As “Succession” winds down in its final season, it’s possible that not everyone will survive.
Brian Cox weighed in on his character’s mortality, recently telling Variety: “He’s getting on! He’s getting old. He’s tired — he’s very tired!”
Cox, 76, stars in the hit HBO drama as patriarch and business titan Logan Roy, whose children are constantly at odds over control of his media empire. He’s had health problems throughout the series. So, the fourth and final season would seem like an apt time for the show to kill him off.
At the end of Season 3, Logan alienated his adult kids Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Shiv (Sarah Snook) and Roman (Kieran Culkin) by selling his company to Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård). As a consequence of that choice, Season 4 opens with his birthday party, and Connor (Alan Ruck) is his only offspring who attends — a fact that clearly makes Logan unhappy.
“The moroseness is the fact that in a sense, he knows he’s failed in relationship to his children. He’s not a fool. He knows he’s failed. They haven’t stepped up to the plate; they haven’t stepped up to the mark,” Cox said. “And he knows it’s partly his fault. He understands that. He’s completely lost. He’s lost his wife, he’s lost his partner … He’s trying to think, ‘How do I reclaim my children? How do I get them back?’ “
For Cox, art imitates life, because he’s also had some harsh words about his on-screen son. Strong has made headlines for his method acting techniques, and Cox has repeatedly slammed his style, saying: “It’s f – – king annoying. Don’t get me going on it.”
For his part, Strong sounded unfazed about his on-screen dad’s criticisms.
“Everyone’s entitled to have their feelings,” he told British GQ. “I also think Brian Cox, for example, he’s earned the right to say whatever the f – – k he wants.”
But as Season 4 progresses, Logan might show more emotion than usual about his poor relationship with his kids, Cox said.
“The children have no consistency whatsoever. And that’s his sadness. When the kids aren’t around, he is very focused on who he is,” the Scottish actor told Variety. “And not in a good way. That’s really what the fourth series is about. Struggling to see how the children come back into the fold — or do they come back into the fold? So that’s really what is key for Logan, that he needs his kids because they are his kids and he loves them.
“If he didn’t love his children, it would be so much easier. But the fact that he loves his children is his Achilles heel. That’s his Achilles heel.”
Cox has previously stated that he’s “happy” the show is on its final season.
While he didn’t reveal if Logan will survive the end of the show, he said, “He doesn’t want to be doing the same old, same old again and again and again. He wants some kind of completion to what he does, and who he is. But of course, he’s not going to get it.”
“Succession” is currently airing Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO.