Hey, Jesse Armstrong? J. Smith Cameron has some ideas for a Succession sequel
"I feel like [Succession] was just hitting its prime if you look at its relevance to what’s going on right now," Cameron said in an interview with The A.V. Club
Succession creator Jesse Armstrong has stated in no uncertain terms that he’s not intent on returning to the hallowed board rooms of Waystar Royco (or Waystar Gojo or whatever the hell those crazy kids are calling it these days) any time soon. That’s perfectly understandable. The man gave us one of the greatest shows in recent memory and perhaps all of television history, one that will likely go down as the absolute summit of a bygone era of peak TV. He deserves a little R&R away from, in his words, the “tremendous pressure of making the show as good as we all wanted it to be.” We get it… but we’d be lying if we said begging for more wasn’t still a really tempting option.
At least we’re not alone in that feeling. J. Smith Cameron—the unflappable Gerri Kellman, of course—is right there with us. “I do feel like they had a splendid finale, and I do feel like the succession story had run its course in terms of the siblings fighting it out,” she said in a recent interview with The A.V. Club. “Just how many ways could that do that after a while?”
“But,” she continued, “I don’t think that the world of Succession… I feel like it was just hitting its prime if you look at its relevance to what’s going on right now, not just in our country but globally. Roman helps a dictator get elected—a fascist anyway—and it’s an era of disinformation and corruption in politics. Jesse, if you’re listening, there could be a sequel in my mind.” Jesse, please be listening! Kieran, your schedule can’t be that busy after winning an Emmy, right? Right? You can even bring your pal Pedro Pascal along to play a grumpy advisor or rival goofy smiling news anchor or something. Anything!
Sequel or not, Cameron has nothing but glowing reviews for everyone she worked with during her time as Waystar’s General Counsel. “It’s really hard. We were all really close and we all really loved it. It was just a superlative project in every department,” she said of leaving the series behind. “The prop people were geniuses. The wardrobe staff were geniuses. The costume designer had thoughts through her costumes about our acting. It wasn’t all about style or what looked good put together—she was thinking of our characters and how we would dress. The writing was out of this world, and I think that’s the single most important thing I always look for when I’m trying to decide what to do. It’s very bittersweet.”