The revolution will be televised! **Contains spoilers for seasons one and two**
It’s been over two years since the wealthy and dysfunctional Roy family last aired their dirty rich laundry on our screens and thankfully, the wait for series three is almost over.
Arriving in October, season three is set to pick up from where the dramatic series two finale left off – with Kendall (Jeremy Strong) throwing his intimidating father Logan (Brian Cox) under the bus over Waystar RoyCo’s recently unveiled scandals involving their cruise lines – and if the new trailer is anything to go by, the upcoming episodes will be just as side-splitting, suspenseful and sweary as their predecessors.
HBO released a full-length first-look of Succession season three, featuring all our favourite Roys and brand new characters played by Alexander Skarsgård and Adrien Brody, who seem to channel billionaire business men incredibly well.
“When will your father die?” Skarsgård’s tech magnate Lukas Matsson asks a surprised Roman (Kieran Culkin). “With due respect. Obviously.”
The Emmy-winning comedy-drama, created by Peep Show’s Jesse Armstrong and executive produced by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, will see the likes of Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook and Matthew Macfadyen reprise their roles as the scheming Roy family – however, executive producer has revealed that there is a “good end in sight” for Succession.
Read on for everything you need to know about season three.
Succession season 3 release date
Succession’s third season will debut in the US on Sunday 17th October, before airing the following day on this side of the Atlantic. So UK fans can tune in on Sky Atlantic and NOW from Monday 18th October.
The news was announced in September 2021, a few weeks after an October premiere had been teased by the official Succession Twitter account.
Make Your Move. October 17. pic.twitter.com/KVIXGWSysz
— Succession (@succession) September 13, 2021
Filming on the series began in December last year, with Rachel Syme, a staff writer at The New Yorker, spotting production trucks in her neighbourhood.
J Cameron-Smith, who plays Gerri Kellman on the show, confirmed the good news, simply responding “Yes” to a fan who asked: “Awesome… are you back to filming season 3?”
Filming on season three wrapped on 21st July 2021, as revealed by camera assistant Cory Stambler.
It’s also been revealed that a fourth season has already been planned with the show’s writers using the lockdown to put the stories together. It is worth noting that HBO has not yet officially ordered the fourth run and it may be a case of waiting until this upcoming third season has launched before we hear any more of that front.
If you want to catch up on previous episodes of Succession, you can buy the DVD on Amazon now.
Succession season 3 trailer
HBO dropped a full-length trailer for Succession’s third season ahead of its premiere next month, featuring the Roy family now at war over Kendall’s series two finale bombshell.
In July, Sky shared the show’s first teaser trailer for series three, giving us all the Roy family drama we’ve been missing.
As for other teasers, HBO has been airing a three-second teaser for season three, showing Kendall revelling in the Waystar chaos and Logan yelling, “This is war!” October can’t come soon enough.
new teaser of jeremy in season three of succession during a new HBO / HBO Max tv commercial pic.twitter.com/PL9IFhjLl7
— best of jeremy strong (@archivestrong) June 28, 2021
Succession cast
!["Screen]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2019/08/Screen-Shot-2019-08-21-at-10.25.54-d00676f.png?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"Screen")
Succession would be nothing without its ensemble of players, both major and minor. Lead stars Brian Cox (Logan), Jeremy Strong (Kendall), Sarah Snook (Shiv), Kieran Culkin (Roman), Alan Ruck (Connor), Matthew MacFadyen (Tom) and Nicholas Braun (Greg) will all return, along with supporting actors J Smith Cameron (Gerri) and Justine Lupe (Willa).
The cast has been nominated and won various awards for their portrayals, and in July, season two racked up 18 Emmy nods in total, winning seven.
As for brand new additions, Sanaa Lathan (The Twilight Zone, The Affair), Linda Emond (Gemini Man, Madam Secretary) and Jihae (Mortal Engines) will all be joining the series according to Variety.
Lathan is set to play Lisa Arthur, a “high profile well-connected New York lawyer”, while Emond plays senior White House aide Michelle-Anne Vanderhoven and Jihae plays leading public relations consultant Berry Schneider.
Deadline reports that three recurring characters are joining as permanent fixtures. Connor Roy’s girlfriend Willa Ferreyra (Justine Lupe), Waystar RoyCo’s chief financial officer Karl Muller (David Rasche) and Hugo Baker (Fisher Stevens) are joining season three with, obviously, bigger parts to play in the ongoing machinations of the Roy dynasty.
In other exciting casting news, Big Little Lies star Alexander Skarsgård is set to star in season three, playing controversial tech founder and CEO Lukas Matsson, while in May, Deadline reported that Adrien Brody (The Pianist, Peaky Blinders) had signed on to guest star as Josh Aaronson, a billionaire activist investor who gets involved in the battle for Waystar’s ownership.
