Succession fans devastated by newspaper spoiler: ‘I genuinely can’t believe it’

A US newspaper has infuriated Succession fans on Sunday (9 April) after publishing a major spoiler minutes after the newest episode finished airing.

The third episode of the HBO drama’s fourth and final season featured a dramatic twist, which fans have labelled “historic”.

*Warning – Major spoilers ahead for Succession*

On Sunday evening, the LA Times published a parody obituary for Logan Roy – the show’s media mogul character played by Brian Cox – after the character’s unexpected death.

“Logan Roy, conservative media mogul who shaped contemporary politics, dies at 84,” the tongue-in-cheek title read.

“A spokesperson for HBO, which has handled media for Waystar Royco since 2018, declined the Times’ repeated requests to make anyone available for comment,” the publication wrote.

While some called the Times iconic for publishing an obituary for the beloved character, others were furious that his death had been reported openly before they’d had the chance to see the episode.

Succession airs at 9pm ET in the US and 2am in the UK, meaning many European viewers catch up on the most recent episode on Monday evening.

“The @latimes is so f***ing s***ty for how they ruined #Succesion for so many people tonight. I genuinely can’t believe they did what they did. The kind of s*** people stopped doing 15 years ago level amateur,” one fan fumed on Twitter.

“Me at whomever scheduled that piece at the LA Times to publish within minutes of this week’s #Succession episode premiering,” another tweeted alongside a photo of Logan Roy with the caption, “Are you a sicko?”

“Hope whoever made the decision to push out that huge succession advertorial spoiler in the LA Times before the episode even aired on the West Coast has a good one tomorrow lol,” wrote another.

In a statement shared with The Independent, a Times spokesperson said: “Succession is a show that’s appointment TV for its fans, with many people watching and commenting live on social media in real-time.

“We understand that people who saw our story before they watched the episode may be upset. We felt that the character Logan Roy was so richly conceived that he deserved a proper send-off, and that it was important to be part of the conversation in real-time.

“We did not publish ahead of events in the episode, and took steps to minimize spoilers on our social media accounts, but know the story was widely shared among people who watch the show.”

At the end of the episode, the cast were featured in post-credit interviews where they described the emotional toll filming Logan’s death had taken on them.

Sarah Snook (Shiv Roy) said: “Being in that frame of mind for two weeks at a time is not healthy.”

Cox reacted to the seismic episode and the end of his character’s reign in an interview with Deadline published Sunday.

“Well, he was very good about that, Jesse [Armstrong], because he told me right before the season started, this was going to happen. And I knew that I was going to be going,” he said.

“I’m very proud of myself, that I managed to keep this secret. You know, I thought, wow, Brian, for the first time ever, you’ve actually kept a secret. It’s such a big secret.”

Succession is available to stream on NOW and Sky Atlantic every Monday, and continues in the US on HBO on Sundays.

Find The Independent’s recap of the episode here.