Brian Cox Has Something to Say About That Major ‘Succession’ Plot Twist

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Published May 28, 2023

*Warning: Major spoilers ahead*

We imagine that millions of fans watched with their mouths agape when Logan, the Roy family's patriarch, suddenly died in episode three of Succession's fourth (and final) season.

The iconic character passed away while he was en route to Sweden on his private jet. But Brian Cox, who played the role, isn't totally on board with how things ended for the media mogul. During his interview with BBC News, he confirmed that it was show creator Jesse Armstrong's idea to kill off the character—but apparently, Cox is not totally sold on how things played out.

While chatting with BBC, he said, "[Jesse Armstrong] decided to make Logan die, I think ultimately too early."

He continued, "I mean, he'd made him die in the third episode. And it was a great scene. That's why I didn't watch it, because I have no interest in watching. My own death will come soon enough. But I just thought, 'wow', you know, he did it brilliantly. It was a brilliant scene, the whole act."

Macall B. Polay/HBO

As for his initial reaction to the news, Cox confessed that it felt like a "rejection." He said, "It was an odd feeling. I looked on it, wrongly, as a form of rejection. I was fine with it ultimately, but I did feel a little bit rejected. I felt a little bit, 'oh, all the work I've done. And finally, I'm going to end up as a New Yorker on a carpet of a plane.'"

However, he acknowledged that fans will have a deeper appreciation for Logan, now that he's gone. He told The New York Times, "The main protagonist is gone, and the kids are having to deal with it, or not. I think it’s going to be hard next week for a lot of the audience because they’re going to miss Logan. And I don’t think that’s a bad thing—I think that’s actually quite a good thing."

In the series, Roy's death came as a shock to the entire family, leaving the future of Waystar Royco hanging in the balance as his power-hungry children scrambled to control the narrative. Fans were equally stunned, given that the series offered no warnings about his impending death.

As it turns out, Armstrong chose to axe the character early in the season because he wanted to keep viewers on their toes. He said in a post-episode featurette, per Hollywood Life, “There’s a couple of sort of factors that play into where Logan’s death falls in our narrative trajectory. One is a sort of base one of like, ‘Oh, maybe it will surprise people.’ You know, I am not immune to such thoughts of wanting to keep the show exciting and fresh. I think much more prominent was the feeling that, if we’re going to do this, we don’t just want to see people crying and then have a funeral and be done with the show. We want to see how the death of someone significant rebounds around a family.”

Sounds like fans are in for quite an entertaining finale.

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Nakeisha Campbell

Associate Editor, News and Entertainment

Nakeisha has been interviewing celebrities and covering all things entertainment for over 8 years, but she has also written on a wide range of topics, like career...

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