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NEED TO KNOW
- Netflix has green-lit a new eight-episode series about the Kennedy family
- Michael Fassbender will star as Joe Kennedy Sr., the family patriarch and father to nine children including JFK
- The series will be based on Fredrik Logevall’s JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956
A new chapter of the Kennedy family legacy is coming to screens.
On Monday, Oct. 20, Netflix announced that an eight-episode series called Kennedy is in works at the streamer and will star Michael Fassbender as Joe Kennedy Sr., the father of President John F. Kennedy.
The series will be based on Fredrik Logevall’s book JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956, and, per the official logline, will explore “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,” the logline continues.
New York Times Co./Getty
Showrunner Sam Shaw compared the story of the Kennedy family to “American mythology” as he told Netflix’s Tudum it falls “somewhere between Shakespeare and The Bold and the Beautiful.”
“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,” Shaw said.
“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.”
Joe Kennedy Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy were parents to nine children, including Joseph Kennedy, who died in 1944, and John F. Kennedy, who went on to become the 35th President of the United States. They also shared sons Robert F. Kennedy Sr. and Edward Moore Kennedy, and daughters Rosemary, Kathleen, Eunice, Patricia and Jean.
Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty
The Netflix series announcement comes as filming remains ongoing on Ryan Murphy‘s American Love Story, which will see Naomi Watts play Jackie Kennedy, Paul Kelly play JFK Jr. and Sarah Pidgeon play Carolyn Bessette.
The series will explore the whirlwind romance between JFK Jr. — son of JFK and Jackie — and Bessette, a fashion publicist. The couple first met in 1992 when Bessette was working for Calvin Klein and was assigned the task of giving Kennedy a private tour and fitting.
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JFK Jr. married Bessette in September 1996 in a private ceremony on Cumberland Island, Ga., with a few members of the famous Kennedy family in attendance. They died in a plane crash three years later in July 1999, when JFK Jr. was flying his wife, and her sister, Lauren, from New Jersey to Martha’s Vineyard.
Source: people.com
