“It’s a tightrope walk on a straight razor.”
This statement from Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong) in the new trailer for Succession’s highly anticipated fourth season, effectively sums up the whole appeal of HBO’s hit series. Watching the Roys and their various associates, enemies, and hangers-on in a tug of war for both control of Waystar Royco and the family itself is thrilling, frightening, and hilarious in equal measure.
When the third season ended, the tenuous peace between the Roy children–Kendall, Shiv (Sarah Snook), and Roman (Kieran Culkin)–and their ferocious father, Logan (Brian Cox), had been shattered after a failed coup attempt once again proved Logan’s brutal business savvy. Trying to block the sale of the company to a polarizing tech iconoclast, the children find themselves on the outside looking in.
The official plot summary for season 4 teases: “The sale of media conglomerate Waystar Royco to tech visionary Lukas Matsson moves ever closer. The prospect of this seismic sale provokes existential angst and familial division among the Roys as they anticipate what their lives will look like once the deal is completed. A power struggle ensues as the family weighs up a future where their cultural and political weight is severely curtailed.”
This full-length trailer fleshes out what we saw briefly in last October’s teaser, further establishing the sides as the Roy offspring vs. Logan, with Gerry (J. Smith-Cameron), Tom (Matthew Macfadyen), and Greg (Nicholas Braun) in tow.
Among the consequential scenes we glimpse, it appears that all-world failson Connor (Alan Ruck) is tying the knot with Willa (Justine Lupe, giving one of the show’s most underappreciated performances). We also see more of would-be Waystar buyer Lukas Mattson (Alexander Skarsgård), and a strategy meeting between Kendall, Roman, and Shiv, where she sums up the series tension in one sentence: , “ This is not about getting back at Dad, but if it hurts him, it doesn’t bother me.” Crucially, there’s a lot of Tom and Logan interaction in the trailer—as you’ll recall, Tom finally betrayed Shiv in the season 3 finale and sided with Logan. In the scenes here, their allegiance already seems to be on predictably, hilariously shaky ground, as with all Logan Roy promises.
The shot of Skarsgard’s Mattson that we see on a mountaintop was likely from the portion of the season filmed in Norway, where the enigmatic Matsson hails from. Producer Scott Ferguson told Variety last year that the new season will peel back the curtain on the mysterious tech savant, particularly in the episode taking place in his homeland.
While the trailer doesn’t offer much, what we do see is enough to trust the wise words of Nicholas Braun, who told The Hollywood Reporter succinctly that the new episodes of Succession are an “absolute banger” and there is a “fire season” in store. The bangers begin rolling out with the season premiere on March 26.