The Magnetic Allure of Succession's Iconic Ensemble Cast
Ava Lawson
Updated on May 17, 2026
By Published Apr 11, 2026, 2:00 PM EDT Ben Sherlock is a Tomatometer-approved film and TV critic who runs the massively underrated YouTube channel I Got Touched at the Cinema. Before working at Screen Rant, Ben wrote for Game Rant, Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop. He's also an indie filmmaker, a standup comedian, and an alumnus of the School of Rock. Summary Generate a summary of this story follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap
HBO is renowned for its stacked ensemble casts. The Sopranos gave us . Veep broke the Seinfeld curse with the greatest role of Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ career. as a child actor. When you get into a new HBO show, there are a few things you can expect: horrifying displays of violence, gratuitous displays of human sexuality, and an impressive cast filled with established stars, up-and-coming stars, and brand-new discoveries.
Game of Thrones populated Westeros with fascinating, three-dimensional human beings; Euphoria discovered the current generation of movie stars; and , from Larry David to J.B. Smoove to Susie Essman to Richard Lewis. Big Little Lies brought Meryl Streep to the small screen, True Detective paired up Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey, and The White Lotus puts together a new all-star ensemble every single season.
Jesse Armstrong and his producers recruited one of the greatest ensemble casts of all time (even by HBO’s standards) for their satirical drama . To bring the Roy family to life, Armstrong needed a bunch of actors who could be morally depraved, shockingly foul-mouthed, bitingly witty, and also, on top of all that, deeply lovable. It must’ve been a tall order, but they managed to do it.
Succession's Ensemble Cast Makes You Empathize With Terrible People
pulled off some kind of magic trick. The actors are fully convincing as the kind of unscrupulous, out-of-touch billionaires currently burning the world for profit, but they’re also oddly charming and lovable. Brian Cox portrays media magnate Logan Roy as both an abusive brute and a dry-witted stitch. Jeremy Strong plays his son Kendall as both an entitled, underqualified, spoilt brat and a sad, vulnerable, endearing human being. The secret is that these actors all have an innate charm and warmth that their characters’ real-life counterparts completely lack, and it makes for riveting television.
Sarah Snook nails both Shiv’s cutting facade and the human being who’s scared and alone beneath that mask. Matthew Macfadyen is both hilariously eccentric and relatably lonely as Tom. Kieran Culkin nails the delivery of , but he also captures the deep well of sadness underneath those jokes. And they’re just the tip of the iceberg: there’s also Nicholas Braun as Cousin Greg, Alexander Skarsgård as an insufferable tech bro, and Alan Ruck as the forgotten eldest boy who was interested in politics from a young age.
Succession's Cast Has Only Gotten More Successful Since The Show Ended
The actors from Succession have only gotten more successful since the show turned them all into enduring icons. Braun has starred in Cat Person, Saturday Night, and Splitsville. Snook has starred in All Her Fault and Memoir of a Snail, and made her Broadway debut as Dorian Gray. Macfadyen has played a Deadpool villain, the ordinary-sized husband in The Miniature Wife, and espionage icon George Smiley in an upcoming Legacy of Spies series. Cox has gotten into directing with his first feature, Glenrothan, and of course, Skarsgård has been everywhere in the last couple of years, with movies ranging from a BDSM biker romance to an eat-the-rich body horror epic.
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The 2026 Best Supporting Actor race was a toss-up between two Succession stars: Strong, who was nominated for his uncanny portrayal of Donald Trump’s mentor Roy Cohn in The Apprentice, and Culkin, who was nominated for . Culkin ultimately won, but they both would’ve been deserving. It’s a testament to the enduring success of Succession that two of its headlining stars were battling it out for an Oscar last year. The Best Actor winner at the same ceremony, Adrien Brody, also had a key role in Succession.
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