Trivia / Succession

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• Ability over Appearance: The short, stocky, bulldog-faced Brian Cox and the tall, lanky, aquiline James Cromwell are cast as brothers. It's obviously just to get such respected actors into the show.
• Actor Allusion: Not the first project to feature James Cromwell saying "That'll do."
• Acting in the Dark: Most of the cast were unaware that the show would be ending on its fourth season until they all sat down for the final table read, meaning they played their characters as though the story might continue on to a fifth season.
• Actor-Inspired Element:
  • Connor's characterization in the pilot's screenplay was extremely thin, but the director had Alan Ruck improvise some dialogue to a child, in which he drew from his real-life experience and talked about his home in New Mexico. This scene became influential in cementing Connor's character.
  • The idea for Kendall's custom baseball jersey came from his actor Jeremy Strong.
  • Logan Roy was initially meant to be Québécois, but Brian Cox suggested the character come from Scotland, like himself.
  • Ewan's progressive, left-wing views, in stark contrast to the rest of the onscreen Roys, were a demand from James Cromwell (who is also a left-wing activist, particularly environmental causes and animal rights). He wanted the character to reflect some of his real opinions if he was going to play a role about the 0.01%.
  • Logan was originally supposed to call Roman a "nancy" in Season 3. Brian Cox then noted that if Logan was going to degrade his son with homophobic language, he wouldn't hold back and the far harder hitting slur "faggot" was used instead.
  • Sarah Snook had a big hand in Shiv’s wardrobe, a mix of practical, feminine and openly wanting to be the most expensively dressed.
• Actor-Shared Background:
  • Like his character, Brian Cox is a native of Dundee, Scotland.
  • Alexander Skarsgård has a rare opportunity to play a Swede. He even embellishes his natural Swedish accent.
  • Much like Roman, Kieran Culkin also grew up with an abusive father alongside his other siblings.
  • Like Arian Moayed, Stewy is Iranian and his family immigrated to America. That said, Arian has also said that he doesn’t want that backstory brought up in the show.
• Approval of God: Reportedly, the Murdoch family, who the Roys are heavily based on, are fans of the show, though Rupert himself never watched it.
• Award Category Fraud: Despite Logan dying a third of the way into the fourth season and only appearing in posthumous footage afterwards, Brian Cox was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series ahead of the 75th Emmy Awards.
• Beam Me Up, Scotty!: Logan Roy's statement "You are not serious people" is sometimes misquoted as "You are unserious people."
• California Doubling: Long Island stands in for Hungary on the show.
• Corpsing: When Arian Moayed in "Lifeboats" is getting excited about the food in not-Starbucks, Jeremy Strong is clearly trying not to crack, smirking a little and glancing at the camera.
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer: Kieran Culkin himself is openly annoyed at the assertions that Roman is actually the youngest child, when he feels like the show made it obvious that Shiv is the youngest.
• Creator Backlash: Brian Cox says that he felt Logan's sudden death was a "rejection" of all the work he'd done and that if the character did need to die, it could have come at a later point. Also, he says he has no interest in watching his final appearance on the show, saying that he doesn't want to watch himself perform a death scene when he's coming to grips with his own mortality. Downplayed at least in that he ultimately respects Jesse Armstrong's vision for the show and wouldn't have fought him on that front if it was in service to the larger narrative.
• Creator's Oddball: Executive produced by Adam McKay and Will Ferrell, who are best known for broad comedies, though the former has been shifting towards dramatic work lately.
• Darkhorse Casting: While Brian Cox is famous (though not a household name), the rest of the cast range from character actors to virtual unknowns, so that the audience would have few preconceived expectations about the characters.
• Deleted Scene:
  • There’s so much content, so many scenes with different improvising, that a lot actually gets cut, from Frank yelling at Roman because the former is on their dad’s side, to the siblings playing cards on the yacht, to Marcia backstory with Shiv to Kendall putting a gun in his mouth while hunting.
  • Scenes of Connor and Willa exchanging wedding vows in Season 4 were shot, but ultimately left on the cutting floor.
  • After speaking his eulogy at Logan's funeral, Greg would have had one last confrontation with his grandfather, where he finally denounced him and called out his actions, while Ewan fires back at how far Greg has fallen.
