‘Kennedy’: Michael Fassbender To Lead Netflix Series Exploring Kennedy Family From ‘Another Round’ Director Thomas Vinterberg

We’ve learned today that Michael Fassbender and Oscar-winning Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg (“Another Round”) has been tapped by Netflix for a new series “Kennedy” exploring the Kennedy Family in an eight-episode family drama with Fassbender set to play Joe Kennedy.

“Kennedy” will explore the triumphs and tragedies of the Kennedy family and hails from showrunner and executive producer Sam Shaw (“Castle Rock,” “Masters of Sex”) and is based on the Fredrik Logevall novel “JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956.”

If you’re not familiar with the patiarch of the family, Joe Kennedy, Sr. was a businessman and America’s ambassador to the United Kingdom. He was obvioulsy entrenched in the world of American politics, alongside being a pivotal figure during the era of prohibition, dealing with criminal syndicates as he profited from the bootlegging industry when the sale of alcohol was outlawed by the federal government. Of course, his sons and grandchildren would follow in his political footsteps and surpass him as John F. Kennedy would become President of the United States, the first Catholic President, and, like his younger brother Robert Kennedy Sr., was a beloved politican that become a victim of assassination.

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An official logline for the show courtesty of Netflix:

“Kennedy” reveals the intimate lives, loves, rivalries and tragedies that shaped the most iconic dynasty in modern history, and helped create the world we live in today. Beginning in the 1930s, the first season charts the improbable ascent of Joe and Rose Kennedy and their nine children, including rebellious second son Jack, who struggles to escape the shadow of his golden boy older brother. 

A producing team features Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping and Kaitlin Dahill for Chernin Entertainment, Eric Roth, Logevall, Lila Byock, Anya Epstein, Dustin Thomason, Vinterberg, and Anna O’Malley.

“The story of the Kennedys is the closest we have to American mythology, somewhere between Shakespeare and The Bold and the Beautiful. But Fredrik Logevall’s stunning, nuanced biography pulls a veil on the human strivings and burdens behind the myth, revealing as much about our present moment, how we got here and where we’re going, as about the Kennedys themselves. I’m thrilled to be able to explore this saga of a family and a world in transition with Eric Roth, Thomas Vinterberg and our incredible band of artists and partners, at a moment when our past feels urgently present,” Shaw, the project’s showrunner, said of the new Netflix series in an official statement.

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Quite the tantalizing start for “Kennedy,” we can’t wait to see who else ends to taking roles, including ends up playing Rose Kennedy alongside the children.