‘Succession’ Creator Finally Reveals Whether Kendall Roy’s Name Was Underlined Or Crossed Out

Armando Tinoco
·2 min read

One of the mysteries from Succession is finally getting resolved by series creator Jesse Armstrong. The fourth and final season of the HBO drama had a moment that was up for debate among the die-hard fans of the show.

In the fourth episode titled “Honeymoon States,” everyone is mourning the loss of Logan Roy, played by Brian Cox. Peter Friedman’s Frank finds a piece of paper that seemingly notes that Jeremy Strong’s Kendall would be Logan’s successor. However, a line that starts underneath Kendall’s name and moves up to cross the latter part of his name made fans question if Logan wanted Kendall as his successor or crossing his name out not wanting him to take over Waystar Royco.

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Armstrong made an appearance at an event hosted by the Financial Times in London where he was confronted with the question about what that note meant.

“If you were gonna cross out, you wouldn’t start underneath, would you?” he told the audience in a video shared on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, by journalist Cassam Looch.

Someone from the audience shouted and noted, “Underlined!”

Armstrong noted that while the series was airing he wouldn’t answer these types of questions but because the show has wrapped, he’s “happy to spoil it by telling you what I think of everything.”

In the end, Matthew Macfadyen’s Tom ended up at the helm of the media company, something that Armstrong prepared the actor early on giving him subtle hints.

“Occasionally, I would remind him to do a take where it was like, do remember — this was earlier on in the show — it could be you as well,” Armstrong recalled adding, “just to make sure he had that thing about [how he’s] a suck-up who also had some steel that could be activated at a certain point.”

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