How ‘Succession’ Hid Logan Roy’s Death When Filming the Funeral (2024)

With just one “movie-like” episode to go in Succession's immaculate run, our time with the Roy family is reaching its end. While the fourth season of the HBO hit series had many highlights and achievements — including a crazy visit to Gojo’s HQ, an adrenaline-filled stockholder’s meeting, and a potentially criminal election — none may be more impressive than the cast and crew’s ability to keep one of the biggest twists in recent TV history under wraps.

The death of Logan Roy (Brian Cox) hit both viewers and the characters within the show like a ton of bricks, giving everyone little to no preparation or time to process goodbyes. While speaking with THR, series producer and director of the penultimate episode, "Church and State," Mark Mylod discussed the process of keeping the shocking turn under wraps despite having to shoot Logan’s funeral. Including changing scripts to say Logan’s brother Ewan was the one who died and giving a heart-filled plea to the many extras required to film the funeral scene.

Mylod explained:

“A lot was going on that I wasn’t directly privy to, but we did have a lot of conversations and planning meetings right at the start of the season as to how we could handle this. HBO were fantastic with their resources and the advice they gave with the benefit of their experience, trying to keep a secret in the social media universe. The first steps were quite basic. From episode three onward, after Logan passes, we basically replaced the word “Logan” in every script with the name Ewan (Logan's brother played by James Cromwell) So we played it as if Jamie’s character had passed. When it came to the funeral in episode nine, we billed it in all of our scripts, and even in posters outside the church, as if it was Ewan’s funeral. That was phase one."

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Obituary for John William "Johnny" Logan, Jr. at Coffman Funeral Home and CrematoryJohn C. Mills, Crestwood, KY, formerly Grayville, ILWorld of Warcraft News and Raiding StrategiesOn 'Succession,' This Was the Only Honest Part of Logan Roy's Funeral

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Mylod Spoke With Hundreds of Extras About Keeping Logan Roy's Funeral Under Wraps

Naturally, the hundreds of background extras involved in the funeral scenes were asked to sign NDAs. Mylod explained that the potential for someone to leak the incredible plot twist was very high when working with that many people across several days of filming. Miraculously, no one spoiled Logan's death and perhaps that's because Myload and the HBO team spoke with them directly, asking them to keep it under wraps. He said:

"We didn’t just ask them to sign an NDA. I spoke to them, the HBO team did, and we all spoke to them, asking them to keep the secret: 'Let’s not spoil the enjoyment for fans of the show. Let’s have this as our little secret. Let’s not tell anybody. Keep it quiet. Obviously, tell your partners at home, but please keep it under your hats.' It was out of goodwill, really. Everybody obliged. I’m really tremendously grateful for that, and actually quite moved by that. It can be such a cynical world sometimes. That everybody kept the secret was really fantastic.”

While it's possible to imagine a scenario where Ewan had passed instead of Logan, it would have negated much of the emotional weight the penultimate episode, and the season as a whole provided as we watch each character's hard exterior begin to break. Although many expected Logan to eventually meet his maker by the series' end, the bold choice to do so in Episode 3 of this season flipped the narrative on its head. Forcing each of the Roy siblings to evolve and adapt now that they’re out of their father’s shadow.

Mylod has directed sixteen episodes of Succession, including what many consider some of the series’ best in "This Is Not For Tears," "All The Bells Say," and "Connor's Wedding." He will also be behind the camera for next week's much-anticipated finale. Beyond his work on Succession, Mylod also directed six episodes of Game of Thrones, as well as last year's critically acclaimed horror-comedy The Menu starring Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy.

You can watch the trailer for next week's finale below. For more Succession, read about how Mylod filmed those eulogies in one take, Roman’s self-destructive streak, and Kendall's Daenerys Targaryen arc in Season 4.