A ‘Succession’ Writer Revealed The Team’s Secret Code Words To Hide This Week’s Huge Moment

WARNING: Spoilers for Succession Season 4 below.

After dropping a major bombshell, the shocking death of family patriarch Logan Roy, the creative team behind Succession has been opening up about the painstaking process to prevent leaks ahead of the fatal episode.

Thanks to a crafty decision by creator Jesse Armstrong, Logan’s death happens in the third episode of the final season when viewers would least suspect a devastating twist of this magnitude. However, keeping the moment under wraps required some behind-the-scenes subterfuge involving Larry David of all people.

“This was a tough secret to keep!” Succession writer Georgia Pritchett revealed on Twitter, two days after the episode aired. “We decided it in the #Succession writers’ room in Jan 22. So nobody found out we used code on the whiteboards. Larry David meant Logan Dies. So episode 403 said Connor’s Wedding, Larry David. Mind you, that would also have been a great episode.”

Brian Cox also revealed that the production team also tried to shoot fake scenes so paparazzi photos wouldn’t spoil his character’s funeral. But when the film crew ran out of time and told him to stay home, Cox crashed the set anyway to protect the big twist.

“As soon as I got out of the car, there were paparazzi shooting me left, right, and center, and therefore, they thought, Logan’s at the funeral, what is he doing?” Cox told Deadline. “You see, and if I hadn’t done that, if I hadn’t come, they would’ve gone, it’s Logan’s funeral. And I was the one who took that responsibility. They didn’t even think of it. They were so rushed, and so much, you know, this last season was very difficult to film.”

Succession Season 4 airs new episodes Sunday on HBO.

(Via Georgia Pritchett on Twitter)