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Succession’s 20 biggest characters – ranked | Succession


They’re among the most indelible creations of Twenty first-century TV – and definitely the sweariest. Because the super-rich saga enters its dwelling stretch, we’ve consulted the shareholders, analysed the optics and compiled a countdown of Succession’s main gamers.

Apologies to longsuffering PA Jess, ATN boss Cyd Peach, Uncle Ewan, Sandy and Sandi Furness (the Danny and Dani Dyer of Succession), Naomi “Nay-Nay” Pierce, Berry, Comfrey, Nate “put the wine again” Sofrelli, the Raisin, the Pantsuit Barnacle, the Spooky Embryo and Bridget Randomfuck with the ludicrously capacious purse. You didn’t fairly make the reduce. Hey, that’s enterprise. Now let’s go full fucking boar and begin the countdown …

20. Colin Stiles (Scott Nicholson)

Logan’s bodyguard and “finest pal”. Whether or not it’s vehicular manslaughter or an imaginary cat, Massive Col will make it go away. Since his “proprietor” carked it, Colin has resembled a misplaced pet in well-pressed denims. Will merry widow Marcia have a job for him?

19. Karolina Novotney (Dagmara Domińczyk)

‘No corporate crisis is too hot to handle’ … Dagmara Domińczyk as Karolina in Succession.
Saved her cool … Dagmara Domińczyk as Karolina in Succession. {Photograph}: House Field Workplace/©2023 HBO

Head of PR. Proprietor of a power-bob. No company disaster is just too scorching for Karolina to deal with. When her longtime boss died on a non-public jet, Karolina saved her cool whereas the mediocre white males crumbled.

18. Stewy Hosseini (Arian Moayed)

Shifty … Stewy Hosseini (Arian Moayed) with frenemy Kendall (Jeremy Strong) in Succession series one.
Shifty … Stewy Hosseini (Arian Moayed) with frenemy Kendall (Jeremy Robust) in Succession sequence one. {Photograph}: HBO

Kendall’s faculty frenemy is now a robust investor with a seat on Waystar’s board. Shifty Stewy has penchants for cocaine, rollnecks and betraying anybody who will get in the way in which of him making additional cash. As he says: “I can guarantee you that I’m spiritually, emotionally, ethically and morally behind whoever wins.”

17. Hugo Baker (Fisher Stevens)

Smarmy … Hugo Baker (Fisher Stevens), front row, second from left
Smarmy … Hugo Baker (Fisher Stevens), entrance row, second from left. {Photograph}: HBO/Kobal/Shutterstock

Waystar’s smarmy senior comms exec exists in a state of perma-panic, endlessly scrambling to include scandals or save his personal scrawny ass. You’d nearly really feel sorry for Hugo if he wasn’t, properly, such a large dick.

16. Kerry Castellabate (Zoe Winters)

Logan’s Winkleman-fringed PA acquired appreciable energy when she was promoted to his mistress, however acquired taken down a number of pegs after her toe-curling ATN anchor audition went viral. She’s now persona non grata, regardless of claiming that Logan deliberate to marry her. Might Chuckles the Clown have the final snicker but?

15. Frank Vernon (Peter Friedman)

Logan’s longtime lieutenant is the lowest-key member of the outdated guard/greybeards/boiled eggs/Keystone fucks. Frank is an avuncular determine, endlessly reassuring neurotic godson Kendall that daddy wuvs him. Fired, rehired and insulted, he’s typically the household punchbag. Roman actively detests him, which is all the time amusing.

14. Girl Caroline Collingwood (Harriet Walter)

‘I should’ve had dogs’ … Lady Caroline Collingwood (Harriet Walter) talks with Shiv (Sarah Snook)
‘I ought to’ve had canine’ … Girl Caroline Collingwood (Harriet Walter) talks with Shiv (Sarah Snook). {Photograph}: Landmark Media/Alamy

Logan’s waspish second spouse’s perspective to motherhood (“I ought to’ve had canine”) explains quite a bit about her messed-up youngsters. The sociopathic aristo cheerfully shafted her personal offspring in change for a couple of quid and a peerage for her social-climbing husband Peter Munion, AKA “Lord Seat Sniffer of Pantyhose”.

