Kieran Culkin, who plays Roman Roy on Succession, discusses the show’s scrapped season 5 and how creator Jesse Armstrong kept the cast guessing.
Succession star Kieran Culkin sheds light on the show’s scrapped season 5 plans. The Emmy-winning HBO hit ended on its own terms, dominating the online conversation and showing strength as it went into another awards season. The series finale also garnered glowing reviews, praising the dark comedy for staying true to itself until the last frame. Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Shiv (Sarah Snook), and Roman (Culkin) don’t end up in a positive place at the end, but there’s enough room for ambiguity that the conclusion will be discussed for years to come.
As part of Variety’s Actors on Actors series, Culkin sat down with Fleishman Is in Trouble’s Claire Danes. The two actors, who starred together in the 2002 dramedy Igby Goes Down, discussed their respective shows, and Culkin mentioned that Succession could have continued after season 4’s ending. Culkin talks about hearing “amazing” ideas for future stories from series creator Jessee Armstrong and how Armstrong had the cast guessing about the show’s future until the last table read. Read his full quote and video of the conversation with Danes below:
“Jesse Armstrong, our showrunner-writer, didn’t know. He told me before the season started that he thinks this is the end, but he doesn’t know. I’d actually stopped asking what was coming later. And that was the thing: I liked it. I liked not knowing! And then this year, he [Jesse] mentioned that it might be the end before we started shooting, so I started asking him questions. He told me what happens with Logan, and I asked him to break down everything. And he explained the entire season to me. And then when he got to the end, I said, ‘Well, that seems like that’s the end of the show.’ And he goes, ‘Yeah, it does, doesn’t it? Although …’ And then he just started talking about all these different ideas off the top of his head… he was like, ‘This is just off the top of my head.’ And then he just pitched an amazing fifth season and then another and another. He kept us guessing the whole time. There were some of us that were so sure that there was not going to be another season. Sarah Snook [Shiv], the entire time, until the very end was like, ‘There’s going to be a fifth season.’ And had very clear ideas on what it was. And it was after the table read for the final episode, he told us.”
Succession Could Have Continued (But It’s Good That It Didn’t)
Succession could have continued after season 4. One scenario could have seen Shiv with her estranged husband, Tom (Matthew Macfadyen), in a tenuous position of power, with Kendall trying to regroup and Roman staying out of the fray. However, those battles and their variations had begun to wear out. The series circumvented any backlash and decline due to the strength of its writing, performances, and directing, and it will be remembered most fondly for knowing when to end.
Even though HBO would have loved more Succession seasons, Armstrong recognized that he had to fulfill the promise of the title and bow out rather than continue the rivalries and faction wars until the point that the intrigue was lost. The series killed off Logan Roy (Brian Cox), showed how unready the siblings were to be leaders, and presented them at their most united and most broken. There’s an argument that there is nothing left for the show to explore.
Given the high bar that Succession set for itself and how it built its audience rather than losing viewers throughout its run, the show’s absence will be felt. But the series ended at the proper time to avoid intense discussions and debates if it did start to decline. Armstrong’s dramedy of the ultra-wealthy and influential has a chance to go down as one of the best shows of all time, an honor that’s helped by knowing when to end.
