Succession star Kieran Culkin offered yet another promising update for fans holding out hope a potential Season 5 of the hit HBO drama will be announced.
While the beloved TV series is seemingly set to come to an end with its record-breaking Season 4 finale, there have been glimpses of hope when it comes to a fifth outing for the Roy family empire.
Culkin previously let slip that he has had conversations with showrunner Jess Armstrong about "a way forward" after Season 4, but nothing has been confirmed about a Season 5 getting the green light.
Succession Season 5 Release Gets Teased?
On the eve of Succession's apparent end on HBO, star Keiran Culkin teased the idea of the HBO series potentially moving forward with a Season 5.
Speaking in an interview with director Taika Waititi in Interview Magazine, Culkin that he "[doesn't] know yet" if Season 4 will be the last for the hit drama:
Waititi: "So this is the final season. How are you feeling?"
Culkin: "I don’t know yet. I still haven’t processed it. We finished filming about a month ago. I came home for a few days, got really sick, did two weeks of press, and then my whole family got sick again. Now the press is over, the show is airing, it’s done. So what do I do now?"
The Roman Roy actor commented that he " knew this wasn’t the kind of show that could keep going and going," but he always had the idea of "five seasons" going in his head:
Waititi: "It’s awesome that it’s done. In a way, I’m sad that it’s the final season, but Americans do too many episodes of things. If you love it so much, watch the whole thing again and again."
Culkin: "Yeah, that’s a good point. I knew this wasn’t the kind of show that could keep going and going. I always thought five seasons. It was just a number I had in my head. I remember, towards the end of season three, going, 'I’m worried we’re going to enter a territory where we’re becoming 'Succession'-y.'"
He added that Season 4 is "very, very different, which is exciting," but makes him feel like, "Couldn’t there be a [Season 5]:"
Culkin: Then when season four happened, the first two episodes, I remember reading scripts and thinking, 'Okay, this feels a little 'Succession'-y. It’s very good, but I’m a little worried about it.” And then from three on, this season is very, very different, which is exciting, but makes me feel like, 'Couldn’t there be a five, now that the show is kind of different?' I want to see what else happens. And there very well could be. Jesse knows that."
The 40-year-old made lamented that showrunner Jesse Armstrong "thinks this is the end, but [even] he’s not sure:"
Culkin: He really didn’t know. He told us at the beginning, he thinks this is the end, but he’s not sure. And he let that ride the entire season, kept us all guessing. When we finished episode three, we were like, 'We’re doing more.' Then we get halfway through, and we’re like, 'I think he’s tying this up. I think he’s finishing it.'”
Is Season 4 Really the End of Succession?
It is rare that a TV series gets to go out on top in the way that Succession seems to be doing. It is even more rare that it gets to do so on its own volition.
After four seasons of critically-acclaimed TV, Jesse Armstrong and his HBO cast look to be packing up their bat and ball and heading home.
Although, if Kieran Culkin is to be believed, that may not be the case. This is the second time the actor has spoken about a potential Season 5 of the hit series, despite what anyone else has been saying.
Armstrong himself made it abundantly clear in an interview with The New Yorker before the latest batch of episodes premiered that he sees Season 4 as the ending.
But even he made sure to not 100% close the door on doing more in the future He mentioned he has, "caveated the end of the show, when I’ve talked to some of my collaborators," adding that perhaps there is "another part of this world we could come back to, if there was an appetite:"
"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."
So for now, it seems fans should treat the end of Season 4 as the definitive ending of the odyssey of the Roy family, but that is not to say some other pocket of the Succession world could not be explored.
The first four seasons of Succession are available to stream on Max now.
