Netflix has officially announced “KENNEDY,” an eight-episode drama series that will star Michael Fassbender as Joe Kennedy Sr., marking a significant addition to the actor’s increasingly selective television portfolio. Based on Fredrik Logevall’s acclaimed biography “JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956,” the series promises to peel back the mythological veneer surrounding America’s most storied political dynasty and reveal the raw human ambition, struggle, and tragedy that defined them.
For Fassbender, this represents a notable shift in his recent career trajectory. After dominating the big screen with intense performances in films like STEVE JOBS, ALIEN: COVENANT, and THE SNOWMAN, the German-Irish actor has been more discerning about his projects in recent years. His appearance in David Fincher’s THE KILLER in 2023 signaled his willingness to embrace streaming platforms for the right material, and “KENNEDY” appears to be another carefully chosen vehicle that allows him to sink his teeth into a complex, morally ambiguous patriarch. The role of Joe Kennedy Sr., the controversial businessman and political operator who orchestrated his family’s rise to power through a combination of wealth, cunning, and ruthless determination, seems tailor-made for Fassbender’s ability to portray charismatic yet deeply flawed men.
The series will launch in the 1930s, chronicling Joe and Rose Kennedy’s improbable journey from ambitious strivers to American royalty, following their nine children including the rebellious Jack Kennedy, who would struggle to emerge from the shadow of his older brother Joe Jr. Showrunner Sam Shaw describes the Kennedy saga as existing somewhere between Shakespeare and THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL, a deliberately provocative framing that acknowledges both the family’s genuine historical significance and the soap operatic quality of their endless cycles of triumph and disaster. The assassinations of JFK and Robert Kennedy, the tragic death of JFK Jr. alongside his wife and sister-in-law in that 1999 plane crash, and the countless other misfortunes that gave birth to whispers of a Kennedy curse have all contributed to a narrative that feels almost too dramatically perfect to be real.
Shaw’s vision, drawing from Logevall’s nuanced biography, aims to strip away the mythology and expose the human strivings and burdens underneath, using the Kennedy story as a lens through which to examine not just mid-century American ambition but our current moment and how we arrived here. It’s an ambitious undertaking that will need Fassbender’s considerable talents to anchor it, and if his recent choices are any indication, he wouldn’t have signed on unless the material warranted the commitment. The series has no release date yet but stands apart from Ryan Murphy’s upcoming “American Love Story,” which will focus specifically on JFK Jr., suggesting that Netflix is betting heavily on America’s endless fascination with the family that came closest to establishing a modern political dynasty before fate intervened.
Caitríona Balfe graces @tatlermagazine `s October cover!
From modelling for @chanelofficial to OUTLANDER`s Claire Fraser, and now two major literary adaptations on the way: SENSE AND SENSIBILITY and REBECCA. A career built on reinvention, one deliberate step at a time.✨
Full interview via link in bio 🔗︎
Forget everything you know about Fassbender!
In HOPE, he goes full motion-capture as an extraterrestrial invading a remote Korean village, starring alongside real-life wife Alicia Vikander as part of the alien family unleashing chaos.
HOPE hits US theaters Sep 9 🎬
🥊Who`s watching Saturday?
Barry Keoghan just gave Katie Taylor the send-off she deserves ahead of her final fight this Saturday at a sold-out Croke Park.
Watch now via 🔗︎ in bio.
In ELSINORE, Andrew Scott steps into the shoes of Ian Charleson — a gay actor preparing for the role of a lifetime while quietly living with AIDS, at a time when simply being himself could have ended his career.
Scott, who came out publicly in 2013, doesn`t treat this as just another role. It`s personal. It`s full circle. And it`s a tribute to an artist who never got to tell his own story on his own terms.
"I wanted people to understand he was trying to live — it`s not about fetishizing his death."
First look trailer via 🔗︎ in bio.
Aisling Bea is going home. 🇮🇪✨
The beloved Irish comedian steps in front of WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? cameras to trace her roots back through Laois, Limerick and Kerry.
No forced tears. No manufactured melodrama. Just Bea being Bea — sharp, funny, and quietly moved as she digs into her family`s ties to the Easter Rising and the revival of the Irish language.
Watch now via irishfilmtv.com.
Netflix is expanding the TOP BOY universe 🎬
Oscar nominee Barry Keoghan steps into the role of Irish gangster Jonny McGee in JONNY BOY, a five-episode prequel.
Both begin filming in 2027 - Irish talent leading the charge in one of TV`s most gripping crime sagas 🔥
Full details via link in bio 🔗︎
Galway`s own @nicolacoughlan is trading Derry classrooms for something darker 👀
She`s joining Naomi Scott, Dominic West and Imelda Staunton in Netflix`s new drama pulling from the short stories Roald Dahl wrote for ADULTS — think conmen, adulterers, murderous mothers and a couple trying to outrun their own fate in a faded seaside town 🌊🔪
Full details via link in bio 🔗︎
Two Northern Irish friends. One ceasefire summer.
SKINTOWN just won the £50,000 Sean Connery Prize at Edinburgh International Film Festival 🏆 — beating nine other world premieres to take the top feature prize, voted by festival audiences themselves.
Directed by @kieron3016, this is 1994 Northern Ireland like you haven`t seen it on screen: hopeful, restless, and searching for a way out.
Full details via link in bio 🔗︎
Saoirse Ronan, the Bond girl?
The Irish actress says her dream role is a Bond villain, now husband Jack Lowden is reportedly in the running to be the next 007 - could 2026 give us Bond`s first husband-and-wife pairing?
We`re here for it. 🎬🖤
