Warning: This post contains spoilers for Season Four of “Succession.”
Every “Succession” viewer will remember where they were the night “Connor’s Wedding” aired. The third episode of the Emmy-winning drama’s fourth and final season killed off Logan Roy (Brian Cox), a shocking but inevitable twist that sends the show hurtling toward its endgame. Georgia Pritchett, a longtime producer and writer on “Succession,” revealed on Twitter that the creative team used an HBO-friendly code word when planning Logan’s death so that it would not leak to the public ahead of time.
“This was a tough secret to keep!” Pritchett wrote about Logan’s death. “We decided it in the ‘Succession’ writers’ room in Jan 22. So nobody found out, we used a 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.”
The code word wasn’t the only way the “Succession” team ensured Logan’s death wouldn’t be spoiled. As director Mark Mylod told Variety after the episode’s airing, Brian Cox continued to film on the show after Episode Three production wrapped in order to give off the impression that his character was still alive. This meant Cox was even on set for the filming of Logan Roy’s funeral.
“The stuff (filmed for) a subsequent episode, we basically brought him on to shoot dummy scenes — scenes that didn’t actually exist. As a misdirect,” Mylod said.
Mylod was informed by “Succession” creator Jesse Armstrong that Logan would be dying back when the team was in preproduction on the show’s third season.
“That’s when he first told me about this idea, that it should happen early in the season in an episode slot that you would not necessarily expect,” Mylod said. “This idea of actually creating, hopefully, great drama out of mundanity — you know, the inconvenience of it all. Which just seemed wonderful to me.”
“Succession” Season Four airs Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.