Succession adds a modern twist to Shakespeare's King Lear

When HBO dominated the world of television with Game of Thrones, comparisons with Shakespearean plays were more than evident. But with enough family drama and monologue-driven moments of betrayal, it’s HBO’s Succession that works as an even better Shakespearean tale despite its modern-day setting. 

Succession's obvious inspirations

Fans of the show would be well-aware of the real-life parallels that showrunner Jesse Armstrong incorporates while exploring the saga of billionaire patriarch Logan Ray and his power-hungry children. Logan Roy is an easy stand-in for Donald Trump or Rubert Murdoch as he struggles to maintain his diversified empire, controlling anything and everything from news channels to streaming platforms. 

The Roys’ conglomerate Waystar Royco is no less of a Disney counterpart in this case. Even the hushed-down methods incorporated by the Royco executives to hide cases of sexual assault on a company boat mirror the perverted realities of influential personalities such as the late Jeffrey Epstein. 

But the way Succession has been going on with its binge-worthy brand of familial troubles and personal backstabbing, it’s easy to draw comparisons with the work of William Shakespeare, particularly his tragedy King Lear. 

What is King Lear about? 

For the ones who need a quick recap: King Lear deals with its titular aging monarch who distributes his power and property among Goneril and Regan, two of his three daughters. The third one, Cordelia, is otherwise Lear’s favourite daughter but when she doesn’t flatter him as much as her other sisters, Lear disinherits her. 

As time passes and Lear ages further, he becomes destitute and bears the brunt of Goneril and Regan’s selfishness. Finally, it is the disinherited daughter Cordelia who comes to his aid. All in all, in true Shakespearean fashion, King Lear works as a tragic moral story of sorts.

How Logan Roy is a smarter King Lear?

From the very first episode, Logan Roy is portrayed as a foul-mouthed, stone-hearted patriarch who can never blindly trust his own children. While his eldest son Connor is more of a Shakespearean jester, his other three children Kendall, Shiv, and Roman end up being more sly. 

Why Succession works as a modern-day twist on King Lear is rooted in Logan’s tyranny. It almost feels like Logan might have read the Shakespeare play as a warning for his own old age. 

So, even when Kendall ratted out on his father’s empire in a Congressional hearing in the shocking Season 2 finale, Logan seems to have a sly smile on his face. The cruel billionaire is definitely angered by his son snitching on him but it almost feels like he’s also proud that his son is becoming cold-hearted like him. Talk about bad parenting!

Who are Logan’s children in King Lear? 

While the trio of Kendall, Shiv, and Roman has finally teamed up in the Season 4 premiere (so far), the siblings definitely carry classic Goneril-Regan traits like selfishness and a lust for power. Their descent towards such a nature is partly Logan’s fault who has been distant and strict right from their childhood. 

Despite his tactics of intimidation, Logan is ultimately afraid and has perhaps always been afraid…of being betrayed by his own kin. And with no Cordelia-equivalent in his family, it is evident that this new-age King Lear has to look out for himself using every remorseless tactic in the book. 

As shown in the Season 3 finale, Logan even goes to the extent of hardly leaving anything from his empire for Kendall, Shiv, and Roman hoping to turn them into Cordelia (at least in financial terms).

But revenge is a recurring theme in almost every Shakespearean drama and Succession is no exception. If we can deduce anything from the new and final season’s premiere episode, then the kids are definitely hungry for revenge. If the season ends with Logan’s downfall, then their father’s King Lear arc would be complete. 

The Succession cast’s real-life connection with King Lear

Interestingly, Logan Roy actor Brian Cox is already well-acquainted with the character of Lear, even playing him several times on stage. An accomplished theatre actor, the Scottish actor starred in successful productions of King Lear by the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre. 

Playing the enigmatic monarch was so emotionally and physically demanding for Cox that he even authored a memoir titled The Lear Diaries (1995). The book is still considered as a cult favourite among fans of Lear and theatrical acting in general. 

If this weren’t enough, even Shiv Roy actress Sarah Snook starred in a King Lear production when she was a student at Sydney’s National Institute of Dramatic Art. Snook had played the part of Cordelia. 

The other literature inspirations for Succession 

Given the show’s adrenaline-fueled take on modern-day economics of the big billionaires controlling the world, it is a common practice for the Succession writer’s room to feast on a buffet of financial newspapers. But Jesse Armstrong and his writers also find inspiration from all other sorts of literature. 

A New Yorker profile on Armstrong revealed that the Emmy-winning writer drew inspiration from Fyodor Dostovesky’s landmark Russian novel Crime and Punishment to depict Kendall Roy’s inner chaos. And just like Shakespeare drew inspiration from Roman Empire figures like Julius Caesar, Armstrong also relied on a good dose of narratives from that era to explore the changing turmoil of a financial empire. 

Not only is Logan a modern-day Lear or Caesar, even Tom and Greg’s awkwardly wholesome and toxic “bromance” is reminiscent of the tyrannical Roman emperor Nero and his freedman slave Sporus. As Tom himself name-drops Nero and Sporus in Season 3, the ruler had his slave castrated and then got him married in a sham ceremony with him. This is precisely how Greg rose within the family under Tom’s tutelage (while Tom’s own marriage with Shiv failed during this time).