[This article contains mentions of suicide. If you or someone you love is struggling with mental health, the 988 Lifeline is available 24/7] After almost five years of showing a broken family trying to decide who should continue their father's legacy, Succession has come to an end. All is said and done, and the fate of Waystar Royco has been decided, even if it wasn't the result the main characters were expecting. Due to the hostile acquisition of the media conglomerate by Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård), Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) was selected was the new leader for the company, effectively shutting out the Roy children from any position of power they might have been aspiring for.
This didn't sit right with Kendall (Jeremy Strong), who was extremely confident about the fact that he would end up as the next Chief Executive Officer of Waystar Royco. After all, his father (Brian Cox) had promised the position to him ever since he was seven years old, in a moment that would define Kendall's life forever. After realizing that he had lost the battle for the throne and his family's legacy, the former executive goes out into the city, sitting on a bench by the river. During a recent episode of the official Succession podcast, Jeremy Strong revealed that the team almost moved forward with a very different direction for Kendall, ending the series with the character trying to take his own life:
"In one of the takes, I climbed over the barrier. It always, to me, felt like there was no coming back from this. I looked at these waves, it was so windy and cold. There was a piece of metal clanging, it was a terrible sound and I couldn't bear it. I stood up and walked slowly to the barrier and climbed over it. And I didn't really know what I planned to do. The actor playing Colin saw me, ran and stopped me from doing it."
The idea of such a tragic fate for Kendall was played around with during several moments of the show, even if it wasn't as explicit as other developments for the character throughout his run. Ever since it was revealed that he caused the death of a young man during the first season of the show, Logan's son hasn't been able to live free of guilt, constantly questioning if he even deserves to be free. However, when the moment came to decide who would lead his father's media conglomerate, Kendall even told his siblings that the accident had never happened, and that he had made up because he was feeling emotional. Obviously, Roman (Kieran Culkin) and Shiv (Sarah Snook) wouldn't fall for it.
The Fallout From the War
When Tom turns out to be the next Chief Executive Officer of Waystar Royco, the fate of the family is sealed, and the Roys go on their separate ways. Shiv is now pregnant with the child of the company's boss, while not holding any position of power within it whatsoever. On the other hand, Roman appears to be finally free from his family's curse, accepting that he never even wanted the position in the first place. And, as evidenced by Jeremy Strong's quotes, Kendall is left in a very bad place, where he is completely shut out from the company he was supposed to inherit.
You can check out Collider's interview with Nicholas Braun, who plays Greg in Succession, below: