It’s remarkable, really, that the Succession team was able to keep Logan’s death a secret. (Please do not yell at me for “spoiling” the big man’s death now. It’s been a month.) It wasn’t an easy endeavorer.
“HBO were fantastic with their resources and the advice they gave with the benefit of their experience, trying to keep a secret in the social media universe,” director Mark Mylod told the Hollywood Reporter following Logan’s funeral episode. To prevent his death from leaking, Team Succession replaced every “Logan” in the scripts with “Ewan,” his brother played by James Cromwell. “We played it as if Jamie’s character had passed. When it came to the funeral in episode nine, we billed it in all of our scripts, and even in posters outside the church, as if it was Ewan’s funeral,” Mylod said. “That was phase one.”
Phase two involved hundreds of non-disclosure agreements.
“The next thing was the classic non-disclosure agreements we asked all of our background actors to sign. When you have literally many hundreds of background people for several days, their ability to stick an anonymous Reddit post up … there are ways, I’m sure. But nobody did.”
Mylod appealed to their humanity. “Let’s not spoil the enjoyment for fans of the show. Let’s have this as our little secret. Let’s not tell anybody. Keep it quiet. Obviously, tell your partners at home, but please keep it under your hats,” he told the extras. It worked. Probably because if they said anything, HBO would sue them for everything they’ve got. But, sure, the other reason, too.
(Via the Hollywood Reporter)