'Succession' Was Heavily Inspired by the Real Story of the Murdoch Family

After just four seasons, Succession ended its run on HBO in 2023 to plenty of love and acclaim. The series, which tells the story of a right-wing media tycoon and the children who want to inherit his empire, was profane, funny, and at times, strangely touching.

Although the show featured entirely fictional characters and was set in a fictional universe, it was one that closely resembled our own. Now, many want to know whether the series' creators took any inspiration specifically from the Murdoch family, which has built a right-wing media empire that includes Fox News.

The short answer is yes, but that doesn't mean that every detail of Succession is based on something about the Murdochs. It's almost undeniable, though, that this story of a media tycoon from another country who has a number of children who could inherit his empire is based on Rupert Murdoch, the Australian business mogul who created a right-wing media empire first in Australia and then in the U.S.

While this inspiration is clear to anyone even a little familiar with the Murdoch family, show creator Jesse Armstrong has always been clear that the Roy family at the center of Succession is fictional. Armstrong said that the Murdochs came up in the writers' room, though, but that they also discussed William Randolph Hearst, Queen Elizabeth II, and other figures who had dealt with their own versions of succession drama.

“There’s loads of succession stories to draw on. We wanted to draw on all the good, rich stories there are about succession and about media and high politics," he explained to Variety.

Although the Roys and their specific characteristics are fictional, there are plenty of details from Succession that are pulled directly from true stories about the Murdochs.

The most frequent parallels between the two families come at the top, from their respective patriarchs Rupert Murdoch and Logan Roy. Logan and Rupert are both foreign-born newsmen who have been married multiple times, and therefore have pretty messy family trees that only further complicate succession arguments.

Additionally, both Logan and Rupert subjected their families to "fake" family therapy sessions.

Even more specifically, Logan Roy's speech during a Season 4 episode in which he stands on boxes of paper was based on a real moment from 2007 in which Rupert Murdoch did the same thing in the Wall Street Journal newsroom shortly after he purchased the paper.

The parallels also extend beyond Logan and Rupert, though, and down to each respective child.

Conor Roy and Prudence Murdoch seem to both be neglected eldest children, and the competitive dynamic between Roman and Kendall Roy seems to have a lot in common with a similar dynamic between James and Lachlan Murdoch. Shiv, meanwhile, has similarities to Elisabeth Murdoch, who initially pursued a separate career from her father only to find herself wrangled back into the family business later in life.