The series today know that they live in an interconnected world where any secret is likely to be revealed, either by the media or by fan forums, which have their resources to investigate the shooting of the productions that obsess them. . So when Jesse Armstrong decided to include that on Succession, they had to take steps to make sure it didn’t leak to the public sooner than necessary. How did they manage to keep it a secret?

Those of you who don’t yet know which twist we’re referring to can walk away from this article like a Roy would run away from someone with a huge bag or someone who smells middle class.

“It was a hard secret to keep!” screenwriter Georgia Pritchett, who worked on the show’s fourth season, said on Twitter. So when Jesse Armstrong and the rest of the writers decided to kill off Logan Roy (Brian Cox) on January 22, 2022, they had to come up with a code name to avoid mentioning his death openly or having it written on the blackboard in the boardroom. scriptwriters. So they used a code name: “Larry David.”

Every time they had to mention that Logan died, they simply referred to Larry David, a name that belongs to one of the most respected screenwriters on American television as the author of Seinfeld or Curb your enthusiasm. So what did it say on the board in reference to the third episode? “Connor’s Wedding, Larry David”.

From production and HBO, for the record, they had to take additional measures to take care of the script twist that included the actor Brian Cox, who confesses “a lost cause when it comes to keeping secrets.” And it is that the Scottish actor made an appearance in scenes of the rest of the season despite the fact that he did not need him. The reason? If footage of the shoot leaked, no one would suspect that Logan was already dead.

On the Late show with Stephen Colbert, in fact, he explained that he even attended his character’s funeral. The writers wrote a fake scene in which he had to perform in a “very fancy, very Catholic” church to disguise the fact that Logan’s funeral was actually being staged there. But, since they were late in filming, production told him that he did not need to go to the shooting because, in short, that scene “will never be used.”

“No, I better go,” he replied. She knew the paparazzi would be on the scene, trying to get snapshots of the crew and cast working on new episodes of the Emmy Awards for Outstanding Drama Series on Television. “I went there and as soon as I got out of the car they started taking photos,” she explained, “so I was immediately able to hide that it was my funeral.”