• Dueling Shows: With Billions, another cable drama set in New York and populated with a cast of rich, scheming, morally bankrupt people.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Jeremy Strong (Kendall) has graying hair, but he dyes it black for the show.
• Enforced Method Acting:
  • Most of the cast was kept in the dark about Kendall's rap; while the scene was filmed several times, a lot of the audience's reactions are genuine and unscripted.
  • Knowing Jeremy Strong likes to torture himself with Method Acting anyway, director Mark Mylod had two waiters taking out trash during a scene, knowing Strong/Kendall would be reminded of the waiter Kendall killed and have a genuine reaction.
  • At times, Jeremy Strong's Method Acting tendencies got on Brian Cox's nerves while they were shooting, making the friction between Logan and Kendall on the show much more legitimate.
  • In "Connor's Wedding," Jeremy Strong had not been told where Sarah Snook was to make his desperate search for her to inform her about Logan's death appear more real.
  • Alan Ruck noted that Shiv collapsing in tears when trying to tell Connor that their father has just passed away resulted in his character's breakdown having some legitimacy behind it.
  • Nicholas Braun and Matthew Macfadyen really did slap and hit each other without much rehearsal during the Wimp Fight between Greg and Tom, allowing their characters rage to feel all the more real.
• Fake American: Shiv and Tom are played by an Australian and British actor respectively. Logan, a Scottish-born American who lost his accent, is played by the Scottish Brian Cox doing an American accent.
• Fake Nationality: The Palestinian-French Hiam Abbass plays Marcia, who is originally from Beirut. (That said, Palestinians and Lebanese are extremely similar culturally—the best Anglophone analogy is someone from Ontario playing a Michigander.)
• Fake Scot: James Cromwell is an American playing a Scottish-born Canadian.
• Fatal Method Acting:
  • Near-miss. Jeremy Strong essentially likes to make himself miserable as possible playing Kendall, and in the season one finale, where he’s diving in ice cold water multiple times, they were concerned enough to have a medic nearby just in case.
  • Another risky one: In the season 4 finale Kendall drinks a revolting concoction made from ingredients Shiv and Roman make with items chosen from the fridge at random. Even though the ingredients included tabasco sauce, chilli powder and raw eggs (on top of Sarah Snook's own spit) Strong insisted on drinking it for real. Strong also filmed a variant of the ending which shows Kendall about to jump into the Hudson River in a suicide attempt, only to be held back by Colin.
• Hostility on the Set: Brian Cox took issue with Jeremy Strong's acting style while on set, and made no secret of how it frustrated him. While Strong himself respects Cox due to his long career, he disagrees with his sentiments and continued to use Method Acting to further his portrayal of Kendall.
• Inspiration for the Work: The show's creator Jesse Armstrong authored a script about the Murdochs that never saw the light of day; he recycled the basic premise for the show.
• Irony as She Is Cast:
  • Logan is portrayed as holding very far right views and his news organization reflecting said beliefs. Brian Cox by contrast is known for holding very left-wing views, being a longtime supporter of both the UK Labour and Scottish National Party and self-identifying as a socialist. Logan also makes frequent use of private jets while Cox is a climate change activist.
  • Jeremy Strong plays the born into wealth Kendall, but comes from a really poor background, and felt out of place in Yale, as everyone there was so rich and he got in on a scholarship.
• Life Imitates Art:
  • The Murdochs had mandatory family therapy on a ranch, a fact that became known only after the Season One episode with an identical plot had aired.
  • In one of the most memorable scenes of the show, Ken delivers an equally meme- and cringeworthy rap performance at his father's birthday party. In November 2023, the very rich and very white actor Leonardo DiCaprio made headlines for performing Gang Starr's "DWYCK" at his own birthday party.
• Meme Acknowledgement: Brian Cox has noted how popular "Fuck off" has become as his signature phrase on the show. While he does enjoy saying it, he's noted that he's been asked to say it to people in particularly awkward/inappropriate situations, including a wedding and a women's rights protest march.
• Method Acting: Jeremy Strong is a glutton for punishment on this front:
  • For the Season 1 finale, Strong had the filmmakers pour buckets of ice-cold water over his head so he could really simulate having escaped from the icy cold water Kendall had crashed in early on.
  • In the season 4 finale, Shiv and Roman mix random ingredients in a blender and then goad Kendall into drinking this disgusting concoction. True to form, Jeremy Strong actually drank it.
