‘Succession’ Star Peter Friedman Reveals His Pick for Logan Roy’s Successor, Says Some Fans Are “on the Right Track”

Peter Friedman, who plays Waystar Royco vice chairman Frank Vernon on HBO’s drama Succession, isn’t sharing what will happen on Sunday night’s finale.

But he is revealing his own personal pick for Logan Roy’s (Brian Cox) successor: Lukas Matsson (played by Alexander Skarsgård), whose bid to take over the company has been the focus of this final season.

“I’m so enamored by what Alexander Skarsgård is doing,” Friedman told British outlet The Guardian. “His acting is so beautiful — blithe and confident yet anxious — I’d go for him. As a viewer I’d say: ‘These kids aren’t up to it.’ I think Frank wishes Kendall would quit and become a musician somewhere. Please, get out of here and go live a peaceful life! He just wants to see them happy, which probably isn’t going to happen.”

As the fourth — and final — season finale approaches, fan speculation has hit a fever pitch as online commenters share their theories on who will ultimately be chosen to run the company as the show’s title looks to finally fulfill its promise. Friedman reads those theories, and says some of the fan speculation is not far off the mark.

“I sometimes look at Reddit and, let me tell you, people are on the right track,” he says. “The darts are all over the board, but they’ve been narrowing it down to what’s actually going to happen.”

This season has thrown some huge surprises in that fans didn’t see coming, though, including Shiv’s (Sarah Snook) pregnancy and Logan’s death. Friedman marvels that producers were able to keep everything secret, including a funeral scene that involved hundreds of cast and crew, even though fans were obsessing over every detail.

“When you think of all those extras at Logan’s funeral or Connor’s (Alan Ruck) wedding, it’s amazing nothing leaked,” he said. “Some fans online zoomed in on the order-of-service from the funeral — I think Sarah had it in her hand — and it said ‘Ewan Roy,’” who is Logan’s brother (played by James Cromwell).

“They did indeed print up a bunch of decoys to put people off,” Friedman noted. “I even kept his death secret from my wife until I inadvertently mentioned something funny that happened in Norway. She said: ‘Wait, is Logan dead?’”

He added that when actress Harriet Walter, who plays one of Logan’s ex-wives, Caroline Collingwood, showed up to film the episode centering on Logan’s funeral, even she was surprised.

“She saw all the black clothes and said: ‘Who died?’ It had even been kept secret from her,” Friedman said.

Succession airs at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and also is available to stream on Max.