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NETFLIX HAS RELEASED a behind-the-scenes image of Michael Fassbender as Joe Kennedy Sr ahead of a new series on the streaming service on the Kennedys.
Joe Kennedy Sr was the patriarch of the Kennedy family and was a leading member of the Democrat Party.
He had nine children, three of whom went on to become leading politicians themselves: John F Kennedy, Robert F Kennedy, and Edward Kennedy.
JFK was the 35th president of the United States and was assassinated in 1963, and Robert F Kennedy was also assassinated five years later in 1968.
Edward Kennedy meanwhile died of a brain tumour in 2009.
Joining two-time Oscar nominee Fassbender is Belfast actress Laura Donnelly, who will play Rose Kennedy, the wife of Joe Kennedy Sr.
The upcoming eight part series, titled Kennedy, is billed by Netflix as “revealing 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”.
“You know the name,” reads a Netflix statement. “You know the triumphs and tragedies.”
“Now it’s time to go beyond the headlines and textbooks with Kennedy, a drama series that uncovers the intimate truths at the heart of one of America’s most notorious dynasties.”
The first season will chart the ascent of Joe and Rose Kennedy.
Production on the series has just kicked off and the drama is currently filming in London but there is no word on when it will appear on Netflix.
Netflix will be hoping to capture the public’s attention in the same way that another Kennedy story currently is.
The last of a nine-part series on the marriage of John F Kennedy Jr and Carolyn Bessette aired today on Disney+.
Meanwhile, social media searches for JFK Jr and Bessette are said to have grown by more than 9,100% in the past month.
JFK Jr and Bessette died in a plane crash near Martha’s Vineyard in 1999.
But the show has been criticised by members of the Kennedy family.
For example, Jack Schlossberg, a grandson of JFK who was ring bearer at JFK Jr’s wedding, remarked: “I would just want people who do watch the show to watch it with one letter in mind, and that’s a capital F for fiction.”
Each show begins with a disclaimer stating that the “story is inspired by actual events” but that “certain events have been dramatized or fictionalized for storytelling purposes”.
Love Story is the fifth instalment in Ryan Murphy’s American Story franchise and he acts as the show’s executive producer.
In an interview last year, in an apparent reference to Schlossberg, Murphy said: “I thought it was an odd choice to be mad about your relative that you really don’t remember.”
Schlossberg then hit back and accused Murphy of “making millions” from his uncle’s story without contributing “any of your riches to the causes he championed, or the legacy of public service he represented”.
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