Netflix shares first photo and a big casting update

Netflix released a behind-the-scenes shot showing Michael Fassbender in character as Joe Kennedy Sr. The streamer also announced 13 recurring actors joining the project, expanding a cast that already included several named leads.

Key returning and already announced players

  • Michael Fassbender as Joe Kennedy Sr.
  • Laura Donnelly as Rose Kennedy
  • Nick Robinson as Joe Kennedy Jr.
  • Joshuah Melnick as Jack Kennedy
  • Lydia Peckham as Rosemary Kennedy
  • Saura Lightfoot-Leon as Kick Kennedy
  • Previously announced supporting names include Ben Miles, Cole Doman, and Imogen Poots.

Thirteen new recurring cast members and who they play

  • Georgina Bitmead as Eunice Kennedy, the fifth child of Joe and Rose.
  • Miley Locke as a younger Kick Kennedy.
  • Tipper Seifert-Cleveland as a younger Rosemary Kennedy.
  • Hera Hilmar as Inga Arvad, a Danish actress turned journalist linked with Jack Kennedy in the early 1940s.
  • Wyatt Russell as Charles Lindbergh, the aviator famous for the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight in 1927.
  • Patrick Fischler as Arthur Krock, a prominent Washington journalist and longtime New York Times bureau chief.
  • Caitlin FitzGerald as Clare Boothe Luce, writer, socialite, and later a congresswoman in the 1940s.
  • Louis Landau as Billy Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington, a British aristocrat.
  • Robin Soans as Neville Chamberlain, British prime minister from 1937 to 1940.
  • Denis O'Hare as Raymond Furness, a career State Department official who served at the U.S. Embassy in London in the late 1930s.
  • Albert Welling as Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty and wartime leader of the United Kingdom.
  • Toby Huss as Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States.
  • Eddie Marsan as J. Edgar Hoover, the first director of the FBI.

What the series covers

The show is adapted from Fredrik Logevall's book JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956. According to the series description, it examines the private lives, relationships, rivalries, and losses that shaped the Kennedy family. The first season starts in the 1930s and follows Joe and Rose Kennedy and their nine children. It pays special attention to Jack Kennedy as he tries to move out of the shadow of his older, more celebrated brother.

Who is behind the camera and where filming is happening

Sam Shaw is the showrunner. Executive producers include Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, Kaitlin Dahill for Chernin Entertainment, Eric Roth, Fredrik Logevall, Lila Byock, Anya Epstein, Dustin Thomason, director Thomas Vinterberg, and Anna O'Malley. Production on the eight-episode first season is currently underway in London.

If you like historical drama with a large, busy ensemble, this one looks designed to deliver both big personalities and political reach. Netflix has assembled a cast that mixes familiar faces with some fresh ones, and production is moving forward so viewers should see more material soon.