Succession's Matthew Macfadyen Was In One Of The Worst Alexandre Dumas Adaptations Ever
Throughout the years, French author Alexandre Dumas' books "The Count of Monte Cristo" and "The Three Musketeers" have been adapted over and over and over again ... but I bet you didn't know that eventual "Succession" star Matthew Macfadyen appeared in one of the very worst retellings of the latter.
That's right: in 2011, Macfadyen played one of the titular Musketeers — specifically, Athos — alongside Ray Stevenson as Porthos and Luke Evans as Aramis, with Logan Lerman co-starring as D'artagnan, a young man who dreams of becoming the "fourth" Musketeers despite learning that the group parted ways after their former ally Milady de Winter (Milla Jovovich) betrayed them. With Mads Mikkelsen also appearing as the formidable Captain Rochefort (the head of the guard for Christoph Waltz's Cardinal Richelieu, a famous real-life French Catholic statesman), "Ted Lasso" standout Juno Temple playing Anne of Austria, and Orlando Bloom portraying the evil Duke of Buckingham, this sounds like a pretty good project, right?
Wrong! While "The Three Musketeers" did at least make back its $75 million budget by grossing $132.3 million at the box office, its reviews were ... pretty bad. Part of this was probably due to director Paul W.S. Anderson's weird steampunk approach to the material, but at least Macfadyen seemed to escape the situation relatively unscathed; reviewing the movie for the New York Times, Stephen Holden wrote that, of the Musketeers, "only Matthew Macfadyen's Athos exhibits the semblance of a personality." Still, as of this writing, the film only has a 27% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, putting it firmly in the "rotten" category. Perhaps this is why Macfadyen, whose biggest role prior to that was as Mr. Darcy in Joe Wright's 2005 adaptation of "Pride & Prejudice," avoided too much scrutiny over this cinematic mess.
Thankfully, Matthew Macfadyen redeemed himself as a great actor on Succession
Like I said, Matthew Macfadyen earned a loyal following after his pitch-perfect take on Mr. Darcy in "Pride & Prejudice" — anyone familiar with his infamous "hand flex" totally knows what I'm talking about — and eventually, he gained near-universal acclaim and plenty of fame thanks to Jesse Armstrong's hit HBO series "Succession." Armstrong's show (which itself is, at least at first, a pretty obvious modern take on William Shakespeare's family tragedy "King Lear," in which the children of a king squabble over who will succeed him as he weakens physically) casts Macfadyen as Tom Wambsgans, a guy from humble beginnings in St. Paul, Minnesota, who ends up engaged to Siobhan "Shiv" Roy (Sarah Snook), the only daughter of powerful media mogul Logan Roy (Brian Cox). We don't know a whole lot about how the domineering Shiv and the initially subservient Tom even met other than the fact that he's utterly devoted to her every need, but as her mistreatment of him becomes a whole lot more obvious (like when she asks him for an open marriage on their wedding night), Tom starts pulling away from Shiv.
The spectacular thing about Macfadyen's profane and often hilarious journey as Tom Wambsgans on "Succession" is how easily this incredibly foolish man finds himself corrupted by the unbelievable wealth and privilege of being in the Roy family's orbit. Even as Shiv's brothers Kendall (Jeremy Strong) and Roman (Kieran Culkin) look down on Tom pretty loudly, Tom manages to find someone with even less power than him — the family's oft-forgotten Cousin Greg, played by a bumbling Nicholas Braun — to soundly abuse. Hilariously, though, the entire series ends with Tom in charge of the late Logan's company, Waystar Royco ... giving him the last laugh (sorta).
What has Matthew Macfadyen been doing since Succession ended?
Throughout the run of "Succession," Matthew Macfadyen earned two Emmys, a Golden Globe, and two BAFTA TV Awards for playing Tom Wambsgans; the HBO series concluded in early 2023, making Macfadyen a free agent. A year after that, he appeared as the villainous Mr. Paradox in the massive box office smash "Deadpool & Wolverine" alongside Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman. Then, in 2025, he headlined the thriller movie "Holland" opposite Nicole Kidman and Gael García Bernal.
On the small screen, Macfadyen has continued working steadily, proving to be a welcome presence in basically any project. His most recent TV show, Netflix's "Death by Lightning," casts him as real American figure Charles J. Guiteau, an obsessive stalker and deeply misguided admirer of President James A. Garfield (Michael Shannon) who ends up assassinating said President. Across four episodes, we watch as Macfadyen's odd Charles desperately hyperfixates on Garfield, and with a supporting cast that includes Nick Offerman, Betty Gilpin, Shea Whigham, and Bradley Whitford, Macfadyen is, once again, in excellent company.
I honestly don't recommend watching Matthew Macfadyen's 2011 adaptation of "The Three Musketeers" — but if you want to check out "Succession" or "Death by Lightning," they're streaming on HBO Max and Netflix, respectively.