Succession Star Addresses Tom and Shiv’s Future After Series Finale

Succession creator Jesse Armstrong revealed before the premiere of Season 4 that this season would be the last for the series, and despite Armstrong teasing that he would consider spinoffs, the grounded nature of the project means there likely wouldn’t be the same unresolved plot threads as seen in other shows with dense mythology. While audiences are still coping with saying goodbye to beloved characters like Matthew Macfadyen’s Tom Wambsgans and Sarah Snook’s Shiv Roy, fans are already speculating about what would be next for the pair, though Macfadyen himself admits that he thinks his character’s journey ended with the series finale.

WARNING: Spoilers below for the series finale of Succession

After four seasons of the Roy family and various other contenders attempting to take control of Waystar-Royco, it was ultimately Wambsgans who was named CEO. Shiv and Tom have had relationship challenges throughout the course of the series, though they came to a head in the Season 3 finale when Tom tipped off Logan (Brian Cox) that Shiv and her brothers were scheming against him, with Season 4 exploring that fallout of Tom siding with Logan as Shiv and her brothers fended for themselves. 

The final scenes of Succession showed Tom and Shiv riding away from Waystar-Royco together, with Shiv apathetically placing her hand in Tom’s.

“I haven’t given it any thought, is the honest answer. The story is stopped in my head,” Macfadyen shared with Variety in regard to what he imagined the pair’s future to be. As far as whether he has speculated about a Waystar-Royco under Tom’s rule, the actor admitted, “No. I mean, maybe idly — but no, no. It’s stopped on that last image. That’s it, in my head.”

The series finale offered Shiv a roller coaster of emotions, as the episode started with her being the prospective CEO, only to be betrayed and instead support Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong) for the role, though she then retracted that support. While Shiv and Tom have their challenges, she is pregnant with his child, so the pair will be linked to one another indefinitely, potentially allowing her to pull some strings at Waystar-Royco by way of Tom.

“Shiv is still in play, I’d say, in a rather terrifying, frozen emotionally barren place,” Armstong shared in a post-show featurette. “But she has got this kind of non-victory, non-defeat. I mean, there’s gonna be some movement there. There’s still a lot of that game to play out, but that’s where we leave it. And it feels like it’s going to be hard to progress for them, emotionally, given the things they’ve said about each other.”

The series finale of Succession is now streaming on Max.

What do you see for the pair’s future? Let us know in the comments!