“Succession”: Jeremy Strong hints at big Kendall win and “tragedy” to come

Succession has always known how to surprise its audience, and the first episode of Season 4 certainly helped set the stage for the show’s dramatic conclusion.

The HBO drama premiered on Sunday, March 26 and saw the Roy siblings execute the first stage of their new plan to exert dominance over their father Logan (Brian Cox).

Succession Season 3 ended on a dramatic note, with Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Shiv (Sarah Snook) and Roman (Kieran Culkin) deciding to veto their father Logan’s sale of Waystar RoyCo to Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård), only for their plans to be thwarted by Shiv’s husband Tom (Matthew Macfadyen), who revealed the plot to Logan.

In Season 4, they are united against their father and have created a brand new venture titled The Hundred that they plan to launch as a counter to his media empire. Logan, meanwhile, is working toward closing the deal for Waystar RoyCo.

Strong told Newsweek some of what is in store for his character in the explosive final season, and teased there was “tragedy” waiting in the wings.

Warning: This article contains some spoilers for Succession Season 4 Episode 1.

Jeremy Strong Hints at Big Kendall Win and ‘Tragedy’ to Come

Kendall Roy is a complex character. His ambitions are high but he too often stumbles at the first hurdle, is plagued by doubt and will even implode before he is able to succeed. Strong reflected on this aspect of the character.

“[He’s] interesting, but also frustrating,” the actor said. “To feel so continually thwarted, thwarted by circumstances and also sort of thwarted by self-sabotage or by missing the mark somehow.

“Isn’t there like a song, who’s that song by? ‘Please, please, please let me get what I want this time’…The Smiths. Sometimes I’m like, ‘please, let him get what he wants this time.’

“But, also I think part of what this final season is about, for me, is almost the tragedy of getting what you want and realizing that it doesn’t solve anything or fill the hole.”

Though Strong did not specify exactly what Kendall gets, the first episode sees the Roy siblings work tirelessly to outbid their father in an acquisition of Pierce Global Media (PGM) from Nan Pierce (Cherry Jones).

In a battle of wills the children try to predict how much they can afford to pay the Pierce family for the media conglomerate, while also trying to go above any number that their father might have suggested in his original deal with PGM.

In the end, the siblings are successful in making a deal with Pierce, and Logan is left furious and mockingly congratulates them on “saying the biggest number.” How the acquisition might impact the Roy siblings’ plans will likely be seen in future episodes of the final season.

When asked if Kendall might be too broken a person to enjoy his dreams even if he is able to achieve them, Strong reflected: “Maybe, yeah. I don’t know that he’s any more of a broken person than most people, and I don’t know that people’s dreams satisfy most people, I think it’s illusory.

“But I do think that Kendall is sort of too far, he’s crossed too many of his own moral and ethical lines and lost [himself]. He’s sort of bled out parts of his humanity in order to get where he wants to go, so that by the time he gets there this slow leakage of his soul [has happened], I’m not sure what’s left of him in order to enjoy it.”

Succession Season 4 airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max.