The fourth and final series of superlative drama Succession hits screens this week. The Sky Atlantic satire follows the exploits of the dizzyingly wealthy and highly dysfunctional Roy family, who are jostling for control of their father’s media empire – and as well as plot twists, it provides plenty of travel inspiration.
While much of the drama takes place in New York City, the show has previously ventured to Croatia, the Hamptons and Tuscany to accurately portray the lives, and property empires, of these one percenters. And it’s certainly going out with a bang, with scenes for the new season filmed along Norway’s spectacular west coast.
Here we run through the globe-trotting series’ most glittering filming locations over the years and look ahead to the swish settings of its final turn.
Norway
Norway’s Atlanterhavsveien features in the new season of Succession
Credit: getty
Expect to see Norway’s dramatic west coast to provide the backdrop to some pivotal scenes in season four. According to reports, tech billionaire Lukas Mattson (played by Alexander Skarsgård) – who is poised to buy the family company – will treat the Roys to a tour of his homeland.
Producer Scott Ferguson confirmed to Variety that the Nordic country will feature prominently in the final season. “Norway is a glorious, natural setting. It immediately seemed like a perfect place for a family gathering in the series. We studied different countries, but realised Norway just has this exceptional landscape, like nowhere else in the world.”
Among the locations featured are the Atlantic Ocean Road (or Atlanterhavsveien). Often described as the world’s best commute, the highway offers a scenic journey through an archipelago of partially inhabited islands and islets and was also featured in the latest Bond film, No Time to Die.
We’re also set to see a company showdown at the Eggen Restaurant, found at the summit of Nesaksla Mountain. The sky-high structure offers panoramic views of the surrounding mountains and fjord and can be reached by the Romsdal gondola, a state-of-the-art electric cable car. Stop for coffee and cake before tackling the steep downhill descent, which takes in various viewpoints along the way.
Filming also took place at Kjeragbolten, a mountain in the south of the country known for its terrifying Pulpit Rock, a popular-but-perilous photo spot.
It wouldn’t be Succession without a little luxury accommodation and this will come in the form of the remote eco-resort Juvet Landscape Hotel, which previously appeared in the 2014 sci-fi thriller, Ex Machina. Its nine rooms (most of which are glass-and-timber cubes on stilts) are scattered throughout a forest on an old farm estate less than an hour east of Alesund. Meals take place in a converted cow shed and there’s a spa for post-hike soaks in the hot tub. Rooms start at around £350 per night.
New York City
The Plaza, on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, has featured in innumerable productions down the years
Credit: Barry Winiker
The Big Apple is the main stage for the Roys’ boardroom antics, with the exterior shots for the headquarters of family company, Waystar Royco, filmed at 28 Liberty Street in Downtown Manhattan’s Financial District. The 60-floor skyscraper has been a staple of the New York skyline since the 1960s and in real life is home to a string of banking firms, plus the slick top-floor Manhatta restaurant, which offers views of almost every inch of the island.
A memorable scene in the first-ever episode of the series sees the family fly out of the Pier 6 Heliport on the East River in Lower Manhattan for a family softball game. Mere mortals can spot the choppers ferrying financial types back and forth from the deck of the East River Ferry, which drifts past the pier en route to Brooklyn.
As for property, Logan Roy (Brian Cox), keeps it classic with a Fifth Avenue residence on a stretch known as Billionaire’s Row, though interior shots are filmed at Silvercup Studios in Queens. His daughter Shiv (Sarah Snook) and her husband Tom’s (Matthew Macfadyen) ultra-modern penthouse has unbeatable views of the Brooklyn Bridge and is thought to be in Tribeca.
A number of high-end New York hotels have been used over the years, including the Mandarin Oriental in Columbus Circle, New York Marriott Marquis and frequent Fifth Avenue film star, The Plaza. According to reports, series four will feature the Mark (where Meghan Markle hosted her baby shower) and the Jean-Georges restaurant in Trump Tower.
