How Succession Compares To The Murdochs, The Un-Filmed Screenplay By Series Creator Jesse Armstrong
The fictional Roy family of "Succession" is often compared to the real-life Murdoch media dynasty, which owns the conglomerate News Corp and the Fox brand. The parallels are far from coincidental. About a decade before "Succession" premiered, series creator Jesse Armstrong wrote a feature script, "The Murdochs," about the eponymous family. The script was never produced — contemporary reporting at Forbes by Jeff Bercovici suggests this is because no backers were willing to fund such controversial subject matter and risk angering the Murdochs.
There's precedence. In 1941, William Randolph Hearst made it his mission to bury "Citizen Kane" because he was convinced the film was an attack on him. It's easy to imagine Murdoch, a modern-day media baron of Hearst's same stature, doing the same to a film that aired his family's dirty laundry.
This might also be why Armstrong has downplayed the connection between his show and the Murdochs. However, I've read "The Murdochs" — or rather, Armstrong's fourth draft of it, dated December 7, 2009 — and can promise you that it is indeed the seed from which "Succession" sprung. Just how close is it to the final product?
The story of The Murdochs
"The Murdochs" is 118 pages (minus the cover), which translates into a two-hour feature with maybe a minute to spare. It's set in 2009 on the 78th birthday of Rupert Murdoch, or as the script calls him, "KRM," short for "Keith Rupert Murdoch." His four adult children — Prudence, Elisabeth (the script misspells her name as "Elizabeth"), Lachlan, and James — all attend.
The script has three main subplots: James (who was CEO of News Corp in Europe and Asia when the script was written/set) is trying to buy a startup nicknamed "Chinese Facebook" and has to get his father's approval. Leo Walsh, a reporter for an unnamed Murdoch outlet, is reporting on a mine collapse in Zambia while his editor Michael Rowle tries to up circulation. Clare/Claire (the script alternates between both spellings), a junior news producer, starts her first day at Fox News.
The central conflict, though, takes place during the celebration. KRM tries to get his children to sign off on a revision to the family trust, one that will give his two youngest children — Chloe and Grace — board seats at News Corp when they come of age. In practice, this would give KRM's wife and the children's mother Wendi two board seats. Due to this and their own unique conflicts with their father, the siblings refuse to sign off. The script ends with "The Man Who Owns The News" stewing in defeat.
Parallels to Succession
If this sounds familiar to any "Succession" fans, it should. This is more or less the story of the pilot episode: Logan's children gather for his 80th birthday and he tries to get them to change the family trust. Unlike KRM, though, Logan (Brian Cox) doesn't have any younger children and so the revision is explicitly about giving more power to his current wife, Marcia.
During the "Succession" pilot, Kendall (Jeremy Strong) makes a deal for Waystar Royco to acquire Vaulter, an internet-based media start-up. This is assuredly based on James trying to buy "Chinese Facebook" in the "Murdochs" script. In both versions, the heir apparent gets what he wants.
"Succession," however, does not have any counterparts to Leo or Clare. Their purpose, to show how the Murdoch empire has corrupted journalism, only becomes clear towards the end. Rowle declines to run Leo's story about the mine collapse since it's not sexy enough. So, he feeds it to environmental activist Sharon Georgson, whom Clare has booked for a guest spot on Fox. Sharon doesn't make it on the air either because a "semi-literate" pro-climate change activist "The Vonk" takes up her time.
The "Succession" pilot only has one hour to tell its story, so zeroing in on the internal dynamics of our main cast — the Roy family — makes sense. That's also why "Succession" uses Cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun) as the audience surrogate. While Clare offers an outsider's look at Fox News, Greg offers one into the Roy family itself.
The world beneath
I'd say "Succession" is less concerned with "the little people" than "The Murdochs" is. The series even depicts the Roys as divorced from reality in more ways than one. Episodes often unfold in isolated settings — boardrooms, penthouses, vacation homes, yachts — away from the prying eyes. Service workers sometimes appear in the background of frames, but they're always out of focus and almost part of the scenery itself. To people of the Roys' stature, that's all they are.
That said, the show doesn't neglect to mention that Waystar Royco is a corrosive force. The series' opening credits show snippets of ATN "news" segments ("Gender-Fluid Illegals May Be Entering The Country Twice"). In the season 2 episode "Dundee," Logan's liberal brother Ewan (James Cromwell) once jokes, "The Logan Roy School of Journalism. What's next, the Jack the Ripper Women's Health Clinic?"
"Succession" dealt with this most directly in season 4, episode 8, "America Decides," when the Roys help swing the presidential election to fascist Jeryd Mencken (Justin Kirk). However, it all unfolds within the ATN HQ — we only see events through the eyes of the people in power.
Logan or Rupert?
How do the Roys themselves compare with the Murdochs — or rather, Armstrong's perception of them? Logan and KRM have a lot in common. They're both impatient and vindictive, though KRM is quieter and doesn't have as explosive a temper as Logan. Several dialogue tags simply have him mutter "Guh."
KRM is introduced dying his hair, emphasizing a physical frailty he's trying to hide. Logan, meanwhile, is introduced deliriously urinating on his own carpet. After taking care of his hair, KRM looks over the next editions of the newspapers he owns. Logan has the same love for old media — season 1 features him buying up local TV news stations to Kendall's consternation.