13. Nan Pierce (Cherry Jones)

The woolly liberal yin to Logan’s rapacious capitalist yang. Nan is the matriarch of rival media dynasty the Pierces, and simply as monstrous in her personal hypocritical method. Nan primly pretends it’s “disgusting” to speak cash, whereas ruthlessly driving up the value of her empire.

12. Karl Muller (David Rasche)

He hasn’t had a bowel motion for 20 years however the completely peckish CFO has come into his personal within the ultimate sequence, the prospect of a “golden parachute” loosening his tongue to wonderful impact. His withering takedown of Tom (“You’re pretty, squarely fucked” “Jesus, Karl”) moved him up a number of locations by itself.

11. Lukas Mattson (Alexander Skarsgård)

Highly punchable … Alexander Skarsgård as Lukas Mattson
Extremely punchable … Alexander Skarsgård as Lukas Mattson. {Photograph}: House Field Workplace/HBO

Let’s bleed the Swede. The first antagonist of the latter two sequence is a extremely punchable piece of labor. Seemingly an amalgam of real-life tech moguls Elon Musk and Daniel Ek, the strapping Scandi CEO of streaming large GoJo is poisonous and confrontational with an ego the dimensions of Ikea’s Stockholm department. His reckless douche-bro exterior hides the center of a killer. However will “the Odin of coding” grow to be the final word successor?

10. Connor Roy (Alan Ruck)

The eldest Roy scion is so entitled and deluded, his pastime is operating for the White Home (properly, he was all in favour of politics at a really younger age). When he’s not polling at one per cent, he’s hyper-decanting wine, crooning Leonard Cohen or making spouse Willa roll her eyes. The “loony cake” revelation and speech about studying to dwell with out love (“I’m a plant that grows on rocks and lives off bugs that die inside me”) raised Con to new tragicomic heights.

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9. Marcia Roy (Hiam Abbass)

Impressively ruthless … Hiam Abbass as Marcia Roy in Succession series one.
Impressively ruthless … Hiam Abbass as Marcia Roy in Succession series one. Photograph: HBO

Logan’s third wife is an icy enigma. Beirut-raised Marcia was impressively ruthless when haggling over her “re-nuptial agreement”, seeing off love rivals and selling their apartment while Logan’s corpse was still warm. “The Scottish Widow” has grand plans for her son Amir. Don’t be surprised by a late bid to dethrone her stepchildren.

8. Willa Ferreyra (Justine Lupe)

‘Almost sweet’ … Willa (Justine Lupe) With Connor (Alan Ruck) in series two of Succession.
Almost sweet … Willa (Justine Lupe) with Connor (Alan Ruck) in series two of Succession. Photograph: Home Box Office

IPad overboard! Willa’s move from the periphery to the inner circle has been a joy to behold. The former escort and aspiring playwright made a pragmatic decision to marry a much older man for money. Her disdain for new husband Connor – see her proposal acceptance (“Fuck it, how bad could it be?”) – is hilarious but they’ve become almost sweet. Arguably the show’s happiest (OK, least unhappy) couple.

7. Greg Hirsch (Nicholas Braun)

Greg the Egg. Greg Sprinkles. Greg Question Mark. The Greenpeace-suing grandson of Logan’s brother Ewan often struggles to string a coherent sentence together (“If it is to be said, so it be, so it is”) but he’s cannier than he looks. Under Tom’s twisted tutelage, the country cousin has morphed from lovable clown into sex-crazed, shamelessly opportunistic “Disgusting Brother”. Could the leggy princeling ascend to the throne? What’s he going to do with a soul anyways? Souls are boring.

6. Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong)

He might be the Prince Hamlet of Succession’s rotten state but Ken-doll narrowly misses out on our top five. Somehow that seems fitting for the heir apparent who never quite arrives. He’s bungled deals, battled drug addiction and struggled to prove his worth. Now he’s trying to be Dad 2.0, all built on an underlining-cum-crossing out. He’s had his moments – that rap, that patricidal press conference, that birthday party meltdown – but Jeremy Strong’s intense performance makes Kendall just too agonising to enjoy.

