been shy about voicing their mixed opinions online about the decision, which was made chiefly by series creator Jesse Armstrong, but how does Armstrong himself feel about his beloved brain-child coming to such an early conclusion, and why did he choose to go out on such a tremendous high?

The first time Armstrong proposed ending the show in its fourth season, he was hoping that the other writers might convince him to keep it going for another season — to offer new directions for the story to go.

"The word that comes to mind for me is 'natural.' I hope people, when they see this season, will feel that it has a natural shape to it," Armstrong explained to Variety back in March. "That's how I pitched it to my writers' room, kind of hoping I'd get argued out of it so we'd see a way to do more seasons because I love working with these people. I think there's a feeling of completeness and rightness to the shape of the show."

It was important to Armstrong and the other writers that the storylines of each character came to an organic conclusion rather than overstaying their welcome on-screen for the sake of basking in their popularity. Despite this level-headed reasoning, the series creator still has some doubts about his controversial call to conclude the series.

"So I do feel conflicted about [saying goodbye]," he revealed to The New Yorker. "And I feel sad, and I have the circus-has-left-town feeling that everyone gets who works on a production that's good, and this one particularly so."

Armstrong went back and forth about ending the series many times before making the official announcement to the press. "It's been a bit tortured," he admitted to The New Yorker. However, he always knew that the series had to end sooner rather than later.

"You know, there's a promise in the title of 'Succession,'" the series creator pointed out. "I've never thought this could go on forever. The end has always been kind of present in my mind. From season 2, I've been trying to think: Is it the next one, or the one after that, or is it the one after that?"

Despite his firm decision to quit, Armstrong found it undeniably difficult to say goodbye. The showrunner hasn't totally rejected the idea of returning to these beloved characters — in fact, he almost anticipates it.

"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?'" he said. "I'll probably be calling [The New Yorker] up in about six months asking if people are ready for a reboot."

Armstrong doesn't take full responsibility for ending the series. He insists that it started as an open-ended possibility that he explored with his fellow writers before eventually deciding that a succinct fourth season was the best conclusion for the show.

"I went into the writing room for season 4 sort of saying, 'I think this is what we're doing, but let's also keep it open,'" Armstrong recalled. "I like operating the writing room by coming in with a sort of proposition and then being genuinely open to alternative ways of going. And the decision to end solidified through the writing [...]"

When he eventually broke the news to the cast that "Succession" was coming to an end, Armstrong couldn't help but leave a foot in the door for the future of the series. "[...] even when we started filming: I said to the cast, 'I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I think this is it,'" he admitted. "Because I didn't want to bulls*** them, either." 

The cast was notified of Armstrong's decision at the table read for the show's finale episode. "I was very upset," lead actress Sarah Snook recalled in an interview with The Los Angeles Times. "I felt a huge sense of loss, disappointment, and sadness. It would have been nice to know at the beginning of the season, but I also understand not being told until the end because there was still a potential that maybe this wasn't going to be the end."

Like any good professional, Snook was able to put her feelings aside and trust in Armstrong's creative intuition. She could also see the practical side to his call — it's always better to go out on a high than to overstay your welcome. "Emotionally, all of us weren't necessarily ready to be done with the show because we love each other so much," she conceded. "But everything has to come to an end, and it's smart not to let something become a parody of itself."

A lot of Snook's cast mates shared her sentiments, including her on-screen half-sibling Alan Ruck. "I think our writers have definitely sent everyone off in the appropriate manner. I do," he told Collider. Still, the actor couldn't help but admit that he would have signed on to play the eldest Roy son for another season — and he suspects a lot of his co-stars feel the same way. "If Jesse had figured out a way to make it go five seasons, I would have liked to have gone five," Ruck revealed. "I would have, and I think we all feel that way, for a lot of different reasons."

Apparently, Armstrong suggested some off-the-cuff ideas for a fifth season that were enough to make Ruck's TV brother Kieran Culkin perk his ears up. "Jesse described to me the whole season before we shot," the actor recounted to Vanity Fair. "I asked him one question and when he answered it, I said, 'Well that sort of sounds like the end of the show.' He goes, 'Yeah, it does.' But then he just threw up three different ideas for a season five that he claimed were off the top of his head. I was like, 'I'm just speaking my speak my mind here. But those all sound like really awesome.'"

As for whether the ending will tie up all loose ends, Culkin says not to hold our breath. "It feels like an ending, but it also feels like there could be more," he said, ever so diplomatically. "So it made me understand his struggle. He struggled with it all season while we were shooting. He was like, 'Really? This is the end. But I'm not sure.' He didn't tell us [it was the last episode] until we did the table read for the last episode."

In the end, Armstrong decided that ending the show before its time was a risk he was willing to take. He was clearly more comfortable with killing the series early than keeping the show running past its, to use his choice word, "natural" expiration date.

"[I was] worried about going on too long. Not in a theoretical sense. I don't think there's like a perfect number of seasons for a show. It's bespoke, right? It's weird," the series creator told Kara Swisher, host of the Succession Podcast. "This show has a bunch of things that I think the dynamics could just go on and on and on and we'd enjoy writing them, but there is a business, cultural, political part to it — which, although it's not necessarily everyone's favorite element of the show — is the sort of heartbeat of it," he explained. "But if we try to extend the succession business stuff beyond its natural length I think people would start feeling like we were a bit of a zombie; that the body lived on but the heart had gone."

Despite several hints at a spin-off, the series creator has stated firmly that he doesn't think "any of [the characters] are right for an actual TV spin-off," per Deadline. While Armstrong did write off the idea of a full-on spin-off, he didn't rule out a film or a special episode ... right guys?

Whether or not he returns to the "Succession" characters, Armstrong sticks by his decision to end the series, even if he has mixed feelings about it. His actors understood this abrupt ending perfectly — it was in keeping with the nature of the show. "I think the show ends in a perfect 'Succession' fashion," Ruck explained to Collider. "I think it's very satisfying. I think it will also make people crazy. But that's what our show does."