Q&A with ‘Dynasty’ series director Matthew Hamachek

Two months after The Dynasty aired on Apple TV, Patriots fans have had the chance to digest the one-of-a-kind documentary. Executive Producer Matthew Hamacheck was granted access to several Patriots players and coaches, including Bill Belichick, Robert Kraft, and Tom Brady.

Hamachek’s approach dove into controversial topics like ‘Deflategate’ and explored the Patriots’ dominance in the NFL over the last 20 years. The series is ten parts long, starting with Kraft buying the Patriots and ending with Brady leaving the franchise in 2019.

Despite drawing criticism for the limited focus on certain Super Bowls, Hamachek’s storytelling decisions aimed to highlight lesser-known aspects of the team’s journey. 

Hamachek and his team spoke to the Patriots Beat and answered questions surrounding The Dynasty.

When did the process start, and how long has this been in the works?

Matthew Hamachek, Director and Executive Producer: It started while working on TIGER for HBO. Jeff Benedict had written the book that inspired that series. He asked me if I wanted to direct his next book. This one was about the New England Patriots. By the time I officially came on, Jeff had sold the project to Apple, and Imagine was already on board. The next step was assembling the crew:

How did the interview process work, and how did you decide which players, coaches, and staff to interview when so many memorable people helped make the Patriots dynasty?

Chris James, Producer: Selecting who to interview among the epic group of humans who built the Patriots dynasty was no small feat. We spent months huddled on Zoom calls, whittling down an extremely long booking wishlist of hundreds of names — making a conscious effort to strike a balanced cross-section of people from the many eras of this two-decade period of greatness. Each interview required a detailed and exhaustive research process. We’d scour books and the internet to compile a collection of their most revelatory press conference moments, in-depth magazine profiles, illuminating podcast anecdotes — anything to help us get inside their minds. Our goal for each interview was to provide a comfortable space for our subjects to share their unique experiences with the team and reflect on this unprecedented legacy of sports dominance, one the world will likely never see again.

Who was your favorite interviewee, and how come?

Dallas Rexer, Producer: While each of the 70+ interviews we filmed for The Dynasty revealed a new detail, unique analysis, anecdote never shared before, or unexpected emotional response, the interviews we did with Ernie Adams (Director of Football Research, Patriots) stands out as one of my all-time favorites. Ernie was the man behind the curtain, the great and powerful Oz. But he remained, until now, a bit of an enigma to most of us. His fingerprints were on every significant decision made by the Patriots for several decades, yet he received little recognition and no fame for his role. His passion for the game, attention to specific detail, and boundless energy for finding ways to perfect it were that of a young man in his prime, believing the white-haired, avuncular gentleman we saw in the interview chair. Because he had been there through it all—observing and advising from literally all angles—he had a lot to say, so much so that the words would come tumbling out two or three at a time. But nothing that came out of Ernie’s mouth was pat, predictable, or practiced. This was raw knowledge and unbridled opinion, flecked with innate genius and too much heart, that came pouring out. It’s rare to find an uncut gem like that sitting in your interview chair, ready to crack open. And we are so fortunate he chose us as the lucky recipients. 

How hard was it to access all of this never-before-seen footage?

Matthew Fisher, Archival Producer: Once the infrastructure was established to house the 35,000 hours of largely never-before-seen footage from the Patriots archive, the process of organizing it all became a monumental task for a team of around-the-clock loggers watching and finding all of the pieces of gold that helped support and drive the stories in this series. Every asset needed to be tagged in a way so that six months down the road, we could seamlessly call up a specific play, press conference, practice, team meeting, or other moments to support whatever the team of producers and editors needed at any given moment over the roughly two-year editing process. While this trove of incredible footage helped to drive a lot of the narrative for what it felt like to be inside the room, many of these stories needed an outside perspective from more traditional sources ranging from local and national news, sports analysts, and social media to paint a fuller picture of just how big something like Spygate or Deflategate or the end of the Brady-Belichick era was on a national, and sometimes even global scale.

How did you decide which storylines to feature most? Why wasn’t there more emphasis on the 21-game win streak or the early seasons?

Nick Biagetti, Editor: Growing up a young Pats fan with a “Homeland Defense” autographed poster on my wall, I reveled in the bevy of winning that defined Patriots football in the early 2000s, but the last thing you want in telling this story is for the victories to get redundant – it’s a strange thing to say as a fan. The ’07 season ultimately became the win streak we needed to examine, not because the 21-game win streak isn’t historic, but to do both would have stepped on the power of ’07. A rawness emerged from that footage, which I don’t think anyone had ever seen before.

Bill Belichick is known for his personality when talking with the media. Did he surprise you when you interviewed him?

Matthew Hamachek, Director and Executive Producer: Bill’s was a rollercoaster like every interview. He was great when talking about coaching up Matt Cassell in ’08, calling Randy Moss, or the Rams in 2018. I knew he wouldn’t have as much to say about things like Spygate or benching Malcolm Butler, but I had to ask him the same questions I had asked everyone else. And I needed to allow him to comment.

Could you sense the tension between Belichick and Brady during the interview process?

Matthew Hamachek, Director and Executive Producer: Many people we talked to discussed the tension. It’s part of the story, but I think it is more remarkable that they stayed together for as long as they did. I think they realized that they were PERFECT for each other. Bill wanted a team-first culture where there were no stars. Tom bought in and let himself be the example set in low-light sessions. Tom found a coach that would never let him be complacent. And they were both maniacally driven. As important as they were to the six Super Bowls, as Scott Pioli points out, you can’t ignore everyone else who was a part of those teams. Everyone worked together and did the unthinkable