Then there's encroaching mortality. In his intro scene, KRM gets a call from his doctor and mishears the diagnosis as "balign." We only see KRM's side of the conversation, so we never learn the truth. Is he terminally ill? He tells Wendi no, but in a last-ditch effort to get the kids onboard with the trust, he tells them he's dying. If your children suspect you're lying about having cancer to get your way, odds are you've failed as a parent.
The real Rupert Murdoch is still alive as of 2023. "Succession" got to push the envelope with Logan's death and his children's reactions this past season. Logan's last attempt at reconciliation in "Rehearsal," where he tells his children he misses them and even says "sorry," is a moment of weakness like KRM "confessing" his disease. Like in "The Murdochs," the sentiment is tainted by money and prior abuse.
When Lachlan decides he's a no on the trust vote, he says: "Screw you, Dad. I love you, Dad." This carries the same meaning as Kendall's last words to Logan: "I love you. I can't forgive you. But it's okay."
The Murdoch/Roy kids
What about the kids? Prudence is the inspiration for Connor Roy (Alan Ruck), the oldest, least important sibling with a different mother than the rest. Prudence doesn't have Connor's same eccentricities — those come from Alan Ruck himself — and her main concern is getting her father's acknowledgment. In particular, she wants an apology for when he accidentally said he had "three children" in an interview.
Elisabeth is Shiv (Sarah Snook) — she works outside the family business because her father won't make a woman his heir. While Shiv went into politics, Elisabeth founded the TV production company the Shine Group. Her then-husband, Matthew Freud, gets the most focus on the Murdoch spouses (barring Wendi) in the script, mirroring the important role that Shiv's husband Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen) plays in "Succession."
Matthew, a social-climbing PR executive, is recruited by KRM to convince Elisabeth into signing the revised trust. She catches on and is baffled that her own husband is running PR for her father. This calls to mind Tom's eventual betrayal of Shiv to Logan in the "Succession" season 3 finale, "All The Bells Say."
Speaking of: true to reality, the Murdochs are all married. In "Succession," Kendall is divorced, Roman (Kieran Culkin) is mostly single, Shiv is in a rocky marriage, and Connor is seeing call girl Willa Ferreyra (Justine Lupe). Giving the siblings different types of relationships opened up the door for more storytelling possibilities befitting a TV series.
Brotherhood
The hardest parallels to pin down are the Murdoch/Roy brothers. Since Lachlan is older than James, you might think that means Kendall is Lachlan and Roman is James. Alternatively, since James is KRM's successor in the script while Lachlan is on the outs, maybe it's the other way around.
The truth is that neither Kendall nor Roman matches up one-to-one with the real Murdoch brothers, in Armstrong's script or real life. Armstrong writes James with the same tech bro bravado as Kendall — one of the first words out of his mouth is "coolio" and he wants to move News Corp towards new media. However, James is also more ruthless and competent — he's the one who leads the "no" vote on revising the family trust and keeps his siblings (loosely) united. When his father claims he's dying, James asks: "How does this make a difference?" In James' introduction, the script says: "Even when James acts like a prick, his observations are not stupid." That description fits Roman quite well too, more so than Kendall.
Lachlan, who left News Corp in 2005 (he's since returned), plays the part of the prodigal son in the script. Roman, likewise, had been playing second fiddle to Kendall when "Succession" begins. However, Lachlan is more serious than Roman — he's introduced on page 8 flipping through business news channels, something Roman would probably find boring. Lachlan has Roman's aloofness, but he lacks the perversions and snide sense of humor. If anything, James is more the trickster of the Murdochs. On pages 77-78, he mocks Lachlan for having "already had the train set" while Lachlan gets indignant.
The characterizations of James and Lachlan compared to Kendall and Roman shows how the Murdochs (the script and the people) were ultimately just a seed for "Succession." Over the four seasons that we had with the Roys, they became much more than just parodies.
The writing style
How does Armstrong's actual writing compare with "Succession"? The style is quite similar and it boils down to how the characters communicate. There's the same sense of profane humor in both the script and the show. Take this exchange on page 3 of "The Murdochs."
KRM: So is it going up or down how many papers you're selling?
MICHAEL ROWLE: Well if you mean, I mean — year on year or I mean month against — because, I forget but on the month, not this month but last month, compared to the previous year's month that was actually...
KRM: Yeah and if you compare a strawberry to an onion it's much f***ing sweeter.
Tell me you can't picture this as an exchange between Logan and Tom or Greg. Like "Succession," the humor in "The Murdochs" isn't restricted to dialogue. James is introduced on page 12 riding in "a chauffeur-driven Prius," a contrast that tells you everything you need to know about him and his convictions.
"The Murdochs" occasionally uses passages of dual dialogue to convey characters speaking over each other — characters often do so in "Succession," talking just to get the last word in and almost never saying what they're really feeling. That's because Jesse Armstrong trusts his audience to understand his characters without him gifting them all the pieces.
The finale of "Succession" airs on HBO and streams on HBO Max on May 28, 2023, at 9 p.m. EST.