Underlined or crossed out? Succession showrunner has the answer to season 4's biggest question

Succession showrunner Jesse Armstrong has settled one of the final season's biggest debates: Was Kendall Roy's name underlined or crossed out?

The fourth episode of season 4 sees the discovery of a piece of paper seemingly declaring Kendall (Jeremy Strong) as Logan Roy (Brian Cox)'s successor at Waystar RoyCo., but there's one problem – no one can tell if Logan underlined Kendall's name or crossed it out. Of course, Logan died in episode 3, so the Roy family patriarch wasn't around to clear things up. 

"If you were gonna cross out, you wouldn’t start underneath, would you?" Armstrong noted at an event hosted by the Financial Times, putting an end to viewers' debates. He joked that while he hadn't wanted to comment on the final season while it was still airing, he was "happy to spoil it by telling you what I think of everything" now.

Ultimately, though, it didn't matter whether Logan wanted his eldest son to take over as CEO or not – the company was bought out by Swedish billionaire Lukas Mattson (Alexander Skarsgård) and he appointed Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen) to the top position.

Season 4, which aired between March and May this year, received 27 Emmy nominations, including a record-breaking number of Lead Actor nominees. Cox, Strong, and Kieran Culkin (Roman Roy) are all up for the award, the most from any one show in Emmy history. 

All four seasons of Succession are streaming now on Max in the US and NOW in the UK. For more viewing inspiration, check out our picks of the best new TV shows coming our way in 2023 and beyond.