Alan Ruck wanted Connor killed off on Succession

Alan Ruck felt he had so little to do on Succession that he approached Jesse Armstrong about killing off Connor Roy.

As the only son from Logan’s first marriage and a non-entity in the business, Connor Roy was undoubtedly the black sheep of the Roy clan and constantly unsure where he fit in. This evidently bugged Succession sorta-star Alan Ruck quite a bit, as he wanted to have Connor killed off.

Speaking with The Daily Beast, Alan Ruck admitted he wasn’t entirely sure what Connor’s role was on Succession for a long time, even going to creator Jesse Armstrong to have his character knocked off in the second season. “For three episodes, I didn’t really do anything. And I actually wrote to Jesse and [director] Mark Mylod and I said, ‘What do you think about killing me off?’ And I’m grateful that they said, ‘No, no, no, no, no, we need you, we need you.’ And, ‘There’s not much right now, but there will be more later.’ And they were true to their word. There was an awful lot of story to tell, so I kind of got my head out of my ass a little bit about that. This is just my part in this play and so let’s see where it goes. And I’m thrilled that they didn’t take me up on my offer.” Brian Cox had adjacent thoughts, saying he felt his character was killed off too early.

As far as why Alan Ruck would go to the extremes of removing himself from Succession, which had just come off an Emmy nod for Outstanding Drama Series (and would win for seasons two and three), it comes down to ego. “It’s vanity. At the end of the first season we had made this big splash. It was kind of a slow roll and then it just took off like a rocket. I was like, ‘Oh man, this is huge.’ And my vanity was, I’m on maybe the best show on television right now. But people are like, ‘Who do you play?’…So it was just my vanity of wanting to do more in an excellent, excellent show.”

And such an excellent show had an equally excellent finale that put each member of the Roy clan to task–although, no, Connor didn’t get the spotlight the other Roys did. Without going into spoilers, various characters were forced to come to terms with where they are as individuals and adults–if they can handle being one.

Do you think Succession would have been impacted much if Alan Ruck got his way in killing off Connor Roy? Did you like Connor as a character? Let us know below!