• Missing Trailer Scene:
  • The season three trailer had Logan guilting a worried looking Shiv that nobody is on his side and she needs to protect him, nowhere to be found in the show.
  • The crew deliberately shot "dummy" scenes in Season 4 that had Logan appearing in future episodes to hide the fact that he was set to die three episodes in.
• Playing Against Type: Matthew Macfadyen's most famous role is that of Mr. Darcy, an honorable 19th century English aristocrat. On Succession, he plays Tom, an amoral 21st century "nobody" from the Midwest. Morphs into Playing with Character Type in the fourth episode of the fourth season, as he reminisces with Shiv about earlier romance and being there for her when she had a bad time, but he's still using it to reintegrate himself with the family.
• Production Posse: Adam McKay had previously worked with Jeremy Strong and the show's casting director Francine Maisler on The Big Short.
• Production Throwback: Season 3 minor character Peter Munion is a nod to The Thick of It's Peter Mannion, since showrunner Jesse Armstrong used to write on that show.
• Promoted Fanboy: Adrien Brody was a huge fan of the show while it was airing, and later got to guest-star in Season 3 as Josh Aaronson.
• Reality Subtext:
  • Kieran Culkin (Roman) and J. Smith-Cameron (Gerri) are close friends in real life and their chemistry onscreen inspired the writers to develop their characters' bizarre psycho-sexual relationship.
  • Logan is an emotionally abusive and psychologically manipulative father to his children and even hits Roman in a Season Two episode. Kieran Culkin has spoken out about his own father, notorious Stage Dad Kit Culkin, not being "a good person," having grown up witnessing his emotional and physical abuse of his brother Macaulay.
  • For the Jesse Armstrong podcast on “All The Bells Say”, they talked about how Culkin thinks he’s in a dark comedy and Strong thinking he’s in a drama (they’re both right), and how that affects the characters. Roman is a Sad Clown who gets through life and trauma with jokes, and Kendall is just openly fragile.
  • In “Whose Side Are You On”, Strong injured himself by running around constantly in dress shoes (wanting to sound out of breath and worn out), so when Kendall comes in and Logan has won, the tears are real.
  • Like Logan, Brian Cox grew up very poor, often having to rely on batter bits (the throwaways in a chip shop) to have a dinner for his family.
  • He’ll probably be the first to admit it, but Jeremy Strong is a bit like if Kendall came from a working class background and had loving parents; apparently very anxious, not a big fan of the self-love and just a teensy bit neurotic. He was actually nervous about playing Kendall and originally went for Roman, feeling like he had too much in common with the former.
  • Strong and Culkin act brotherly offset too, with No Sense of Personal Space and Culkin apparently making it his mission to make Strong corpse in scenes.
  • In season 4, Shiv is pregnant, as was Sarah Snook during the filming. On the podcast Jesse Armstrong confirmed that it was always his intention to write a pregnancy storyline for Shiv eventually, so this isn't a case of Real Life Writes the Plot but a happy coincidence which meant Snook didn’t need to wear a prosthetic bump.
• The Red Stapler: The show greatly influenced the "quiet luxury" fashion trend of the early 2020s, being listed both as an inspiration for how to follow the style on a budget and by changing perceptions in the designer clothing sector. While the brands featured in the show's wardrobe did not see any considerable increase in revenue due to their sheer price point, the show made the public more aware of various luxury brands that are mostly non-existent in the mainstream high fashion discourse, such as Brioni, Loro Piana or Zegna, but very popular among the lavishly wealthy. Regular pricey fashion houses have also followed through by cutting down on the use of flashy logos that are usually plastered all over their more affordable product ranges.
• Referenced by...:
  • In season 2 of Girls5eva Dawn and Scott are watching Business Throne, a Succession parody featuring an angry Scottish patriarch and a rogue son.
  • Platonic: Will and Peyton hooking up with each other in her apartment gets interrupted by her roommate, who wants to watch the Succession series finale with her.
  • In Joy Ride (2023), one of Lolo's bits of teasing toward Audrey about how "white" she is is that she knows the names of all the main characters on Succession.
  • Harley Quinn (2019): While planning to defeat Lex Luthor by convincing enough board members to oust him as CEO of the Legion of Doom, Harley compares Ivy to Logan and Lex to Kendall.
