Netflix has cast Michael Fassbender as Joseph Kennedy Sr., the patriarch of the famed Kennedy family, in its upcoming series Kennedy. The show is based on Fredrik Logevall’s book JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917–1956 and has received an eight-episode order for its first season.
The announcement marks the revival of the project, nearly two years after Variety exclusively reported that the series was in development. At the time, sources described the show as a “U.S. version of The Crown,” chronicling the Kennedy family’s rise to political prominence across multiple seasons.
According to the official synopsis, 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.”
Set in the 1930s, the first season follows the unlikely rise of Joe (Fassbender) and Rose Kennedy and their nine children, including their rebellious second son, Jack — the future President John F. Kennedy — who struggles to step out of his older brother’s shadow, the family’s “golden boy.”