How That Shocking ‘Succession’ Twist Could Change This Year’s Emmy Race

UPDATED: Succession‘s Sarah Snook will likely be submitted in the Lead Actress in a Drama Series category for the 2023 Primetime Emmy nominations, Deadline has learned. Snook, who portrays Shiv in the Emmy-winning series has submitted in the supporting actress category for the previous three seasons, securing nominations for seasons 2 and 3. Snook received Critics Choice and Golden Globe awards for her performance in the role in 2022, along with a SAG Award nomination. Her reps would not confirm that any decision has been made.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Shiv’s the boss! On “Succession,” Sarah Snook plays the youngest Roy daughter Siobhan “Shiv” Roy, who isn’t sitting idly by while her newly minted co-CEO brothers run the media empire Waystar Royco — and neither is Snook with her Emmy chances. Variety has learned exclusively that Snook will be submitted into the lead drama actress category for this year’s Primetime Emmys, changing from her supporting bids for the three previous seasons. “Succession” is exhibiting its finest writing, directing and acting of the show’s short history. With each new weekly episode, Snook has shined dramatically, becoming the season’s clear standout of the large, sprawling ensemble. This campaign shift could now firmly cement her as the presumptive front-runner for the most coveted television prize for acting.

Succession comes to an end with its fourth season.Created by Jesse Armstrong, the HBO comedy-drama series follows the internal power struggle within the Roy family, the owners of media conglomerate Waystar Royco.As concerns mount around the health of patriarch Logan Roy (Brian Cox), his children Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Roman (Kieran Culkin) and Shiv (Sarah Snook) clash to position themselves as his worthy successor.Connor (Alan Ruck) is Logan’s oldest child, the only one born from his first marriage. While his age hasn’t been explicitly stated in the series, Ruck told The Guardian that the character is “in his fifties”. Ruck, meanwhile, is aged 66.Kendall is the second-oldest and is the only sibling to have his age confirmed in the series.

Ryan Reynolds will be joined by Hugh Jackman in Deadpool 3 and had an update about what it’s been like to film the superhero film.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events. Predictions are updated every Thursday. Visit the prediction pages for the respective ceremonies via the links below:

HBO‘s Succession has done the unthinkable, finally pulling the trigger on a major plot point that will change the course of the show’s remaining episodes. Now, a producer and writer on the show has opened up about how they managed to keep the plot twist from leaking. Warning: major spoilers ahead.Following the shocking death of Logan Roy in season four, episode three, Succession writer and longtime producer Georgia Pritchett has taken to Twitter to reveal how the show’s creative team used code words when planning Logan’s death to prevent it from leaking.Pritchett wrote: “This was a tough secret to keep! We decided it in the #Succession writers’ room in Jan 22.

WARNING: Spoilers. If you haven’t seen the third episode of Succession’s final season, do not read beyond this point.It appears the massive plot twist in Season 4, episode 3 of “Succession” was subtly hinted at in the promo poster for this current season.No one saw the death of prominent character Logan Roy (played by Brian Cox) coming, but if you looked closer at the promo poster for the Binge show, the fate of the resident titan was laid bare for all to see.In this week’s episode, titled ‘Connor’s Wedding’, Connor (Alan Ruck) and Willa (Justine Lupe) tied the knot in front of their families sans the groom’s dad, Logan, who instead chose to miss the festivities and fly to Sweden to broker the sale of his company.However, on the plane, Logan suffered a suspected heart attack and could not be revived by the flight crew, and his children – Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Shiv (Sarah Snook) and Roman (Kieran Culkin) were forced to listen in on his final moments via speakerphone.The death caused shockwaves among legions of fans worldwide – some of whom pointed out that the poster for this season, released before it debuted, had teased at this major storyline all along.In the poster, the powerful Roy family could be seen standing on the balcony of a skyscraper glass building overlooking the New York City skyline.

Note: Spoilers for “Succession” Season 4 Episode 3 follow below.“Succession” actor Brian Cox revealed he attended filming for Logan Roy’s funeral scene in an effort to keep the character’s shocking death in Season 4 Episode 3 a secret.“They invented this scene that I was to play at the church,” Cox recalled during a Monday night appearance on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.” “I was on my way to film this scene and I got the call saying, ‘We are so behind and it is a scene that will never be used because it’s your funeral, so don’t come.’ And I thought, ‘No, I’ve got to go.’ I thought, ‘I better go because I know there’s going to be a lot of paparazzi there.’ I went there and as soon as I got out of the car they started clicking away. So immediately I was able to put off the fact that it was my funeral.” Cox admitted that he is typically “hopeless” at keeping secrets and that keeping Logan’s death under wraps was an “absolute triumph.”In a behind the scenes featurette, series creator Jesse Armstrong admitted he was nervous to tell Cox he’d be exiting the series in the third episode of Season 4.“I was very nervous to tell him because there’s lots of anxieties about whether this is the right creative decision and there’s anxieties that someone who I love working with and has been at the center of the show will feel rejected on a human level for not being in it anymore when he’s been so central to the whole thing,” he said.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director SPOILER ALERT: This post discusses gargantuan plot developments in “Connor’s Wedding,” Season 4, Episode 3 of “Succession,” now streaming on HBO Max. 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 hurdling towards 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.

Succession spoilers ahead! Click away if you’re not up to date with Season 4.

Major spoilers ahead from last night’s episode of Succession!

Succession Season 4 has set another audience record with its stunning third episode.

Kate Aurthur editor SPOILER ALERT: This interview discusses gargantuan plot developments in “Connor’s Wedding,” Season 4, Episode 3 of “Succession,” now streaming on HBO Max. Many devotees of “Succession” assumed that sometime during its final season, the show’s patriarch Logan Roy — a businessman of unparalleled brilliance, and a churlish father, who loves his children (despite all evidence to the contrary) — would die. After all, Logan, played by Brian Cox, had a stroke in the 2018 series premiere of HBO’s Emmy-winning drama, and his ill-health has been an ongoing concern. But Logan dying in Episode 3?! A total shock to “Succession” nation.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!

Succession delivered a game-changing bombshell in the third episode of season four.In the episode titled Connor’s Wedding, Logan Roy (Brian Cox) departs on a flight to Sweden with some of his closest advisors to negotiate a new deal with Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård), while Logan’s children Roman (Kieran Culkin), Shiv (Sarah Snook) and Kendall (Jeremy Strong) attend their brother’s wedding on a cruise ship in New York.While Connor (Alan Ruck) is hopeful his father will make time for a fly-by visit, Roman, Kendall and Shiv are soon informed by Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen) over the phone that Logan has fallen ill during the flight and has become unresponsive.After some emotional final goodbyes over the phone, Logan is later pronounced dead when the private plane lands back on US soil. Roman, Kendall and Shiv are then faced with issuing a statement to the press and the ramifications of Logan’s death on the future of Waystar RoyCo.“I never thought that I would be crying for Logan’s death, but this episode was brutal,” one viewer wrote.

Sticking the landing. Succession viewers were shocked to see Logan Roy (Brian Cox) killed off three episodes into season 4 — but the HBO show’s cast showed their support for the twist.

Spoiler warning for Succession season 4, episode three, “Connor’s Wedding,” written by creator Jesse Armstrong and directed by Mark Mylod. 

Note: Spoilers ahead for “Succession” Season 4, Episode 4, “Connor’s Wedding.” Sunday night’s episode of “Succession” shockingly killed off Logan Roy (Brian Cox). He’s been in bad health since the beginning of the series. But, it was still unexpected for the event to happen so soon in the final season.

Note: The following contains spoilers for “Succession” Season 4, Episode 3During this week’s behind-the-scenes look at “Succession,” actor Kieran Culkin and executive producer and director Mark Mylod broke down how they shot “Connor’s Wedding,” the pivotal third episode of season 4 which revolves around the Roy family’s reaction to the surprise death of Logan (Brian Cox). Specifically, Mylod revealed that the scene in which the Roy kids first get a call from Tom was shot in one long, unbroken 27-minute take.“In the planning of the shots, it felt to me like the camera had to be almost sadistically voyeuristic,” Mylod recalled.

Note: Spoilers for “Succession” Season 4 Episode 3 follow below.“Succession” viewers were shocked on Sunday night when, in the third episode of the final season, Brian Cox’s Logan Roy died. It was a twist no one saw coming, and the emotional fallout that occurred in the Roy family resulted in some series-best performances from Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook, Kieran Culkin and Alan Ruck.Killing off the family patriarch and central force in the series so early in the final season was certainly unexpected, but creator and showrunner Jesse Armstrong said that was partly the point.“Shooting the episode honestly was quite exciting because it felt high risk,” Armstrong said in the show’s behind-the-scenes featurette for the episode.