Logan Roy and his three wives
At the top of the Succession Roy family tree stands Logan Roy, the founder of the media and entertainment company Waystar Royco.12 The first episode opens on his 80th birthday, when he refuses to step down as chief executive and then collapses from a stroke on the helicopter home.4 Everything the children do over four seasons answers the question of who will take his chair.
Logan married three times. His first wife is never named, and the series says only that she was committed to a psychiatric institution. She is the mother of his eldest son, Connor.2 His second wife is Lady Caroline Collingwood, the mother of Kendall, Roman and Shiv. In season 3 she marries Peter Munion, a businessman with a string of failed marriages, at a wedding in Tuscany that the whole family attends.26
His third wife, Marcia, is married to him when the series begins. In the first episode Logan gives her two votes on the family trust that will choose his successor, which tells the children at once that she counts.4 Marcia has a son, Amir, and a daughter from an earlier marriage, who stay off the chart because they play no part in the fight for the company.2 She is widowed in season 4.
The divorce from Caroline matters to the plot as well as to the tree. In the season 3 finale the three younger children plan to block the sale of Waystar with a veto written into their parents’ divorce settlement, and learn that Logan and Caroline have already renegotiated it behind their backs.6
Connor, Kendall, Roman and Shiv
Connor Roy, the only child of the first marriage, is the eldest son and stays out of the company.2 His partner Willa Ferreyra becomes his wife in season 4, on a yacht in New York, on the same day that Logan dies on his way to Sweden.27
Caroline’s three children are the ones who fight for the company. Kendall Roy is the second son and the heir apparent of season 1. He has two children, Sophie and Iverson, with Rava, from whom he is estranged and later divorced.2 Roman Roy is the third son. Siobhan Roy, called Shiv, is the only daughter and starts the series working in politics, outside the family firm.2
The sources do not agree on who is youngest. The same character list calls Shiv the youngest child and Roman the youngest son, so the chart puts Shiv last in the row and leaves the question open in the text.2
Shiv marries Tom Wambsgans in the season 1 finale, and on the wedding night she admits an affair and asks for an open marriage.4 The couple separate in season 4, and Shiv tells Tom that she is pregnant with his child in episode 8.27
Ewan, Greg and the lost sister
Logan has an elder brother, Ewan Roy, who is estranged from him and holds a seat on the Waystar board.2 Ewan’s daughter is Marianne, and her son is Greg Hirsch, which makes Greg the grandson of Ewan and the great-nephew of Logan.2 In the first episode Greg has been fired from the company’s management training programme, and Logan agrees to give him a new job.4
Greg is the cousin who drifts toward whoever holds power. He works for Tom and confides in him about the cover-up on the cruise line, so the chart draws an alliance between them from season 1.4
One more Roy stands in the row of Logan’s generation. Rose was the infant sister of Logan and Ewan, brought to Canada with them, who died of polio soon after.2 Her death is one of the few things the series tells us about Logan’s own childhood. The chart draws the parents of the three as one symbol, since the series never names them.
The Waystar Royco board as factions
A Succession Roy family tree has to show the company, because in the series a family vote and a board vote are often the same thing. The chart puts the officers of Waystar Royco in one blue outline with Ewan, who holds a seat on the board, and leaves the shifting loyalties of the children to the coloured lines. Frank Vernon is the chief operating officer and an old confidant of Logan, Karl Muller the chief financial officer, and Gerri Kellman the general counsel.2
In episode 6 of season 1, “Which Side Are You On?”, Kendall, Roman, Frank and Gerri try to build a majority to remove Logan in a vote of no confidence. Kendall is stuck in traffic, Frank starts the vote without him, and Logan wins it and fires everyone who voted against him, Kendall and Frank among them.4
The red outline holds the bidders. Stewy Hosseini, a private equity investor and Kendall’s friend from college, joins Sandy Furness, the owner of a rival media group and Logan’s old enemy. In season 1 they back Kendall’s hostile bid, which he serves on his father on the day of Shiv’s wedding.24
The green outline is GoJo, the streaming company of Lukas Matsson. Logan pursues GoJo in season 3, and by the finale Matsson proposes to buy Waystar instead, with himself in charge.6 In season 4 the board splits six votes to six on the deal, and Shiv’s vote decides it in favour of the sale. Matsson names Tom chief executive in place of Shiv, and Tom takes the post with Shiv beside him.78 The chart moves Tom into the GoJo outline at that point.
The Succession Roy family tree season by season
Each card gives the changes to the chart in one season. Read each card after its episodes, since the later cards name a death and the end of the company.
Season 1, 2018
The birthday and the vote
Spoiler note. Nothing beyond the season 1 finale.
- Logan refuses to retire, gives Marcia two votes on the trust and survives a stroke.
- Kendall loses the vote of no confidence, launches a hostile bid with Stewy and Sandy, and drops it after a fatal car crash on the night of Shiv’s wedding.
Season 2, 2019
The promise and the press conference
Spoiler note. Kendall turns on his father.
- Logan offers Shiv the top job, and she keeps it from Tom.
- Gerri advises Roman on earning his father’s respect.
- At the press conference of the finale Kendall blames Logan for the misconduct on the cruise line.
Sources5
Season 3, 2021
War and a wedding in Tuscany
Spoiler note. Logan outplays his children.
- Gerri becomes interim chief executive.
- Caroline marries Peter Munion, and Matsson proposes that GoJo buy Waystar.
- Tom tells Logan of the siblings’ plan, and the veto they relied on is gone.
Season 4, episodes 1 to 3
Connor’s wedding
Spoiler note. Logan dies.
- Logan collapses on his plane to Sweden and is pronounced dead on landing.
- Connor marries Willa the same day, and Kendall and Roman take over as co-chief executives.
Season 4, episodes 4 to 10
The sale
Spoiler note. The ending is told in full.
- Roman breaks down at the funeral, and Kendall speaks in his place.
- Shiv brokers a deal with Matsson, votes for the sale against her brothers, and Tom is named chief executive.
How to read this Roy family tree
A square is a man and a circle is a woman. A double line is a marriage, and a line with a break is a marriage that ended. Logan sits in the middle of the second row, with Caroline and Peter Munion to his left and the first wife and Marcia to his right, so each of his children hangs from the right marriage.
Read this way, the Succession Roy family tree has three branches. Caroline’s children run to the left, Connor stands under the first marriage, and Ewan’s line drops down the right side to Greg. The coloured outlines on the far right are the factions of the company, with a letter at the corner of each member.
The coloured lines tell the story between the people. The orange zigzag from Kendall to Logan turns to the red of open enmity in season 3. The blue dashed arrow from Matsson to Logan is the bid for the company, and the red dashed arrow from Tom to Shiv is his betrayal in the season 3 finale. Each line carries words at both ends, so the line between Kendall and Logan reads “calls a vote against him” on one side and “fires him” on the other.
To build a family tree of your own series, open this chart in the editor or start from the story charts. The symbols are set out in the genogram symbols.
Questions about the Roy family tree
How many children does Logan Roy have
Four. Connor is the son of his first marriage, and Kendall, Roman and Shiv are the children of his second wife, Caroline.2
How is Greg related to the Roys
Greg is the grandson of Logan’s elder brother Ewan, so he is Logan’s great-nephew and a first cousin once removed of the four children.2
Who is Rose in Succession
Rose was the infant sister of Logan and Ewan, who died of polio soon after the family came to Canada.2
People and sources
A page of its own lists all 25 characters on the chart, each with a short note and the sources for it, and the eight numbered sources this article cites. It also gives the credits of the pictures and this page as a reference in the APA, MLA, Chicago and Harvard styles, ready to copy.