On October 10, 1920, at League Park in Cleveland, Ohio (United States), the fifth game of the baseball World Series between the Cleveland Indians and the Brooklyn Robins. A match in which the public witnessed several feats including one that, more than a hundred years later, has once again been on the lips of ‘Succession’ fans.
No, it’s not that in the end (by the way, spoilers) they started talking about what happened in that game, it’s that last week a video began to circulate in which Tom’s last name (Matthew Macfayden) reappeared. it was a reference to a legendary baseball player, Bill Wambsganss, who accomplished one of those rare feats in sports: pulling an unassisted triple play. The only time in a world series.
Although it wasn’t the first time that Tom shared a last name (well, with one less E) with this baseball player, beyond coincidence he had scratched little else. That was until this theory began to emerge in which he talked about how, like Bill a century before, Tom could be crowned victor by eliminating his “triple competition” in the same move..
It’s not all baseball
A theory that, in that sense, had everything to be true. There was also a pretty solid precedent—by the season 3 finale Tom Wambsgans had passed the trio of Roy brothers to the right—and it seemed to have been validated in the final moments of the excellent HBO series.
So the question on everyone’s lips was simple: those responsible for ‘Succession’ they had left the hint as to who would be the successor to Logan’s emporium in sight from around the world in the form of a last name? Well, as much as we love to connect the dots in our favorite series and movies, unfortunately not.
So he has confessed Frank Richseries producer speaking to Slate:
I hate to spoil the fun of the internet, but it’s false. Tom’s last name was chosen before even shooting a first season, much less before plotting the precise turns of the story that would end 39 episodes later! Not to mention, many of the series’ key writers, starting with Jesse [Armstrong]the creator, are British, live in London and are devoted to British football.”
To finish spoiling the party totally, the choice of the last name has more than a typical process from distant relative from one of the writers of the series whose last name is like this:
“If memory serves, we were looking for something off-key that might be awkward to say/pronounce, suitable for a character coming in as an outsider to the Roy world.”
Although it is true that names in fiction often carry a certain symbolism and, therefore, can provide clues to the plot, unfortunately this has not been the case.
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