What now?
With the final episode of Succession now finished, many viewers still have a lot of questions about the fates of the Roy siblings and the surrounding characters.
With so many loose ends in the finale there are of course, multiple outcomes for pretty much all of the characters involved in the show.
Thankfully, series creator Jesse Armstrong has given us a small insight into what happens to Shiv, Roman and Kendall after the events of the finale. Speaking on an Inside the Episode video, Armstrong first told us why he chose Tom as the ultimate successor.
“The idea of Tom being the eventual successor, that had been something that I thought was the right ending for quite a while now,” Armstrong said.
“Even though he’s not exactly the most powerful monarch you’ll ever meet — his power comes from Matsson. Those figures that drift upwards and make themselves amenable to powerful people are around.
“I thought about all their stories. They don’t end, they will carry on. But it’s sort of where this show loses interest in them because they’ve lost what they wanted, which was to succeed — which, you know, was this prize that their father held out.”
But what about the siblings?
Roman
“In a reductive, brutal way, Roman ends up exactly where he started,” Armstrong said on the youngest Roy.
We last see Roman drinking at a bar by himself, a smile slowly etching on his face before turning into a more unsure expression.
“He is that guy still. And he maybe easily could have been a playboy jerk with some slightly nasty instincts, and some quite funny jokes. He could’ve stayed in a bar, being that guy. And this has been a bit of a detour in his life, I would say.”
Shiv
“Shiv is still in play, I’d say, in a rather terrifying, frozen emotionally barren place,” Armstrong said.
We last see Shiv riding off in a car with her hand awkwardly placed on top of Tom’s.
“But she has got this kind of non-victory, non-defeat. I mean, there’s gonna be some movement there. There’s still a lot of that game to play out, but that’s where we leave it. And it feels like it’s going to be hard to progress for them, emotionally, given the things they’ve said about each other.”
Kendall
As for the main man himself, it’s a bleak outlook.
“For Kendall, this will never stop being the central event of his life, the central days of his life, central couple of years of his life,” Armstrong continued.
“Maybe he could go on and start a company, or do a thing. But the chances of him achieving the sort of corporate status that his dad achieved are very low. And I think that will mark his whole life.”
“It’s done.” pic.twitter.com/oFBevOPqs1
— Succession (@succession) May 29, 2023
For any fans thinking they may get a spinoff or two anytime soon, the outlook for that seems as hopeless as Kendall’s future.
HBO’s head of drama Francesca Orsi said that they currently had “no intention” for any upcoming spinoffs.
“No, not at this point now. I know there was some talk about spinoffs, but no, not at all. I’ll never say never but my instinct and based on a number of conversations about the evolution of Succession and these characters, at this stage, there is no intention of spinning any one character off.”
You can check out the full Inside the Episode clip below.
Related articles:
- Brian Cox says Succession plot twist came ‘too early’
- HBO’s The Money starring Brendan Gleeson could haven been the original Succession
- James Cromwell praises Succession writers amid ongoing strikes
- Succession director reveals how they kept big character’s death secret
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