‘Succession’ Series Finale, Alternate Ending: Kendall, Jeremy Strong

Succession almost ended differently… and even more tragically, if you can believe it.

In an interview with Vanity Fair following Sunday’s series finale — read our full recap here — star Jeremy Strong reveals that while shooting the final scene of a defeated Kendall wandering through the park with his father’s bodyguard Colin trailing close behind, “I tried to go into the water after we cut. I got up from that bench and went as fast as I could over the barrier and onto the pilings, and the actor playing Colin raced over. I didn’t know I was gonna do that, and he didn’t know, but he raced over and stopped me.”

Strong adds that “I don’t know whether in that moment I felt that Kendall just wanted to die — I think he did — or if he wanted to be saved by essentially a proxy of his father.” He also describes Kendall’s defeat at the Waystar board vote as “an extinction level event for this character. There’s no coming back from that.”

The attempted jump wasn’t scripted and didn’t make the final cut, and Strong appreciates the way series creator Jesse Armstrong ultimately ended it, he says: “It’s a much stronger ending philosophically, and has more integrity to what Jesse’s overall very bleak vision is of mankind, which is that fundamentally, people don’t really change. They don’t do the spectacular, dramatic thing. Instead, there’s a kind of doom loop that we’re all stuck in, and Kendall is trapped in this sort of silent scream with Colin there as both a bodyguard and a jailer.”

Strong also admits that he doesn’t know if Kendall “would’ve had the courage to actually go in that water, because my God, it would’ve been hard to do. But I think you even feel on a cellular level the intention or the longing to cross that threshold. The way [Armstrong] leaves us with a kind of ambivalence stays true to his vision.”

Got thoughts on Succession‘s grand finale? Drop ’em in a comment below.