Succession: What Real-Life Families Helped Inspire The Roys?

"Succession" ended its run in May of 2023, but its legacy as one of the best dramas to ever air on television is perfectly secure — especially in the wake of the 2023 Emmy nominations, where it earned a whopping 27 nominations for its fourth and final season. Creator and showrunner Jesse Armstrong, armed with one of the best casts and crews in the business, perfectly crafted a multi-layered character study focusing on the odious but darkly funny Roy family, led by patriarch Logan (Brian Cox) as he considers retirement and tries to figure out which of his children could possibly replace him as the CEO of Waystar Royco, his enormous media company.

The problem is that said children — Connor (Alan Ruck), Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Shiv (Sarah Snook), and Roman (Kieran Culkin) — are a bunch of absolute dolts, none of whom are capable of taking over a hot dog stand, much less a billion-dollar company. (That's precisely why Shiv's weaselly husband, Matthew Macfadyen's Tom Wamsbgans, steals the CEO gig out from under all of their noses after Logan's death.) Through its four seasons, "Succession" takes audiences through the ups and downs of wealth, privilege, and status, reminding us along the way that, yes, these are soulless, awful people who deserve very little. So which real-life families inspired Armstrong when he came up with the truly terrible Roys?

Jesse Armstrong doesn't always go into detail about his inspirations for the Roys, but when he does, he pretty much always invokes the Murdoch family. Certainly, they seem like the clearest parallel; Rupert Murdoch might be Australian while Logan Roy is Scottish, but they're both uber-powerful foreign men who manage to take over the conservative media landscape in America. Logan Roy's got the fictional Waystar Royco and news network ATN, but Murdoch, who is very, very real, owns NewsCorp, which owns just about every tabloid you can possibly think of. He also owned Sky and 21st Century Fox until 2018 and 2019, respectively... and the latter included Fox News, which emerged as the premier right-wing news network throughout the 2010s.

Like Logan, Murdoch has been married several times, and also like Logan, he's got a handful of kids who have served as his loyal footsoldiers in business. Elisabeth, Prudence (who now bears the last name MacLeod), Lachlan, and James Murdoch all work in media as the heirs to their father's legacy, heading up various different corporations and businesses that make up Murdoch's legacy. When it comes to "Succession," there's zero question that the Murdochs loom large over the fictional Roys.

This one goes back in history just a little bit, but bear with us. William Randolph Hearst was, arguably, the father of the news business; after founding Hearst Communications in 1887, he became a major American news mogul, even providing inspiration for "Citizen Kane" as he rose to absolute power. He was also... probably not the best guy in the world, considering that he was a little too friendly with Nazis (which is to say, friendly at all). Besides fascism and "Citizen Kane," the Hearst family is also probably most famous thanks to Patty Hearst, granddaughter to William Randolph, who was infamously kidnapped and held for ransom — and who ended up developing Stockholm syndrome during her time as a hostage of the Symbionese Liberation Army.

Certainly, Shiv Roy was never kidnapped and held for ransom while Logan tried to negotiate with her captors, but there's no question that the legacy of William Randolph Hearst has some influence over the story of the Roys. Hearst's legacy is still ongoing today; Hearst Communications is still going strong, and William Randolph great-granddaughter and Patty's daughter Lydia Hearst-Shaw, who's married to comedian Chris Hardwick, works as an actor and a model.

At one point, Logan teases that Shiv could surpass her siblings and become the CEO over her brothers — so imagine for a moment if that came to pass and Shiv helped Logan and his cronies install a far-right presidential candidate as the leader of the free world, as the Roys do with Jeryd Mencken (Justin Kirk) in Season 4. This fictional situation definitely feels familiar when you consider father and daughter Robert and Rebekah Mercer, who are responsible for right-wing organizations like Breitbart and Parler.

There's no question whatsoever that the Roys skew heavily conservative (just take a look at any one of ATN's over-the-top chyrons while you're rewatching "Succession") and that is indisputably true of the Mercers as well. Robert Mercer has funded numerous conservative candidates for president — including the final entry in this list — and he was a huge supporter of "Brexit" in 2016. Beyond all of that, he's responsible for Breitbart News, known as a bastion of right-wing values. In November 2017, the patriarch retired and sold his share to his daughters — and one particular daughter carried on his work. His daughter Rebekah, the Shiv to his Logan, directs the Mercer Family Foundation and founded the right-wing social media site Parler in 2018.

Jesse Armstrong hasn't necessarily named the Trump family as direct influences on "Succession," but it's hard to ignore them when it comes to stories about rich, powerful families. Logan Roy was never elected President of the United States, and Donald Trump was — but beyond that, the similarities are absolutely there. The Trump family hews closely together, just as the Roys do even in times of strife between them, and their apparent quest for world domination echoes how the Roys want to have their hands in everytype of business cookie jar that exists.

So the question remains: which Trump is which Roy? There's no question that Ivanka is Shiv, a woman who has to play a man's game (which frequently involves betraying her fellow women). Kendall is probably Don Jr. and Roman is probably Eric, but those two feel, to be honest, slightly interchangeable. One thing is for certain, though: even though she's the youngest and he's the oldest, Tiffany is definitely Connor.

"Succession" is available to stream on Max in its entirety now.