--- description: Franco will play an English teacher with hopes of stopping President Kennedy's assassination title: James Franco Will Try to Prevent JFK's Death in '11/23/63' image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # James Franco Will Try to Prevent JFK's Assassination in Hulu Miniseries by [Maya Rhodan](/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 12, 2015 8:39 PM CUT by [Maya Rhodan](/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 12, 2015 8:39 PM CUT James Franco is going back to television — well, sort of. The star of _The_ _Interview_ is set to play the leading role in a new Hulu miniseries based on the best selling novel by Stephen King, _11/23/63_. The _Hollywood Reporter_ says Franco will star as English teacher Jake Epping, who travels back in time to stop the assignation of President John F. Kennedy. The miniseries, which will run a total of nine hours, is a joint project by King and J.J. Abrams. The role will be Franco’s first regular television role since the late 90s cult hit _Freaks and Geeks._ \[[_THR_](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/james-franco-star-hulus-jj-772769?utm%5Fsource=Sailthru&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fterm=hollywoodreporter%5Fbreakingnews&utm%5Fcampaign=THR%20Breaking%20News%5F2015-02-12%2012%3A00%3A00%5Flgoldberg "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3707925/james-franco-stephen-king-hulu/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3707925/james-franco-stephen-king-hulu/"},"headline":"James Franco Will Try to Prevent JFK's Assassination in Hulu Miniseries","datePublished":"2015-02-12T20:39:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T04:23:39.733Z","description":"The nine-hour adaptation of Stephen King's '11/23/63' is being produced by King and JJ Abrams","url":"https://time.com/3707925/james-franco-stephen-king-hulu/","keywords":["Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3707925/james-franco-stephen-king-hulu/","name":"James Franco Will Try to Prevent JFK's Assassination in Hulu Miniseries"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Shots Fired In Dallas: TV News And The First Reports Of Kennedy's Assassination","description":"Shots Fired In Dallas: TV News And The First Reports Of Kennedy's Assassination","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/MKU9D8So/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2013-11-13T00:13:40.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/MKU9D8So.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3707925/james-franco-stephen-king-hulu/","duration":"PT6M4S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3707925/james-franco-stephen-king-hulu/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```