HBO’s “Succession” came to an end after four years on Sunday night, and with it came the reveal of the inevitable question that has been circling since the beginning – who will take over Waystar Royco?
SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE “SUCCESSION” FINALE
The title itself suggested one of the three adult children would take control of the media conglomerate from Brian Cox’s late patriarch Roy. Would it be Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Shiv (Sarah Snook) or Roman (Kieran Culkin)?
Ultimately though, thanks to a decision by Shiv, the company is now owned by GoJo CEO Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård), who anoints Shiv’s husband Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen) as Waystar Royco’s CEO.
In a new featurette in the wake of the finale, series creator Jesse Armstrong says Tom was a natural choice for the position:
“The idea of Tom being the eventual successor, that had been something that I thought was the right ending for quite a while now. 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.”
He then goes on to talk about the three siblings and how though they will carry on, this is the point where the “show loses interest in them” as they’ve “lost what they wanted, which was to succeed”.
Roman “ends up exactly where he started,” Shiv is still in the game albeit in a “rather terrifying, frozen emotionally barren place,” and for Kendall “, this will never stop being the central event of his life… I think that will mark his whole life.”
The finale also boasted a moment of levity as the trio put together a smoothie in their mother’s kitchen. In a podcast episode released after it, Jeremy Strong revealed he really drank that smoothie from the finale – a combination of milk, hot Tabasco sauce, bread crusts, Branston Pickle, raw eggs, cocoa powder, and Shiv’s spit.
The full four-season run of “Succession” is now available on Max.
