Netflix has released first-look images of Michael Fassbender as Joe Kennedy Sr. in their upcoming Kennedy series, and the casting makes perfect sense: Fassbender specializes in playing men whose charisma can't quite hide their capacity for ruthlessness.
The series focuses on the Kennedy patriarch - businessman, ambassador, alleged bootlegger, and architect of one of America's most powerful political dynasties. Joe Kennedy Sr. is a fascinating figure precisely because he was so morally compromised. He made his fortune through questionable means, appeased Nazi Germany as ambassador to the United Kingdom, and allegedly orchestrated political careers for his sons with the kind of single-minded determination that didn't care who got hurt in the process.
That's material Fassbender can work with. He's made a career of playing complex, often unlikable men - Magneto in the X-Men films, the sex addict in Shame, Steve Jobs in Danny Boyle's biopic. He understands how to make ambition and moral compromise compelling without softening the edges. That's crucial for this role.
Variety reports that Netflix has added thirteen actors to the cast, building out the Kennedy family and their circle. The series will apparently not shy away from the darker aspects of the family's history - the alleged mob connections, the womanizing, the political machinations that sometimes crossed ethical lines.
That's the key to success here. The Kennedys have been mythologized to the point of hagiography in American culture. Any series that just worships at the altar of Camelot is going to feel dated and dishonest. But if Netflix is willing to show the cost of that ambition - the lives destroyed, the compromises made, the way power corrupts even idealistic families - then there's a real series here.
