Brian Cox Opens Up About Not Watching Succession Finale

Jun 13, 2023

Brian Cox mused about avoiding the end of the show's final season, which hit fans with some serious twists.

The following article contains spoilers for the final season of HBO's Succession.

The series finale of HBO's landmark drama Succession made its atomic impact on its fanbase last Sunday, encapsulating what was an incredibly emotional and quite powerful fourth and final season. While the rest the world sat back and absorbed the dramatic twists that happened on-screen, the one that hit hardest was certainly the death of the iron-fisted patriarch Logan Roy. Brian Cox has since been heralded for his exceptional performance in the role, which won him a Golden Globe for Best Actor. While one would think that playing a role of such magnitude would tempt an actor to reflect on their work by watching the final product on screen, that actually is often not the case. During an interview with BBC, Cox revealed that he has not watched the fourth season since his character's death, for personal reasons.

Related: 10 Most Underrated Characters in Succession

Succession is a four-season long, dark comedy drama series from HBO that has since become of the network's most celebrated shows. Created and helmed by Jesse Armstrong, whose resume includes previous work on a variety of British television series, it garnered an immense fanbase that has loyally followed the drama-filled Roy family right up through its rollercoaster of an ending. The show starred a slew of A-list talent, including Brian Cox (The Independent), Hiam Abbass (Blade Runner 2049), Nicholas Braun (The Big Ugly), Kieran Culkin (No Sudden Move), Peter Friedman (The Marvelous Mrs Maisel), Matthew Macfayden (Ripper Street), Alan Ruck (The Dropout), Sarah Snook (Pieces of a Woman), Jeremy Strong (Masters of Sex), and more. The series has received numerous accolades for essentially every facet of its production, from the writing to the acting to sound design and overall examination of its subject matter. Actors including Cox, Macfayden, Snook, and Strong have all taken home various awards for Best Actor and Actress, while the show itself won for Best Television and Drama Series.

Despite all of its acclaim, lead performer Brian Cox has opted for a more reserved reflection of his time on the show, remarking to BBC that he "already knew how it was going to end" with Logan and the show as a whole, since his character had set everything in motion. He also went on to discuss how he was personally satisfied with the closure around his character's death, and that traditionally he simply doesn't like to watch himself on-screen.

"And somehow or other, because of what happened to Logan, I’ve been disinclined to watch the rest. … I gather that ultimately, in the end, Logan's won through — even though he's in the grave. But it's a strange situation. … I don't cling onto things. When I’m over, it's over, and I go on."

He also talked about his reaction to the fan response over the show's finale, and how he feels it all came to a justified end, with the rich no happier and in classic fashion having become victims of their own scheming and backstabbing.

"The rich are becoming so out of it. So separated. That's what our show is dealing with. And, rightly, they got their just desserts at the end. Apparently! I wasn't in the finale."

Above all, he showered praise on everyone involved with the series, and commemorated the impact it's had on modern television culture.

"We have now come to the end. And what has been, in my career, certainly the greatest work experience ever," he wrote. "The harmony between crew and cast was truly amazing. It was on it's [sic] way to become a great series but the love and commitment from crew to cast and writers, made it memorable. I would like to thank all of us in the making and creating of this show from the very bottom of my heart."

Brian Cox can soon be seen in upcoming features like horror-comedy film The Parenting, the Russo Bros' big budget Netflix project The Electric State, and is lending his voice to a character in the animated series The Lord of the Rings: The Lord of the Rohirrim.