Spoiler alert! Brian Cox's Succession exit interviews are here.
The hit HBO series shocked fans on Sunday with the abrupt death of Logan Roy just three episodes into the final season, and the actor is sharing his reaction to the jaw-dropping twist.
Speaking to The New York Times, Cox recalled receiving a call from series creator Jesse Armstrong informing him that "Logan's going to die" this season.
"And I thought, 'Oh, that's fine,'" Cox said. "I thought he would die in about Episode 7 or 8, but Episode 3, I thought … 'Well that's a bit early.' Not that I was bothered."
Cox continued by predicting the audience "might be furious," feeling the show made a mistake by killing off "one of the most interesting characters," but he's personally fine with it. "I'm doing a lot of other stuff," he noted. Cox added that his character's death "does change the stakes" of the show, and besides, "Logan was coming to a rest point anyway."
Separately, Cox told Vulture that Logan's death made sense because the show is "about succession," and "you need a corpse." But certain audience members took some convincing that Logan was truly gone given the way the episode mostly avoided showing his body. Indeed, Cox told Vulture, "There was a very strong contention and very strong reason to think that maybe he's not dead at all." He added, "Maybe it's all a ruse! If you think about it, the last image is a body bag. Anybody could be in that body bag ... There's a possibility."
But Cox told Deadline he's "very proud of myself" that he successfully kept this under wraps, joking this was the "first time" he has "actually kept a secret." At the same time, he did spill one secret during these conversations, revealing to Vulture that "I do pop back and I have a couple scenes later on" in the season, "which is flashback stuff." He also told Deadline he actually showed up on set when Logan's funeral was being shot just to throw paparazzi off the scent.
Seven episodes still remain in Succession's last season, and the finale is expected to air on May 28.