Netflix is moving forward with an eight-episode drama series about the Kennedy family, the streamer announced Monday. Simply titled “Kennedy,” the series will star Michael Fassbender as Joe Kennedy, Sr.
The show will be based on Fredrik Logevall’s book, “JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956” and comes from both Netflix and Chernin Entertainment, the scripted film and television label of The North Road Company. Chernin has a history of successful scripted adaptations based on historical figures. The production company was behind the Oscar-nominated “Ford v Ferrari,” the Oscar and Golden Globe-nominated “Hidden Figures” and the Golden Globe-winning “The Greatest Showman.”
The series will detail the “intimate lives, loves, rivalries and tragedies that shaped the most iconic dynasty in modern history,” a press release for the show reads. Season 1 will start in the 1930s and follow the rise of Joe and Rose Kennedy as well as their nine children. Sam Shaw, known for his work on “Manhattan,” “Castle Rock” and “Masters of Sex,” will serve as the series’ showrunner and executive producer.
“The story of the Kennedys is the closest we have to American mythology — somewhere between Shakespeare and ‘The Bold and the Beautiful,’” Shaw said in an interview with Netflix’s TUDUM. “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.”
In addition to Shaw, the series will be executive produced by Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping and Kaitlin Dahill for Chernin Entertainment along with Eric Roth, Fredrik Logevall, Lila Byock, Anya Epstein, Dustin Thomason, Thomas Vinterberg and Anna O’Malley. Vinterberg, known for his work on “Festen,” “The Hunt” and “Another Round,” will also direct.