  • Dynasty (2017):
    Jeff: Only Fallon Carrington could turn her mother's wedding into an episode of Succession.
    Fallon: Please, this is real life, that show is like a comic book.
• Separated-at-Birth Casting: James Cromwell is believable as Nicholas Braun's grandfather; as both actors are 6'7", it's easy to see who Cousin Greg gets his lanky physique from.
• Star-Making Role:
  • While he had been in a few projects of note beforehand, this show greatly boosted Jeremy Strong's profile, as he not only won an Emmy for his work, but would go on to be cast in several big projects after it debuted.
  • While she'd done some fairly high-profile work before, both in the US and her native Australia, Sarah Snook also had a bit of a breakthrough as well, including awards love and some more high profile roles.
  • Nicholas Braun received a similar boost in renown and roles following the show's success.
• Throw It In!:
  • Some of the cast's ad-libs make it into the final product, and several scenes (such as Kendall's bathroom breakdown and Logan's birthday dinner in the first episode) are entirely improvised.
  • Kieran Culkin and Sarah Snook came up with Roman slapping Shiv and Shiv trapping Roman in a headlock respectively during their Wimp Fight in the second episode.
  • The scene where Roman goes to save Kendall from his new meth buddies was completely improvised.
  • The crying in the number one boy scene was improvised as well, apparently just coming out of a harrowing shoot and Kendall finally breaking after everything that's happened to him.
  • Most everyone in the cast didn't know about "L to the OG" until it was actually performed. Though the scene was shot again, some of the first reactions made the final cut. Shiv was meant to look on disapprovingly, but Sarah Snook found the whole thing so hilarious she couldn't contain her laughter which they decided worked for the character as well and kept it in.
  • In "Too Much Birthday", Matthew Macfadyen improvised Tom kissing Greg on the forehead.
  • When Kendall was in the dirt during “All The Bells Say” (itself this trope, as Strong was curling up in a reaction to the Mylod-placed waiter treats), and crying, it was unscripted for Sarah Snook to pet his head and Kieran Culkin to put his hands supportively on his shoulders.
  • Sarah Snook and Matthew Macfayden improvised the aftermath of Shiv finding out that Tom had betrayed them, as the script ends on “Tom heads on in, to find the three siblings together, a hand held here, a bit of support there, broken, but together.”
  • Kendall coming to life and yelling at Logan to not touch Roman came out of Jeremy Strong, as he felt like it was a natural Big Brother Instinct when the characters have been raised in an abusive family.
  • Kendall, Roman and Shiv's emotional group hug at the end of "Connor's Wedding" was similarly improvised.
  • Kendall's awkward attempt to adjourn the meeting even after he already lost the vote to scrap the sale in "With Open Eyes" was improvised by Jeremy Strong.
  • Greg and Tom's Wimp Fight in the climax of "With Open Eyes" was done with little preparation from Matthew Macfadyen and Nicholas Braun.
• Typecasting:
  • Brian Cox has played King Lear in the past, and he plays a Lear-esque figure on the show.
  • Kendall cemented Jeremy Strong’s type as playing sadboys (abused or not, his first play was playing a guy who didn’t know if he’d been sexually abused in childhood) who cry a lot, that already being most of his movies.
• Underage Casting: Brian Cox (Logan) and Alan Ruck (Connor) are only 10 years apart in real life, yet they play father and son on the show.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Kieran Culkin (Roman Roy) was initially asked to read for the part of Cousin Greg.
  • Jeremy Strong wanted to play Roman but ended up losing the part to Culkin. He was offered the chance to audition for Kendall instead. Strong claims the disappointment he felt over not getting the original part helped him get into Kendall's headspace.
  • Logan Roy was supposed to die sometime during the first season, but the idea was scrapped after people up above realized how important Logan was in regards to his close family, and how their vices stem from him. This is likely the reason why Logan's deteriorating health was built up so much early in the season, and only comes up again when Logan dies suddenly in the final season.
  • The “you’re my number one boy” scene was originally going to have "My Heart Belongs To Daddy" by Ella Fitzgerald playing over it, which is about a flirty woman in love with her sugar daddy.
  • There’s another take of the Logan/Kendall scene in “Chiantishire” where Brian Cox shouted his lines, and Strong burst into tears. (in the aired scene, Logan leaves and Kendall starts to shake and cry, but it ends before he completely breaks down)
  • Sarah Snook initially turned down the Shiv role because she was worried she would just be a sidelined woman in a business bro show. J. Smith Cameron also had similar concerns.
