Updated

The Kennedys-After Camelot, ReelzChannel and Muse Entertainment‘s long-gestating followup to The Kennedys 2011 miniseries, has been greenlighted as a four-hour miniseries to premiere on Reelz and Canada’s Corus Entertainment in 2016.

Katie Holmes, who starred as Jackie Kennedy in The Kennedys, will reprise that role as Jackie O in the new miniseries. Holmes will also serve as executive produce and will direct one of the four episodes. Jon Cassar, who directed all 8 episodes of The Kennedys, will direct the other 3 episodes and also will executive produce.

Based on J. Randy Taraborrelli’s best seller, After Camelot: A Personal History of the Kennedy Family 1968 to the Present, The Kennedys-After Camelot miniseries was written by Stephen Kronish. Keri Selig, owner and founder of Intuition Productions, who brought the project to Reelz two years ago, also serves as an executive producer. Production of The Kennedys-After Camelot is slated to begin in the spring 2015 in Canada with Muse handling production and international distribution.

The Kennedys was a brilliant execution of storytelling based on the lives of one of the world’s best known families,” said Stan E. Hubbard, CEO of ReelzChannel. Katie elegantly portrayed Jackie Kennedy in the first miniseries and now will continue the role as Jackie grows into the Jackie O that the world knows best.”

The Kennedys stirred controversy when it was abruptly dropped by History, the network that had commissioned it, shortly before it was to hit the air under what sources described as political pressure from the Kennedy clan. ReelzChannel then stepped in to pick it up for its first foray into original programming. The gamble paid off as The Kennedys put the fledgling channel on the map. The mini delivered earned four Emmys, including a lead actor in a movie/miniseries win for Barry Pepper.

Additionally, Reelz aired theJFK: The Smoking Gun documentary, about the assassination of John F. Kennedy, which was chronicled in The Kennedys.