When Netflix officially announced Kennedy, the project was instantly dubbed the American version of The Crown. The comparison is inevitable: this is another dynasty that lived under the world’s gaze — between glory, tragedy, and power — only this time with a Hyannis Port accent and presidential ambition.

The idea first surfaced in 2023, when the platform revealed plans for a prestige drama about America’s most mythologized family. Not a simple historical biopic, but what showrunner Sam Shaw calls “the closest thing we have to American mythology — somewhere between Shakespeare and The Bold and the Beautiful.”

The genesis of a myth: from biography to screen

The series is based on the monumental book by Fredrik Logevall, JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century (1917–1956), the first of two planned volumes on John F. Kennedy. The work delves into the first thirty-nine years of Jack’s life, portraying not the frozen White House icon but the restless, intellectually curious young man shaped by family tragedy and his father’s political ambition.

Titled simply Kennedy, the show begins in the 1930s, following Joe and Rose Kennedy and their nine children in an America still recovering from the Great Depression. It’s a portrait of a family striving not only for political power but for symbolic dominance — to become the mirror of a nation in its most polished form.

Structure and ambition: the “Crown” model

Like The Crown, which charts Queen Elizabeth II’s reign in time-bound chapters, Kennedy will likely unfold by decades. The first season, composed of eight episodes, covers the improbable rise of the family — from Joe’s financial empire to the budding political ambitions of Jack and Joe Jr.

The plan is to track the clan’s evolution, showing how the children were molded by a charismatic yet tyrannical patriarch, and how expectations turned into destiny. Future seasons are expected to move through World War II, the death of Joe Jr., Jack’s rise to the Senate, his presidency, and inevitably, the tragedy of Dallas.

Shaw makes it clear this is more than a biopic: it’s a reflection on the American century. “By exploring the human strivings and burdens behind the myth, we reveal as much about our present — how we got here and where we’re going — as we do about the Kennedys themselves,” he said.

Cast and creative team: the weight of a name

The first confirmed name already raised expectations: Michael Fassbender will play Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., the patriarch whose ambition and pragmatism defined his children’s fate. Charismatic and feared, Joe Sr. stands at the heart of season one — a man who saw power as inheritance and treated family as enterprise.

Fassbender’s casting — a two-time Oscar nominee — signals a focus on psychological nuance. No other roles have been revealed yet, but the remaining members of the Kennedy clan (Jack, Bobby, Ted, and Rose) are expected to be portrayed by equally prestigious actors.

Behind the camera, Netflix assembled an elite team: Sam Shaw (Manhattan, Masters of Sex) serves as showrunner and executive producer, alongside Oscar-winning screenwriter Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, A Star Is Born) and acclaimed director Thomas Vinterberg (Another Round, Festen), who will helm the first and final episodes.

Produced by Chernin Entertainment, the series also features Fredrik Logevall himself as historical consultant — ensuring authenticity and depth.

The historical backbone: the birth of tragedy

If The Crown balances politics and intimacy, Kennedy promises to dive into the machinery of American power with equal elegance and pain. Expected storylines include:

• Joe Kennedy Sr.’s political career, including his controversial tenure as U.S. ambassador to the U.K. before World War II.
  
• The rivalry between Joe Jr. and Jack marked the first fraternal clash and the substitution of destiny after Joe Jr.’s wartime death.
  
• The moral authority of Rose Kennedy, a devout matriarch who ruled her home with religious conviction.
  
• The family’s relentless pursuit of greatness, which turned the children into national symbols — and victims of their own mythology.

Season one will likely end with Jack’s political awakening and the foreshadowing of a name bound for eternity — at the cost of everything personal.

Between Shakespeare and Camelot

There’s an inescapable melancholy in revisiting the Kennedys. They embodied the promise of a new “Camelot” and became the definition of American tragedy. Shaw and Vinterberg seem acutely aware of this duality — glamour and grief, charisma and emptiness.

As Shaw puts it, “The story of the Kennedys is the closest we have to a national mythology — a tale of kings and heroes in a country that swore it had neither.”

A legacy often filmed, never exhausted

Before Netflix’s Kennedy, the family’s story had many screen lives:

• The Kennedys (2011) — a miniseries starring Greg Kinnear and Katie Holmes covering the family’s rise and fall.
  
• The Kennedys: After Camelot (2017) — its sequel, focusing on Jackie Kennedy Onassis after the assassination.
  
• Documentaries such as American Dynasties: The Kennedys (2018) and Oliver Stone’s classic JFK (1991) cemented the legend in cinematic lore.

And yet, every generation seems to need to rediscover this story — as if the Kennedys reflect the nation’s own contradictions.

The future of a televised dynasty

With high production values, an award-winning team, and Fassbender’s magnetic presence, Kennedy stands as one of Netflix’s most ambitious dramas for 2026. Like The Crown, it is expected to span multiple seasons, evolving in cast and tone as decades unfold and mythology deepens.

Ultimately, Kennedy isn’t just about a family. It’s about the American dream — its beauty, its arrogance, and its cost.

Between Hyannis Port and the White House, between family devotion and public sacrifice, Kennedy aims to reveal what lay behind the perfect photographs: a Shakespearean tragedy in pearls and tailored suits.