The Real-Life Families That Could Have Inspired Succession

When Succession returns for its third season on October 17, the story picks up where an explosive season two finale—in which Kendall Roy publicly decried his father, Logan, as "a malignant presence, a bully, and a liar"—left off. And in anticipation of the new season, T&C is taking a look at a number of figures who could have inspired the powerful Roy family.

Before the HBO show premiered, Jesse Armstrong, the creator, executive producer, and showrunner of Succession, said that the characters are a fictional family. "There's loads of succession stories to draw on," he told Variety in 2018. "We wanted to draw on all the good, rich stories there are about succession and about media and high politics." A few years ago, however, Armstrong wrote a screenplay about the inner workings of the Murdoch family that was never produced, so that comparison is inevitable. Still, there are definitely a few other prominent families who could have inspired the series. Here, a breakdown of potential real-life Roys.