Jesse Armstrong wanted to argue about the abolition of succession

When Jesse Armstrong announced that “Succession” would end with Season 4, it shocked TV fans around the world — and his own cast and crew. While Armstrong and his creative team have been intentionally ambiguous about their plans to end the show, it’s always hard to believe that anyone would willingly give up on making the biggest show on television until it happens.

But that’s exactly what Armstrong did, and the final season of his hit corporate satire premieres tonight on HBO. The show seems to be ending on a high note as reviews of the final season have been overwhelmingly positive. But ending the series after four carefully crafted seasons wasn’t always the plan.

In a recent interview SpeciesArmstrong revealed that he considered changing his mind until the last minute.

“The word that comes to mind is ‘natural.’ I hope people, when they see this season, feel that there’s a natural form to it,” Armstrong said when asked about the series ending. “So I threw it into my writers room, hoping they would take the controversy out of me so we could see a way to do more seasons, because I love working with these people. I think there is a sense of completeness and correctness in the form of the performance.”

If someone had succeeded in getting Armstrong to tell more stories about the Roy family, they would have been welcome on HBO. Network president and CEO Casey Bloys recently revealed that he hopes the series’ acclaimed run will last a little longer.

“I would have taken on more, but in general, it’s the kind of thing that should be left up to the creator,” Bloys said at a recent panel. “When a show goes well, in this case Jesse felt it was the right ending. He knew the door was open and he could have done more if he felt it. But it’s an ideal situation where he decides to end it on his own terms, when he wants to, and tell the story he wants to… But if he had said I had two more seasons, I would have said okay, fine .

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