Sources have confirmed that Succession tells the story of a family based on a well-known name.
Succession is quite a popular series, which premiered in 2018 on HBO Max. It has now reached as many as 4 seasons, and the last one is slowly coming to an end. The story revolves around Logan Roy – the stern and a rather unpleasant CEO of Waystar Royco, which is a huge American media and entertainment company.
The main character is not fond of his children, whose sole purpose in the series is to take his position. And although the director doesn’t treat them well, he would like to hand over his role to just one of them, and none of them are letting go of their fight to take over the leadership in the company.
Is Succession based on facts?
There have long been rumors about Succession that the series is built on a true story and a real family, possibly inspired by certain events and people. The creators never gave their viewers a clear answer on this subject, but fans continued to dream up their theories about the veracity of the plot. Many comparisons of this type were even created on the Internet.
And in many ways, they are very right. Although there has never been a clear affirmative answer from the directors, it is officially known that the series is inspired by several well-known names. One of them in particular is Rupert Murdoch and his children.
A few years ago, we had the opportunity to read an article in The Guardian that told of Hollywood scripts that were banned and blacklisted. One of them was the one written by Jesse Armstrong, which told the story of a well-known name who “tries to convince his older children to trust him enough that his younger children, along with his newest wife, will have a say in the company.” The film was to be directly titled as “Murdoch.”
And although the idea for the film turned out to be really good, it was never released, instead being blacklisted. However, after appropriate modifications, it was brought to the current concept of Succession. Jesse Armstrong himself told Radio Times about it.
I’d written a screenplay about Rupert Murdoch’s family and it never got made. And it got me interested in the similarities between all these guys — Murdoch, Robert Maxwell and Conrad Black — who are passing from their position of predominance as tech takes over. But, also, how cable news and newspapers are still shaping our political climate.
And although the director often jokes about it in various interviews and pretends that the plot is completely made up, he still often gives viewers various glimpses, proving that there is something to it after all. Before season 3 of Succession came out, Jesse Armstrong explicitly said that he was inspired by Rupert Murdoch’s quotes.
What’s more – it’s interesting to note that one of Murdoch’s conditions during the divorce process with model Jerry Hall was that the woman could not provide HBO with ideas for possible further stories that could accidentally inspire the creators. So it seems that even the man himself is aware of his “unofficial” appearance in the series.