Succession Star Brian Cox Reveals the Extreme Measures the Series Took to Hide Season 4 Shocker

Spoiler Alert: Major Spoilers Ahead for Succession Season 4, Episode 3 “Connor’s Wedding”

Succession’s latest episode shocked fans of the HBO series. Though some may have considered Logan Roy’s death inevitable, having it occur less than halfway through the show’s fourth and final season was unexpected. In the new episode, titled “Connor’s Wedding,” Brian Cox’s Logan Roy dies while traveling on a private plane. Cox’s character doesn’t appear much in the episode. His death happens offscreen, and the audience is only shown glimpses of the character while flight attendants perform CPR on his body.

While appearing on Late Show With Stephen Colbert on Monday, Cox reflected on his character’s death and revealed the series’ extreme measures to ensure that Logan’s passing didn’t become public knowledge during filming.

Cox said, “I’m hopeless at keeping secrets. It was a triumph, an absolute triumph. I was very proud of myself. What happened was that they invented this scene that I would play at this church Uptown, very fancy, big Catholic [church].”

He continued, “I was on my way to film this scene, and I got the call saying, ‘Oh, we’re so behind and it’s a scene that will never be used — because it’s your funeral — so, don’t come.’ And I thought, ‘No, I better go.’ Because I know there’s going to be a lot of paparazzi there, and as sure as eggs, I went there and as soon as I got out of the car, they started clicking away. So immediately I was able to put off the fact that it was my funeral.”

Colbert stated that thanks to those images of Cox, the media never guessed that Logan might be the character that died.

RELATED: Brian Cox Reiterates His Thoughts on Method Acting: ‘Just Do the Job. Don’t Identify’

Succession Writer Georgia Pritchett Revealed That ‘Larry David’ Was Used as a Code Word

Similarly, Succession writer Georgia Pritchett revealed on Twitter that the writers’ room used “Larry David” as a code word while plotting out the character’s passing.

Pritchett wrote, “This was a tough secret to keep! We decided it in the #Succession writers’ room in Jan 22. So nobody found out we used code on the whiteboards. Larry David meant Logan Dies. So episode 403 said Connor’s Wedding, Larry David. Mind you, that would also have been a great episode.”

Likewise, while chatting about Logan’s death on HBO’s Succession podcast, Cox admitted that he was a little sad that his character’s exit happened so early in the final season. Still, he complimented Armstrong’s strong storytelling abilities.

Cox said, “I knew something would have to be done in order to complete the show. And I knew [Logan] would probably have to die. I didn’t quite expect it to happen as early as it did, but then we were locked into the fact that each episode is one day, which we haven’t done in the seasons before. So he dies on day three.”