HBO Boss Weighs in on Possibility of Succession Getting Spinoffs

By Patrick Cavanaugh

In the years since Succession debuted on HBO, it has slowly but surely gained a passionate and widespread following, which includes winning multiple Emmy Awards, with Seasons 2 and 3 scoring the award for Outstanding Drama Series, but unlike other acclaimed HBO projects, audiences shouldn't expect Succession to be extended with spinoffs or prequels. In the years since HBO's Game of Thrones came to an end, that franchise earned the prequel House of the Dragon along with a number of other spinoffs having been explored, but HBO and HBO Max content CEO Casey Bloys recently explained to Variety that the nature of Succession doesn't lend itself quite as well to expansion as Game of Thrones.

"I don't think so," Bloys revealed to the outlet about Succession spinoffs moving forward. "I always say, 'Never say never.' When we started talking about doing a Thrones prequel, that was something that HBO had historically never done. I had some people internally saying, 'This is crazy. What are you doing?' That said, I think that there's something about the universe that George [R.R. Martin] created that lent itself to [spinoffs]. There's a huge history, a lot of different families, a lot of different wars and battles. It doesn't seem to me that there's something in Succession where you would go, 'Let's follow just this kid' or whatever. It doesn't seem like a natural thing to me. But if [creator Jesse Armstrong] said, 'I want to do this,' then I would follow Jesse's lead."

Another major difference is that, with Game of Thrones being based on a series of books, audiences knew well ahead of time where the story was going and how long it would be until the project came to an end. Given that Succession only grows more popular with each passing season and with no drop in quality being detected, it's unclear how much longer that series will run.

With Season 4 of the series set to premiere next month, a recent interview with star Jeremy Strong teased that this could also be the series' final season. 

GQ revealed, "One day, Succession will end. That day might be imminent. Strong returned to set in January to film the final two episodes of the new season, which could be the final two episodes, period."

Last year, HBO debuted Season 4 of Westworld, one of its most popular properties, which ended up being the final season as HBO opted not to renew it, despite creators claiming their overall plan included a final batch of episodes. In this regard, it's possible that a series' popularity has no impact on whether HBO would renew it, though with Succession being a much more grounded affair, it's possible that its budget would make its return much more feasible.

Related:

Succession Season 4 premieres on HBO on March 26th.

Would you like to see the series get spinoffs? Let us know in the comments!

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