5. Siobhan Roy (Sarah Snook)

‘Fatally underestimated’ … Sarah Snook as Siobhan Roy in series four of Succession.
‘Fatally underestimated’ … Sarah Snook as Siobhan Roy in series four of Succession. Photograph: Home Box Office/©2023 HBO. All Rights Reserved

Can Pinkie dance? You bet. Logan’s youngest, smartest child and only daughter is shrewd, shark-eyed and fatally underestimated. Initially a liberal political fixer, Shiv returned to the family fold to ply her pant-suited wares at Waystar. Now she’s secretly pregnant and aligned with Matsson. While the brothers and greybeards in-fight, Shiv might just scheme her way to the top, taking estranged husband Tom with her. Firecrotch & Normcore Co, more like.

4. Gerri Kellman (J Smith-Cameron)

The top-ranking woman in a patriarchal world. Her mentorship of Roman evolved into a psychosexual affair which drove the internet wild. Now the slime puppy dream has died but so has Logan, who’d unjustly turned against his longtime consigliere. General counsel Ger-Bear was raised by wolves and knows where the bodies are buried. She has the smarts for the big chair. J Smith-Cameron’s delicious performance – all pithy interjections and precision timing – deserves it.

3. Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen)

Both Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) and Gerri (J Smith-Cameron) made the Top 5
Both Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) and Gerri (J Smith-Cameron) made the Top 5. Photograph: HBO/Kobal/Shutterstock

That magnificent surname is just a gateway to one of the show’s most compelling characters. Shiv’s still-just-about-husband Tom is a venal operator, happy to kiss corporate ass if it serves his weaselly self-interests. Shunned by the inner circle, Teflon Tommy got revenge by shafting the siblings. Half-hero, half-villain and all-hilarious, can Tightrope Tom-Wom tiptoe to the top? Buckle up, fucklehead.

2. Logan Roy (Brian Cox)

The show’s immoral centre … Brian Cox as Logan Roy
The show’s immoral centre … Brian Cox as Logan Roy. Photograph: David M. Russell/HBO

What a bold move by Team Jesse Armstrong to kill off the show’s immoral centre, off-camera, with seven episodes still to go. Such was the pugilistic patriarch’s stature that he continues to cast an inescapable shadow – one with a craggy face, cardigan and tendency to roar “Fuck off!”. The Dundee-born billionaire was a vicious, vacillating leader – scarred of back, savage of tongue and occasionally “piss-mad”. A mighty mashup of King Lear, Charles Foster Kane and Rupert Murdoch, Logan’s philosophy was summed up by his advice to son Kendall: “Life is a number on a piece of paper. It’s a fight for a knife in the mud.” What a creation. Drive your fucking whirly-bird!

1. Roman Roy (Kieran Culkin)

Deviantly charismatic … Kieran Culkin as Roman Roy in Succession series four.
Deviantly charismatic … Kieran Culkin as Roman Roy in Succession series four. Photograph: Home Box Office/HBO

Who else could the MVP be? Right from his evil pixie entrance (“Hey-hey, motherfuckers!”), the incorrigible younger brother has consistently been the funniest, most magnetic member of the dysfunctional dynasty. No wonder he was his late father’s favourite. He’s also been on a journey™, blossoming from bratty loose cannon into a multi-layered maverick who might just be the best bet to take charge. En route, there was the Gerri dalliance (AKA “Rock star and the mole woman”), the misdialled dick pic and a spot of masturbation at his office window. In recent weeks, Rome’s grief has given us an affecting glimpse of his vulnerability. He fidgets. He sits in strange positions. He’s deviantly charismatic. He’s lately developed not just a worrying pill-popping habit but a surprise gallant side. Kieran Culkin’s line delivery is so devastatingly caustic, he steals pretty much every scene he’s in. Arise, Romulus. You win our rankings. Now go and win the family farm.

Did we get the character rankings right? Or have we rated your favourite Royster-doisterer far too low? Let us know in the comments below.



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