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Well, that was unexpected. On Sunday, Succession<\/em> ended<\/a> four seasons\u2019 worth of Waystar-heir speculation by naming Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen<\/strong><\/a>) the company\u2019s dark-horse successor\u2014meaning that he beat out Kendall (Jeremy Strong<\/strong>), the genetic frontrunner candidate; Roman (Kieran Culkin<\/strong>), the still-mourning<\/a> Roy sibling; and his own wife Shiv (Sarah Snook<\/strong>), the woman who spent years humiliating him in public and private.\u00a0<\/p>\n Macfadyen, the British actor who embodied this shape-shifting middle-class striver for five years, was just as surprised by the outcome as viewers likely were. Midway through filming the HBO drama\u2019s fourth and final season, Macfadyen asked series creator Jesse Armstrong<\/strong> about Tom\u2019s fate, and learned that Tom\u2014not any of Logan Roy\u2019s (Brian Cox<\/strong>) blood relatives\u2014would wind up American CEO.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, that\u2019s interesting,\u201d Macfadyen remembers thinking, he says on a Zoom with VF<\/em> Monday morning. But Macfadyen quickly put the plot twist out of his head. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to get attached to a storyline. They may very well change.\u201d<\/p>\n As the actor approached filming the finale, \u201cWith Open Eyes,\u201d Macfadyen began accepting his character\u2019s fate\u2014even if he figured that Tom himself would be blindsided by the turn of events. After all, in seemingly 24 hours, Tom goes from thinking he will be fired by Matsson<\/a> (Alexander Skarsg\u00e5rd<\/strong>) to learning that Matsson wants to anoint him.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think Tom was planning for it at all. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s what he ever rationally thought would happen for him,\u201d says Macfadyen. \u201cHe was mostly concerned about not being fired from ATN. He genuinely thought he was toast with Matsson\u2014and [had to endure] all of these terrible hang outs with him at art galleries and dinners.\u201d To be named surprise successor at the series\u2019 buzzer, Macfadyen says, \u201cI thought it was quite a neat thing.\u201d<\/p>\n With his relationship to Shiv seemingly beyond repair<\/a> after the balcony fight<\/a> in this season\u2019s \u201cTailgate Party\u201d episode, Macfadyen agrees to keep Matsson\u2019s decision a secret from Shiv ahead of the Waystar board meeting. Asked whether he thinks that Tom\u2019s relationship with the cold-hearted Shiv has helped make his character more ruthless, especially in the final two seasons, Macfadyen demurs. He thinks that beneath his bumbling exterior, Tom has always been this calculating.<\/p>\n \u201cEven though he\u2019s sort of annoying and ungainly in everything he does\u2014you know, he doesn\u2019t have the same sort of cold-hearted sophistication as the Roys\u2014he\u2019s not without ambition or a brain,\u201d says the actor. \u201cHe will put up with a lot of shit and humiliations from everybody, including his wife\u2014you know, she asked him to have an open marriage on their wedding night\u2014and in order to stay in the family and near his father-in-law Logan.\u201d<\/p>\n While some people write off Tom as being a spineless shape-shifter happy to \u201csuck the biggest dick in the room,\u201d as Shiv tells Matsson, Macfadyen sees cunning in Tom. He didn\u2019t view Tom\u2019s season-three offer to go to jail for Logan as strictly being \u201cpathetic and obsequious,\u201d although it was definitely shades of that.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s quite brave as well,\u201d Macfadyen points out. \u201cI think his spine was always there, but he makes practical decisions certainly at the end of season three when he betrays Shiv in favor of Logan. He\u2019s hitching his [cart] to the man who he thinks is going to win. There\u2019s something unsentimental about it. He hopes for the best and hopes that it will all be okay, but he\u2019s quite ruthless about things.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sometimes asked about Tom coming out on top,\u201d continues Macfadyen, disagreeing with the phrasing of the question. \u201cI don\u2019t think he has a plan. None of [the Succession<\/em> characters] have a plan. Right? If they have a plan, it\u2019s a sort of vanity that inevitably goes wrong or changes. I think he just keeps himself in the game. There are plenty of those sort of plausible men who end up in positions of great power because they\u2019ve been there all the way, and attached themselves to other, more charismatic people.\u201d<\/p>\n For Macfadyen, ever the modest gentleman, Tom being selected CEO wasn\u2019t the most dramatic plot point of the episode. \u201cWhat was awful for me was Shiv\u2019s reversal of her decision to back Kendall as CEO and block the deal,\u201d he says. \u201cI thought that was a great dramatic moment.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n