First, there was Babe. Then, there was King Kong. The sheep pig may never have been able to stand up against the giant gorilla (what is it, Godzilla?). But the writers of the acclaimed HBO series have trolled their movie star guest actors once again by having Adrien Brody reference King Kong on Succession.

Even though I wrote a whole article on James Cromwell uttering, "That'll do," I was still willing to chalk him saying his infamously adorable Babe line up to coincidence. That's partly because Cromwell's Ewan had been in three other Succession episodes prior. And partly because I love Babe so damn much, it must have been a fever dream. Yet, with Brody mentioning King Kong four minutes and 25 seconds after appearing onscreen in the HBO series for the first time ever, I am now convinced that having famous actors reference the movies they were in is a Thing that the Succession writers are doing in Season 3.

If you missed it, Brody's Josh Aaronson in "Lion in the Meadow" tells Logan how honored he is that the Waystar Royco CEO has agreed to go on a walk with him. "Nice, love it," Josh says. "Fucking King Kong come out to dance with me."

In 2005, Brody starred in Peter Jackson's version of King Kong with Naomi Watts and Jack Black as screenwriter Jack Driscoll. So maybe the people in the Succession writers' room have a soft spot for this character even if it's not the role he won his Oscar for. Jackson's King Kong is also available to stream on HBOMax, so perhaps this is some elaborate cross-marketing. Logan Roy would be proud.