Succession star Brian Cox has revealed his character, Logan Roy, was initially meant to die in the show’s first season.
The actor has portrayed the patriarch on the HBO series since it premiered in 2018. He will reprise the role when season three begins on 17 October.
While fans might find it hard to imagine the series without Logan’s bullish presence, Cox told The Guardian in a recent interview that his run on the show was supposed to be much shorter.
“Originally, I was supposed to die at the end of the first series,” the actor said.
“But I think they realised that Logan is the centrifugal force of the piece. Everything has to spin off him, and the kids’ vices are all about their father, and relating to their father. Do they love their father, and if so how do they show that love?”
In Succession’s first season, Logan suffers a stroke and is left unable to run his company, the media conglomerate Waystar RoyCo. This leads his children to compete in order to decide who will take over as the head of the family business.
While this storyline could have led to Logan’s death, the patriarch has so far survived. In a five-star review of Succession’s third season, The Independent deemed him “one of the most frightening characters on television”.