The Shed, a multi-use arts centre in the glitzy Hudson Yards development, played host to Kendall’s excruciating birthday party in season three – where guests memorably entered through a womb. Production designer Stephen Carter says the location (an “over-the-top vanity project” to its critics) was chosen as it reflected Kendall’s personality.
Croatia
Korcula, where the tense final episode of Succession season two was filmed
Credit: Getty
In what was arguably one of the show’s finest hours, season two’s finale saw the gang decamp to a yacht off Croatia to continue their high-stakes squabbles. On-board scenes were filmed in the waters around the islands of Korcula and Mljet, which lie towards the southern end of the Dalmatian Coast and are popular with jet-setting oligarchs.
The shoot moved to dry land for a crushing conversation between Tom and Shiv, where he tells her: “I wonder if the sad I’d be without you is more than the sad I am with you”, which was filmed on a quiet beach on Korcula.
As for the yacht itself, the opulent 279-ft Solandge vessel features a swimming pool, spa, cinema and helipad, and costs up to £850,000 to rent for a week in peak season.
Italy
Villa Cetinale ,a Baroque, 17th-century country house originally built for Pope Alexander VII, sits eight miles west of Siena
Credit: getty
The last few episodes of season three were memorably set in Tuscany. Creator Jesse Armstrong told Vulture magazine that while the region might not be a social-signifier to Americans, “Tuscany has this particular flavour for the English upper class. Some call it Chiantishire, in a slightly sickening way.”
Much of the action was centred around the wedding venue Villa Cetinale, a Baroque, 17th-century country house originally built for Pope Alexander VII, eight miles west of Siena. The fabulous property, which has 13 bedrooms, an elegant pool and outstanding gardens, is available to rent for up to £48,000 a week in the summer months. Another scene was shot at La Terrazza Del Chiostro, a restaurant in Pienza which offers panoramic views over the Tuscan hills.
While not featured in the show, Vulture revealed where some of the cast stayed during the summer shoot, with Brian Cox holing up at the ADLER Spa Resort Thermae, which has some of the most impressive spa facilities in the region, including is a magnificent indoor-outdoor thermal pool complex where the water bubbles from the earth at 51C. Others, including Kieran Culkin (who plays Roman Roy), booked spacious villas in the Tuscan countryside.
The Hamptons
Montauk Point in the Hamptons, which has long been a haunt of New York’s monied elite
Credit: getty
Like all good monied Americans, the Roys are often found in Long Island’s most chi-chi resort towns, where Logan has a supersize residence. In reality, the mogul’s 42-acre beachside property was built for Henry Ford’s grandson in 1960 and is known as the ‘Summer Palace’. The 12-bedroom holiday home with a 60-ft pool is available to rent for a staggering $200,000 (£145,000) a week and is known as the Hamptons’ most expensive property, worth an estimated $175 million (£127 million).
In season three, the hiking scene where Logan collapsed was shot at Montauk’s Shadmoor State Park and along its 2,400-ft beach. Josh Aaronson’s (Adrien Brody) glassy modern mansion, meanwhile, is found in Wainscott, which counts Beyoncé and Jay-Z among its residents.
Scotland
Scenes from season 2 of Succession take place at the Gleneagles Hotel
The family jets over to Logan’s (and Brian Cox’s) hometown of Dundee for the 50th anniversary of Waystar Royco, and some scenes take place at the riverside V&A museum – most notably Kendall Roy’s (Jeremy Strong) excruciating ‘L to the OG’ rap.
Opened in 2018, the sharp-edged futuristic building was inspired by the eastern cliff edges of Scotland and designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, who was also behind a stadium at the Tokyo Olympics. Other scenes take place at the grand golf hotel Gleneagles.
Other episodes filmed in the British Isles include Tom and Shiv’s grand but rather depressing wedding, which took place at Herefordshire’s Eastnor Castle. The Grade I-listed mock-medieval property has been featured in many film and television productions over the years, including the 2012 Wallis Simpson biopic, W.E., and American reality series, The Amazing Race.