Actor Michael Fassbender (Shame, Prometheus) will soon be leading one of America’s most notorious dynasties to Netflix with Kennedy, a new drama about the political powerhouse family that shaped the world we live in today. The series, inspired by Fredrik Logevall’s 2020 book JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956, will see Fassbender embody Joe Kennedy Sr., the family patriarch and father to former President John F. Kennedy. Beginning in the 1930s, the first season of Kennedy charts the improbable ascent of Joe and Rose Kennedy and their nine children, including the rebellious second son, Jack, who struggles to escape the shadow of his golden-boy older brother.
Before you watch Fassbender bring Joe Sr. to life, you can check out the films below on Netflix. In them, he plays an assassin, a hardened detective, a Nazi-hunting film critic, and more.
David Fincher (Fight Club, The Social Network, Gone Girl) directs this action thriller. Based on the French graphic novel series of the same name by Alexis “Matz” Nolent, the movie follows a hit man (Fassbender) known only as “The Killer.” After a job goes wrong, The Killer — an enigmatic figure who rocks a cool hat and listens exclusively to The Smiths — embarks on a manhunt to set things right. Tilda Swinton, Charles Parnell, and Arliss Howard co-star.
Fassbender is joined by Rebecca Ferguson, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Toby Jones, Val Kilmer, and J.K. Simmons in this psychological thriller from director Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy). Based on the 2007 novel by Jo Nesbø, The Snowman follows Norwegian Police Service inspector Harry Hole (Fassbender) as he tracks a serial killer who builds snowmen after each murder.
Fassbender co-stars as the straight man in Kneecap, a semi-biographical dramatic comedy about the real Irish hip-hop trio from Belfast, Northern Ireland. In it, he plays Arlo Ó Cairealláin, whose hedonistic son, Naoise, joins up with his buddies, Liam Ó hAnnaidh and JJ Ó Dochartaigh, to form an Irish-language music group. The real members of Kneecap portray themselves in the film, which became the first Irish-language movie to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the NEXT Audience Award in 2024.
Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Mélanie Laurent, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, Fassbender, and more star in director Quentin Tarantino’s World War II drama about a fictional group of Nazi-hunting black ops soldiers known as the “Basterds,” led by Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Pitt). In it, Fassbender portrays British Commando Lieutenant Archie Hicox, a former film critic who’s recruited by the Basterds for a mission. The film racked up (among others) four Golden Globe nominations, three Screen Actors Guild nominations, and eight Oscar nominations, with Waltz winning Best Supporting Actor at all three ceremonies for his portrayal of the villainous SS Standartenführer Hans Landa.
