Rupert Murdoch is stepping down as chairman of Fox and News Corp, with social media users comparing the move to HBO drama Succession.
Since the news broke that the 92-year-old media mogul is retiring, the TV show's characters have begun trending on X—the social network formerly known as Twitter—particularly patriarch Logan Roy and his presumed heir Kendall Roy.
Murdoch's oldest son Lachlan will be taking over as the sole chair of News Corp and Fox. The 52-year-old congratulated his father on his seven-decade career, with Murdoch becoming Chairman Emeritus from mid-November.
There were rumors that Lachlan Murdoch was in competition with his younger brother James Murdoch for the role, with the supposed feud compared to the narrative of Succession.
"Rupert Murdoch stepping down as CEO of FOX and giving it to his son is the real life Succession," said Sarmad Faiz.
"Cue Succession theme song," wrote LeLe Chapin.
"Soooo Rupert Murdoch was a huge fan of Succession is just cosplaying it now, right?" asked Victor Romero.
"So they DID make a new season," said @BertMacklin69.
"Succession had its series finale twice this year," commented Dane-gerous.
"Aawww, spoiler alert," joked Amateur Sgora.
"Lachlan Murdoch taking over Fox is a beautiful story for everyone who felt bad for Kendall on Succession," said @JLCauvin.
Duncan Hothersall dubbed Murdoch's resignation release a "succession statement."
"I will be watching... and reaching out to you with thoughts, ideas, and advice," Hothersall wrote, quoting the message from Murdoch. "When I visit your countries and companies, you can expect to see me in the office late on a Friday afternoon. *shudders."
"We are going to find out Succession was a documentary," wrote AntiStanMan, while Carly Evans called the Murdoch news a "real-life Succession plot twist."
In August, Succession creator Jesse Armstrong confirmed that the multi-award-winning drama was based on the Murdoch dynasty—at least, in the beginning.
"I wrote a script about Rupert Murdoch and his family—the real people, which was the predecessor," the showrunner said during an appearance at the Edinburgh Film Festival.
"A distinct entity ended up as a sort of screenplay that started at Channel 4 as a sort of docu-drama and it evolved into a sort of screenplay."
Although the idea didn't develop any further, it was the starting point for Succession. The series follows the Roy family, which falls into disarray after patriarch and media giant Logan Roy (Brian Cox) decides to postpone his retirement—casting aside wannabe successor Kendall (Jeremy Strong)—leading to a power struggle among his four children.
The show aired on HBO in 2018 and ran for four seasons, ending in May 2023. Alongside Cox and Strong, the series starred Kieran Culkin, Sarah Snook and Alan Ruck as Roy's children.
In April, a source told Vanity Fair that Lachlan Murdoch had accused James Murdoch of leaking storylines directly to the Succession writers, although a second source contradicted the statement. The 50-year-old resigned from the News Corp board in 2020 due to "disagreements over certain editorial content published by the Company's news outlets and certain other strategic decisions."
Update 09/21/23, 10:46 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include further information about Succession.
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