Warning: This article contains spoilers for the final season of Succession. It’s all right there in the title of the show: Logan Roy’s death in season four, episode three was inevitable and the question of who will take over in Succession is one that is still being debated by passionate fans online.
For those who aren’t familiar with the series, Succession, which premiered in June 2018, follows the moneyed Roy family, who own a global entertainment and media conglomerate known as Waystar RoyCo. When the show begins, the future of their company is up in the air after family patriarch and aging founder, Logan Roy, experiences some health issues that leave shareholders questioning his fitness to lead. His four adult children—Kendall, Roman, Shiv and Connor—waste no time when it comes to sharing their opinions on who should helm the company in their father’s place but after the events of season four, episode four, it’s possible an underestimated outlier could sweep in and everything the siblings have been working for.
Who will take over in Succession?
Who will take over in Succession? At the conclusion of season four, episode four, which aired on Sunday, April 16, 2023, the WayStar RoyCo board votes, and Kendall and Roman are appointed interim co-CEOs—but for how long, we don’t know.
The episode begins with the Roys and senior members of the executive staff gathering at the late Logan’s Upper East Side townhouse the day after his shocking death. It’s time to mourn but, with the leadership of a multi-billion-dollar company and the fate of a significant business deal now hanging in the balance, business must coincide and the interim CEO must be chosen.
Nicholas Braun, Matthew Macfayden. Courtesy of Warner Media/MAX
The executor of Logan’s estate, Frank, finds a piece of paper from four or more years ago naming Kendall as Logan’s preferred successor. But there are handwritten annotations made in pencil, including partly a line under Kendall’s name and partially crossing it out. What was Logan thinking, here? That he definitely wanted Kendall—as Kendall himself was led to believe all the way back in the pilot episode—or was Logan indicating that he’d changed his mind?
Then there’s the question of Cousin Greg, full name Greg Hirsch and Logan’s hapless and socially awkward nephew, who was briefly invited into the room to discuss the estate when he’s informed that he was named in “an addendum of miscellaneous matters, in pencil, with a question mark” on said piece of paper. When Greg asks, hopefully and naïvely, if the fallen patriarch intended him to be Kendall’s second-in-command, laughter ensues. Was “Greg?” simply written down because the old man forgot his nephew’s name, as Roman suggested? Or is there a larger, more significant meaning?
Some fan theories suggest this Greg taking over WayStar is not as outlandish as it seems. “Greg is your typical Icarus character, he’ll rise up from nothing, fly too close to the sun, and come crashing back down to where he started,” one Redditor commented shortly after the episode aired in a thread titled: “In The End, it will be Greg who Laughs Last.” Another replied: “The writers have gone out of their way to make Greg less likable in recent seasons too. I think they’re setting him up to really screw the kids/Tom? over to best benefit himself.”
Meanwhile, in a subReddit discussing why Logan wrote Greg’s name on the paper, one fan speculated that “he wrote “Greg?” because he was going to ponder how Greg fits in. Logan convinced Greg to not leave the company on account of his brother threatening to remove Greg from his will, so Logan was pondering how to include him in his.” On Twitter, it was more of the same speculation that the note communicated Logan’s intentions clearly: “I saw it as Greg thinking Logan named him as Kendall’s #2. Which…lmao,” wrote one user. “i hate to say it cuz i know yall get mad when people say this but i have a gut feeling that greg will end up in a very good if not top position at the end,” another wrote.
Actor Nicholas Braun hinted “big” things for his character in this fourth and final season.“Season four is big for Greg, I would say in that department. Greg is tested and Greg puts himself forward as a different kind of guy at times this season and he’s more bold than we’ve ever seen him, and strategic. I mean, he’s always been a guy who’s tried to play whatever sides are available to him and he really leans into that this season,” he told Deadline in an interview published on March 26, 2023.
“Everything revolves around Logan. So, not only Greg, but everybody would be sort of f—ed. They wouldn’t know which way to go. So, Logan means everything to everyone, and you know it’s weird because it’s like, what is the aspiration? Is it just to make more money? It’s not really that. To get a certain title? I don’t think that matters either. Maybe it does for Greg more than others. They’ve already gotten their titles. I guess it’s just to matter more in this world. So, being on this side, getting closer to Logan you matter more in the world.”
He continued: “You’re closer to the great influence that Logan has over the family, over the media landscape, over the world, over the headlines of the world; the control that he has over a lot of different areas, politics, business and all that. It’s addictive. It’s exciting to be closer and closer to that. Even in the first episode, Greg is included in a room where they’re dealing with big shit. Like it’s really going down and Greg is not told to f**k off, out of that room. So, that kind of stuff, that’s pretty exciting. You walk out of that room you’re like holy shit, I was there. I was there.”
Succession is available to stream on HBO Max with new episodes dropping each Sunday.
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