Meanwhile, back in February, Deadline reported that Hope Davis (Captain America: Civil War) had signed on for a multi-episode arc in series three, recurring as Sandi Furness, the daughter of Logan Roy’s long-time rival Sandy Furness (Larry Pine).
Filming may have already wrapped, but another late cast addition was announced in August – Freud actress Ella Rumpf will be guest starring in an undisclosed role.
Succession season 3 plot
The official synopsis for series three has now been revealed, and it reads, “Ambushed by his rebellious son Kendall at the end of season two, Logan Roy begins season three in a perilous position. Scrambling to secure familial, political, and financial alliances, tensions rise as a bitter corporate battle threatens to turn into a family civil war.”
The trailer had previously teased details for the new series, picking up from season two’s dramatic finale, which saw Kendall blame the cover-up of WayStar Royco’s sexual harassment scandal on his father in a surprising press conference.
In the trailer, we watch Kendall boldly show his face at WayStar Royco HQ, exclaiming: “The revolution will be televised!” while a furious Logan is restrained by his other children – a confrontation teased by star Brian Cox, who told Deadline that there were “a lot of fireworks to come” between the pair.
As the battle between Kendall and Logan turns nasty, it looks as though the loyalties of Shiv, Roman, Greg, Tom and Connor are tested by both parties, with Kendall warning them: “He’s our dad, but he was going to send me to jail. He’d do the same to all of us,” before we see Shiv tell him: “If I back you against dad, you would need to let me take over.”
As for Roman – the character played by Kieran Culkin – there’s been some rumours that he could be the main focus of season three, after season one primarily centred on Kendall and season two largely revolved around Shiv, with Culkin recently telling Vulture, “Maybe next year is Roman’s turn.”
It’s also likely that we’ll see further exploration of Tom and Shiv’s relationship which, it’s fair to say, was experiencing some difficulties during the second season, while we could even see the COVID-19 pandemic written into the series, something Cox recently alluded to in an interview with The Scotsman.
- For the latest news and expert tips on getting the best deals this year, take a look at our Black Friday 2021 and Cyber Monday 2021 guides.
!["Succession"]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2019/10/10_09_Succession_S02-ca3a1e7.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C368" "\"Succession\"")
Meanwhile, we could see a more international flavour to the drama, with one of the series’ writers, Lucy Prebble, hinting the show is planning to increase its scope during its third season. She told Deadline, “There are … a lot of talks about going more international than we’ve gone before, which is to do with the relationship between the media industry and international countries.”
She added: “The way international countries input, control, and fund the media in ways that aren’t talked about as clearly as they should be… There are big conversations about how countries and media intersect at the moment.”
Furthermore, in August 2020, Sarah Snook revealed what impact the pandemic would have on the show’s future storylines, claiming that although the virus would have a bearing on the series in a practical way it was unlikely that Jesse Armstrong would change the stories based on COVID.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, she said: “Just for safety reasons, we’re going to have to look at how many extras are in a scene, for instance.
“But Jesse is a person who doesn’t really want to compromise what stories they want to tell as writers just for the pandemic.
“They’re obviously talented writers, so there will be a very delicate hand on how much is included, but we’re not trying to make a show about a wealthy family during a pandemic.”
!["Succession"]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2019/09/04_05_Succession_S02-c36709e.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"Succession\"")
And Lucy Prebble, who works as a writer on the show, cryptically revealed a little more about the upcoming season in a recent interview with GQ, also confirming that the show’s plot would not be altered to reflect the pandemic.
“Obviously, there are implications with the pandemic, although there were no major changes happening to the script,” she said. “HBO are really good at that sort of stuff; they’re aggressively protective of their creations. They want to make it work creatively and what they’re going to do is try to provide a situation that will allow that, when they can.”
She added: “I can’t say much about it, but the only thing I can say is that it was fascinating to see James Murdoch take the action that he did in publicising that letter about [him] leaving [News Corp]. And considering our season two and our season three, I can say it is an amazing and interesting event.”
We’re certainly intrigued!
Will Succession end after season 3?
Thankfully, it doesn’t look like season three is the last we’ll see of the Roy family – however fans shouldn’t hold out hope for too many more seasons.
Executive producer Georgia Pritchett recently told The Times that she thinks “the maximum would be five seasons, but possibly more like four”.
“We’re at the end of filming season three, so at this point [showrunner Jesse Armstrong] is saying only one more.”
However, she added that Armstrong may change his mind on doing one more series after that as Pritchett said it “happens every time,” and that Armstrong has a “good end in sight” for the media dynasty drama.
Succession airs on HBO in the USA and Sky Atlantic and NOW TV in the UK and you can buy the DVD at Amazon.
If you’re looking for more to watch, check out our TV guide and visit our Drama hub for more news and features.