Succession's Jesse Armstrong talks running a Trump-era show in 2021
Armstrong also discussed the difficulties of writing a character like Jeremy Strong's Kendall Roy
Succession’s Logan Roy isn’t Donald Trump, for all that he’s a tantrum-prone egomaniac loaded down with a thick crop of semi-loyal failsons. (If anybody, he’s Rupert Murdoch, complete with a long narrative of open warfare with his overly-privileged kids.) But that hasn’t stopped the HBO Emmy winner from being a distinctly Trump-era show—something creator Jesse Armstrong now suggests isn’t likely to change any time soon, despite its third season airing soon in the first year of the Biden presidency.
That’s per a new interview Armstrong just gave to Variety, which touches on the show’s frequent dalliances in the world of politics, which only heighten as Succession World undergoes its own U.S. election in its third season. Partly, that’s just because of COVID-based delays, which pushed the series further and further from 2020. But Armstrong also says 2021 audiences are primed to see the parallels. “I know from watching the first episode with an audience last night, there’s an alchemy that happens when the rubber hits the road, “ Armstrong said. “When the episode is transmitted that means you get a different sense of how it’s connecting with the world.”