If you have regularly thought about Succession Season 2 since it ended in October, don't worry; you're not alone. One moment in particular stands out: the Kendall Roy rap from Episode 8, "Dundee." On hand to provide even more insight into the infamous moment was Jeremy Strong, who plays Kendall on this hit HBO show.
While speaking with Entertainment Weekly in a group interview with Succession co-stars Sarah Snook, who plays Shiv Roy, and Kieran Culkin, who plays Roman Roy, Strong found a way to work in some fun, new information about how the infamous Kendall rap came together. For those who may have blocked it out and need a refresher: Kendall, desperate for some modicum of approval from his father, Logan Roy (Brian Cox), takes the stage during an important ceremony honoring the Roy patriarch and mogul. Kendall thinks performing a rap to honor Logan will help get the approval he seeks but instead, ends up accidentally becoming the laughing stock. What makes the moment even better is Kendall wearing a jersey with "LOG 50" written on it, echoing the lyrics, "L to the OG/Dude be the OG/And he ain't playin'."
Strong tells EW how the jersey, which seriously puts the Succession moment over the top into "Icon" status, came to be.
“It’s so funny how that [happened]. I wear that Jersey for Kendall’s rap. That wasn’t called for [in the script]. We were in Glasgow filming, and I was sitting in our hotel and I sketched [the jersey] on the hotel stationery and texted it to our costume designer [Michelle Matland]. I was like, 'Think we can get this made?' And so she had one made, and now people wear it for Halloween! And that’s crazy. It’s gratifying, and at the same time it’s also like, how do we go back to work and feel sort of loose and free and not give a shit about expectations?”
Even though Kendall whiffed big time with the rap, he ended Season 2 in a much different place. After spending most of the season completely neutered by past wrongs haunting him and turning him into a wimpy baby, Kendall grew a backbone and outed his father as complicit in major crimes committed by the cruises division of Waystar Royco. For Strong, this is a big, Godfather-like turning point for Kendall and could hint at what's coming next season when it comes to character developments.
"What I will say is the seizing of the throne that happened at the end of Season 2 is to me 180 degrees different from the reason why Kendall wanted it at the end of Season 1. At the end of Season 1, it was the Holy Grail and it was the sort of the pinnacle of his ambitions and something he had wanted his whole life. I think at the end of Season 2, I truly believe that he had lost that ambition…that he’d collapsed inside as a result of the tragedy that happened [at the wedding] and his complicity in that. But I think he saw something in that final episode in his father — Logan said to Kendall in the pilot, you’re not a killer. So that’s not new information. The new information to me is Logan’s complicity in what happened [on the cruise ships]."
Please, Succession Season 3, hurry up and get here right now. I need more Kendall Roy immediately!
Succession Seasons 1 and 2 are available to stream on HBO Go. Make sure you take time to relive Kendall's wild Logan Roy rap below and then — then! — make sure you check out which our roundup of the best TV shows of the decade which includes (you guessed it) Succession.