Sticking the landing. Succession viewers were shocked to see Logan Roy (Brian Cox) killed off three episodes into season 4 — but the HBO show’s cast showed their support for the twist.
In an episode which aired on Sunday, April 9, Connor Roy’s (Alan Ruck) wedding to Willa (Justine Lupe) is the last thing on people’s minds when Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen) breaks the news to Roman Roy (Kieran Culkin), Shiv Roy (Sarah Snook) and Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong) that their dad died aboard his private jet.
Cox, 76, revealed that he knew about his character’s fate as they were preparing to film season 4. “[Creator Jesse Armstrong] called me, and he said, ‘Logan’s going to die,’” the actor told The New York Times on Sunday. “And I thought, ‘Oh, that’s fine.’ I thought he would die in about episode seven or eight, but episode three, I thought ‘Well that’s a bit early.’”
The Scotland native, who brought the role to life since Succession premiered in 2018, praised Armstrong, 52, for his decision to end the show.
“The problem with a lot of television, particularly American television, is it goes past its sell-by date,” he detailed to NYT. “And the great thing about Jesse and the writers is they wouldn’t do that. Always leave the party when it’s at its height, not when it’s going down.”
After winning a Golden Globe for his performance as Logan, Cox admitted he was worried he would spoil details about his character’s ending.
“It was hard to keep a secret all that time. It was a long time,” he told Vulture shortly after the episode aired. “When did I die? God, I think it was last July. I’m very proud of myself because I’ve never been able to keep secrets, and this is one secret I actually did rather well on.”
The Braveheart star also joked that perhaps viewers have not seen the last of Logan, adding, “That’s why I think there was a very strong contention and very strong reason to think that maybe he’s not dead at all. Maybe it’s all a ruse! If you think about it, the last image is a body bag. Anybody could be in that body bag. There’s a possibility.”
Ahead of Logan’s onscreen death, Cox hinted at his plans after his role on Succession comes to an end.
“You sometimes get [from people], ‘Well, I’m gonna take the summer off.’ And I’m going, ‘What the hell does that mean taking this summer off? What do you mean you’re gonna take the summer off?’ You know? ‘Well, I feel I wanna …’ ‘Why? You’re a long time dead. You don’t need to take the summer off,’” he exclusively told Us Weekly in February. “I don’t understand the concept of not working. I’ve done that all my life. I’ve always worked. And it’s something that I will continue to do until I drop. I work and I just enjoy the work. And I find it fun, I learn a lot. I always learn and you learn from people. I’m a workaholic. That’s my problem.”
Meanwhile, Armstrong broke down what led to him killing Logan off so early in the final season.
“There’s a couple of factors that play into where Logan’s death falls in in our narrative trajectory. One is sort of like, ‘Oh, maybe it will surprise people,’” the executive producer explained in a behind-the-scenes video after the episode. “I think much more prominent was the feeling that if we’re gonna do this, we just don’t want to see people crying and then have a funeral and then be done with the show. We want to see how a death of someone significant rebounds around a family.”
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Scroll down to see how the Succession cast reacted to Logan’s onscreen demise:
