The Big Picture

Production designer Stephen H. Carter discusses his Emmy-nominated work on Succession Season 4. Carter talks through the three final locations of the series — the last place we see Roman, Shiv, and then Kendall Roy. Carter also recalls the crew fearing that Jeremy Strong might jump into the water while filming that last scene.

Succession was quite the rollercoaster for the Roy children, especially for Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Shiv (Sarah Snook), and Roman (Kieran Culkin) who spent the bulk of the series battling for daddy’s approval and, ultimately, the chance to assume control of Waystar Royco. In the end, they all lose. All of their negotiating, backstabbing, and manipulating after Logan’s (Brian Cox) death in Episode 3 amounts to nothing. (Well, nothing as far as company power goes. All three do end the series filthy rich.)

Going into the big board meeting, Kendall is certain he has enough votes to derail the GoJo deal, but then, of all people, his own sister throws him a curveball. Shiv votes for the deal, a choice that crowns Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) CEO and essentially kicks Shiv, Roman, and Kendall to the curb. The three Roy siblings end the series richer than ever, but also without a company, aimless and empty.

As expected, Succession secured a significant amount of Emmy nominations this season, 27 in total. During a recent HBO crafts event, I had the opportunity to moderate a panel celebrating Avy Kaufman’s nomination for Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series, Michelle Matland’s nomination for Outstanding Contemporary Costumes for a Series, and Stephen H. Carter’s nomination for Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Contemporary Program.

Image via HBO

Toward the end of the conversation, we put the spotlight on the final scenes of the show, specifically Carter’s experience finding the ideal locations to reflect the siblings’ current headspace and perhaps what the future may hold for them. He began:

“We find each of the siblings in their own little moment as the season and series ends. We find Roman drinking a martini in a bar alone, we find Shiv offered Tom’s hand in the back of their limo and having to decide what pact she’s making with herself to take his hand again, and then we find Kendall at sort of the southern tip of Manhattan looking off over the bay and ghosted by Colin, his father’s security guard who he sort of brought in to his employment, and each one is beautifully poignant. We just look for the locations that served the script as written.”

For Roman, Carter revealed some of “the nuts and bolts” of the production design process. “It was actually a bar downstairs from a bar where we were shooting Alexander Skarsgård and Greg (Nicholas Braun) and the entourage and Tom that same day.”

I find that Roman is the only one of the three who closes out the series with any sense of hope. Sure, Succession is a show where characters never take responsibility for their actions and make the same mistakes over and over again, but while watching Roman have his martini alone at a bar, one can hope that now that he’s not feeling the pressure of needing Logan’s approval or doing an exhausting looking dance to win the Waystar Royco crown, perhaps there’s an opportunity for some self-discovery and a better path forward. As Carter put it, “It was a beautiful, lonely moment and perfectly right for Roman.”

Image via HBO

As for Shiv, after spending the entire series pushing back against the obvious sexism plaguing Waystar Royco and the realm of the 1% in general, she’s essentially consumed by it. In a show brimming with disturbing behavior and dialogue, a line Skarsgård’s Matsson delivers in the first half of the finale still manages to be one of the worst; “If I could have fucking anyone in the world, why don’t I get the guy who put the baby inside her instead of the baby lady?” And that’s what happens. Matsson trades his pregnant CEO for her estranged husband, leaving Shiv to play the supportive wife role with zero power at the new company.

Finally, as Kendall’s last moment played out with him staring out into the distance, many wondered if the show would take a dark turn. Would it end with Kendall taking his own life by jumping over the railing? Of course, he doesn’t and the show ends with Kendall sitting on the bench lost in thought, but even while filming the scene, there was concern among the crew that Jeremy Strong would indeed choose to jump into the water. Carter recalled:

“Kendall’s moment out on the waterfront really was the one that we labored over the most, and it was the most bitter cold day. Brutally, brutally cold. There was a moment where Jeremy — love Jeremy, but he gets caught up in these moments and he walks towards the fence and I think Scott [Nicholson] literally had to sort of make a move to make sure that he didn’t potentially throw himself into the water. [Laughs] He wouldn’t have come out of that water had he done that. And everybody was a little freaked out that he was gonna take it that far.”

Looking for more on the making of Succession? Stay tuned! We’ll have a Collider Ladies Night episode for you with casting director Avy Kaufman soon.