Jeremy Strong “honored” by Succession/Game of Thrones comparisons

If you aren’t watching HBO’s Succession right now, then course-correct immediately and get caught up because there are only two episodes remaining in season 2. You’ve got plenty of time.

Succession follows the Roy family, which owns one of the largest media conglomerates in the world. The family is filled with backstabbing brothers, blackmailing cousins…just all manner of plotters and schemers. At the center of it all is Kendall Roy, expertly played by Jeremy Strong. Kendall has always been kept firmly under the oppressive thumb of his father, Logan (Bryan Cox), and in the season 1 finale, he suffered through a tragic event that Logan used to further righten his grip. We’re talking about heavy mind games here, folks.

Plenty of people have made comparisons between Succession and Game of Thrones, with the family dynamics reminding some of the always-fighting Lannister family. On Vanity Fair’s Still Watching Podcast, Joanna Robinson compared the Logan-Kendall relationship specifically to the one between Ramsay Bolton and Reek. “I thought of The Manchurian Candidate but Game of Thrones is a good one,” Strong told Insider on the red carpet at the Emmy Awards. “I’m honored.”

I can see it.

“I do hope he’s able to get out of the hell and that pain he’s in,” Strong said when asked if he hoped Kendall would have a Theon-style comeback arc. “As you’ll see this season, there are rungs up the ladder that start to get him out of that. So the Theon arc would be cool.”

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Succession obviously isn’t as popular as Game of Thrones (yet), but people are talking about it. What does Strong think of the “meme-ification” of the show online?

"I will preface this by saying I kind of stay away from all of that [online], but I’m aware that [‘Succession’] penetrated the zeitgeist.  I guess it is surprising because you don’t take it for granted — that anything you work on has that kind of reach and penetration. But it also does somehow feel like the show is right on the bullseye of this intersection between the tech/media landscape, the political landscape, the .01%, the Facebook-Apple-Amazon-Netflix-Google megalopolis — all of it. And then it’s also about this poisoned family at the nucleus of our culture. So I’m not totally surprised that it’s relevant."

For an example of elevated online discourse about Succession, I present this version of the theme song made in Mario Paint:

Succession airs on Sunday nights, only on HBO.

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