  • Jeremy Strong filmed an alternate take of the show's final scene with Kendall attempting suicide at the Hudson River rather than the more subdued walk which was shown on broadcast.
  • Alan Ruck asked to have Connor killed off in Season 3 due to the character being Out of Focus and only appearing in group scenes for most of Season 2. However, the writers assured him that the character would have greater importance further down the line, resulting in Connor surviving the entire show.
• Why Fandom Can't Have Nice Things: Jeremy Strong tends to be really involved in intense Kendall meta, and fandom loves him for it, but after an article that went viral and he got a lot of "cringe" hate in reactions from Twitter and article writers, he's admitted more than once to feel the need to shut up.
• Word of Gay:
  • Arian Moayed has seen all the shipping and is more than happy to confirm that Kendall and Stewy have at least had sex in the past.
  • Dagmara Dominczyk wants Karolina to act out, and said the character would sleep with Kendall, Roman or Shiv if she could.
  • Georgia Pritchett said that none of the kids are straight, and move around in circles where anything goes, not that this makes them any less fucked up.
• Word of God: When asked following the finale what could be next for the Roy siblings after each failed to take over Waystar, creator Jesse Armstrong lays out the following scenario: Roman most likely spends his time being a wanton playboy jerk, Shiv is left emotionally frozen and will "struggle to progress" along with Tom, and Kendall possibly finds modest success outside of Waystar but will never measure up to Logan.
• Word of Saint Paul: The actors are all very aware of their characters’ Jerkass Woobie status, as well as the vague but horrifying backstory hints, and put a lot of thought into them or what they think happened. Jesse Armstrong encourages it, and actor fanon can sometimes enter the show.
  • Strong is into sadboy Kendall as much as anyone, and as well believing the guy was never read to as a child, he’s also talked about how Kendall might have been a better person, or at least felt better about being “soft”, if he hadn’t been raised with dinosaur attitudes of masculinity all around him.
  • According to Juliana Canfield, Jess puts up with a lot from Kendall because she’s fond of him, and thinks she can fix the both wasted and stunted potential he has.
  • Sarah Snook’s early fanon of Shiv turned to Tom when she was in a bad place made it into the show, and she’s expanded that Shiv felt like he was safe, that she tried to find/control a man who wasn’t like her father so she could protect herself and not end up like Kendall. She also made up some backstory of Shiv being rebellious in her early twenties, but being smart about it, Dating What Daddy Hates (a London music producer) and going out through the kitchen instead of out the front doors.
  • Brian Cox believes that Logan does love his children, but he was so brutalized that he both uses them as revenge against the world that hurt him, and needs them too much to ever fully let go of them. He also believes that Logan doesn’t think any of them loves him and that they just want him gone, no matter how many times they react like beaten dogs.
  • Alan Ruck believes Connor suffered from undiagnosed ADHD as a kid (and still does) and was treated like a prince before his mother was divorced, then he was left out in the cold.
  • Jesse Armstrong made up some backstory for Kendall and the security guard, saying Kendall came into the office when he was six, everyone was kind to him, but then he wandered off, and got found by the guard who didn’t know this was Logan’s son. It escalated, leaving the boy a stuttering mess until Logan found him again.
  • Kiernan Culkin talked about the dog cage thing, and his and Strong’s vibe on it is that Roman rewrote the memories to make it look like Kendall was the abusive one (not that his brother is absolved of often lashing out), to cover up how much he felt after Logan’s far worse abuse.
  • Harriet Walter has it that although Caroline bears a lot of responsibility for how her children have turned out, she’s also felt beaten down by Logan, and considers them more mini versions of him than anything else, and so is a bit scared of them, not factoring in that they might need her.
  • According to Sway Bhatia, who plays Sophie, she and Iverson are becoming by season three more aware of how fucked up, depressed and nasty their father can be.
  • J Smith Cameron’s view is that Gerri went into the bathroom and cried after the conversation with Shiv in “Chiantishire”, not wanting to be vulnerable to anyone but especially not Shiv.
• Written-In Infirmity: Connor has a broken arm in "Too Much Birthday" because Alan Ruck had actually broken his arm shoveling snow.