Surprising Connection Between The Godfather and Kendall Roy's Rise In Succession
Did The Godfather really have influence on Succession? Jeremy Strong has an answer.
The only thing more complex than Kendall Roy's character in Succession is trying to keep up with the Roy family's business dealings.
Interesting fact is that the story of the deceased father Logan Roy (Brian Cox) and the constantly developing Kendall (Jeremy Strong) is very much like The Godfather story in a different setting.
We have mentioned The Godfather for a reason.
Have you noticed how Kendall's accession is very much similar to The Godfather storyline with Michael Corleone after his father's death?
This similarity was actually intentional. According to Jeremy Strong, The Godfather had some influence on the story of the Roy family.
The tragedy of the series was a topic that Strong explored in his interview with Vulture. According to him, the creators initially pitched the show as a story about family trauma.
Despite the show's biting commentary on the perils of capitalism in the modern age, Strong believes that Kendall's character is more painful than funny.
He elaborated that the season one finale was designed to mirror an attempted coup, which concluded with Kendall and his father's embrace, revealing their complicated bond.
It's obvious that The Godfather and Succession are projects of different genres, still it is also very clear that Michael Corleone and Kendall Roy share similar moral principles and the story of their accession to power.
"There's another moment I think of from the first Godfather, where Michael comes home after his first wife has been blown up in a car. That's like that satanic birth you talk about, where Kendall comes up out of the water.
He has suffered an irrevocable loss of a piece of himself. Of a piece of his humanity," said Strong again pointing out the similarities of these two stories.
With Jeremy Strong and other great actors on board, the series absolutely managed to keep our interest for 4 seasons and make us want more and more.
The finale of season 4 is so close and fans literally don't know what to expect.
As it was stated before by Nicholas Braun, the finale might be hard to handle but let's hope that such a well-created project that even got a bit of inspiration from the legendary Godfather, will not disappoint its fans with the finale.
Source: Vulture