Nicholas Braun on Fans Upset Over Greg’s ‘Succession’ Ending
Nicholas Braun has a message for all the fans who wanted more for Greg in the Succession series finale: Greg will come out on top.
The Saturday Night star stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon ahead of the theatrical release of the upcoming film, in which he plays both Andy Kaufman and Jim Henson. During the late night conversation, the host asked the Emmy-nominated actor about his thoughts on the Succession series finale.
“I thought the episode was amazing,” Braun told Jimmy Fallon. “Fans are kind of generally, like, a little bit upset at how it ended with Greg. And they’ll come up to me — and he did great — but some people are like, you know, ‘He should have gotten it all.’ Like, ‘I thought he was going to, you know, get everything.’”
He continued, “And I’m like, ‘He kind of did. Like, he’s that close.’ Like, you know, if you do one more season, he takes over Tom. He’ll jump. So, you know, give us one more and it’s Greg time.”
Succession ended with Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen) coming out on top as CEO of Waystar Royco after Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgard) bought it, and Shiv (Sarah Snook) chose him over Kendall (Jeremy Strong) to lead the company.
Greg, after playing the field a bit and betraying Tom by telling the siblings what was going on behind the scenes with Matsson, Tom forgives him and tells Greg he’s bringing him with him.
“One way to think about it is that the deal, the sort of contract that Tom offers Greg at the end of season three about joining him on the dark side and ‘sell your soul,’ basically, and, ‘I’ll take care of you,’” Braun previously told The Hollywood Reporter about why he thinks Tom forgave Greg. “That’s the promise, and I think he’s keeping that promise. He’s saying, ‘I know you are doing shit, which is basically selling your soul. And I just want to say: I got you.’ And maybe there is some pride in it for Tom, like when Greg tries to blackmail him with the documents. And Tom can’t go into this CEO position without a wingman.”
While a part of the Cat Person star would’ve liked to see Kendall Roy ascend the Waystar Royco throne, another part feels like it was more satisfying for the successor to be Tom because there may have been something “underwhelming” about the siblings getting it.
“There’s something about giving it to Tom, giving it to an outsider,” Braun noted. “Tom and Greg are both outsiders and the fact that those two guys end up together winning, that just feels like such a big ending and the right way to go out.”
