HBO‘s Succession is getting a feature-length runtime for the show’s anticipated series finale. According to the show’s Emmy-winning composer, Nicholas Britell, the final episode of Jesse Armstrong’s intense drama is 90 minutes long.
“It’s 90 minutes,” Britell said in an interview on Wednesday. “It’s a huge episode — like a movie.”
Succession executive producer Mark Mylod directs the series finale, premiering on HBO on Sunday, May 28, during Memorial Day Weekend. The plot of the lengthy final episode remains a mystery, and fans looking forward to spinoffs shall go wanting. HBO chief Casey Bloys says there is no plan to continue the show or present a sister series. Given the impressive fan enthusiasm for the show, this status could change, but for now, there’s nothing in the works.
Contrary to Bloys’s statement, Armstrong teased that the world of Succession could return in another form if the interest is there. “I do think that this succession story that we were telling is complete,” Armstrong said. “This is the muscular season to exhaust all our reserves of interest…[but] I have caveated the end of the show, when I’ve talked to some of my collaborators, like: Maybe there’s another part of this world we could come back to, if there was an appetite? Maybe there’s something else that could be done, that harnessed what’s been good about the way we’ve worked on this. So that is another true feeling.”
The fourth and final season finds the sale of media conglomerate Waystar Royco to tech visionary Lukas Matsson moving ever closer. The prospect of this seismic sale provokes existential angst and familial division among the Roys as they anticipate what their lives will look like once the deal is complete. A power struggle ensues as the family weighs up a future where their cultural and political weight is severely curtailed.
Series creator Jesse Armstrong revealed in February that Succession would be coming to a close. “We could have [announced it] as soon as I sort of decided, almost when we were writing it, which I think would be weird and perverse,” Armstrong said. “We could have said it at the end of the season. I quite like that idea, creatively, because then the audience is just able to enjoy everything as it comes, without trying to figure things out, or perceiving things in a certain way once they know it’s the final season. I feel a responsibility to the viewership, and I personally wouldn’t like the feeling of, ‘Oh, that’s it, guys. That was the end.’ I wouldn’t like that in a show. I think I would like to know it is coming to an end.”
How do you feel about Succession coming to an end? Let us know in the comments.