Fans of World War II history, rejoice! Specifically, fans of Band of Brothers and The Pacific, the dedicated fans who watch the shows in full when they air annually, on top of streaming them online, rejoice. Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks are back with another television series charting the story of real-life servicemembers in the war. It’s called Masters of the Air, focusing on the 8th Air Force, and it finally has a release date.
The series will premiere early next year, on Jan. 26, 2024. The first two episodes will air that day, with one episode released each following week.
Like the other two Spielberg-produced series, this one is based on real history. The series will adapt historian Donald L. Miller’s book Masters of the Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany, drawing on stories from the Army Air Force’s 8th Air Force during the war. Specifically, it follows the 100th Bombardment Group, which conducted bombing raids over Nazi territory as the Allies pushed forward toward Berlin. Alongside members of the 100th Bombardment Group, it will draw on other stories, including portraying some of the members of the famed Tuskegee Airmen.
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Based on the history of the air war, the show will feature B-17 bomber crews, plus fighter pilots manning planes such as the P-51 Mustang. It’s also likely to be a brutal show. The Pacific and Band of Brothers showed the grueling nature of infantry combat in World War II, but it was bloody in the skies as well. Of the more than 115,000 casualties the Army Air Force suffered in the war, almost half came from the 8th, with more than 26,000 killed. So perhaps don’t get too attached to some of the characters in this series.
Unlike the previous two World War II shows, this will air on Apple TV+ instead of HBO. It’s also going to be slightly shorter, running nine episodes instead of 10 like the other two series. The show’s first four episodes will be directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga (True Detective, No Time to Die). It’s not clear how the full aerial combat scenes will be depicted. The show uses the same on-set virtual production system that The Mandalorian used in order to simulate the actors in the cockpit during dogfights.
It’s been a long wait for Masters of the Air. A third World War II show from Spielberg and Hanks was announced in 2013, but HBO eventually decided not to advance the show. Apple TV+ stepped in and production began in 2021, with interruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The previous shows mostly used then-unknown actors, but Masters of the Air has a slightly more star-studded cast. Austin Butler (Elvis, Dune Part 2) headlines the show, with Barry Keoghan (The Green Knight, The Banshees of Inisherin) and Ncuti Gatwa (Doctor Who) among the rest of the leads.
Masters of the Air premieres on Apple TV+ on Jan. 26, 2024.
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