Insanity is contagious in trailer for George Clooney’s Catch-22 Hulu series

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

The first trailer for Hulu's adaptation of Joseph Heller's "Catch-22" has arrived and gives us a playful yet intense look at the six-episode series. Catch-22 stars Christopher Abbott (Girls) as Yossarian, a US Air Force bombardier who not only finds himself facing death from the enemy, but also from the bureaucracy of the military which inverts logic at every turn, especially when it comes to Catch-22, a military by-law which states that if you fly your missions, you’re crazy and don’t have to fly them; all you have to do is ask. But if you as not to, then you’re sane, and so you have to fly them. The series also stars Hugh Laurie, Kyle Chandler, and George Clooney, who also serves as executive producer and helmed two of the episodes himself.

During the Television Critics Association's winter press-tour, George Clooney stated that he found a whole new appreciation for the Joseph Heller novel after reading the scripts by Luke Davies and David Michôd. "It was really exciting to see why this [story] lasted and stood the test of time," Clooney said, adding that he was drawn to how the characters in this new version of the story "unspooled."

The official synopsis for Catch-22:

Based on Joseph Heller’s seminal novel of the same name, Catch-22 is the story of the incomparable, artful dodger, Yossarian (Christopher Abbott), a US Air Force bombardier in World War II who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy, but rather his own army which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to avoid his military assignments, he’ll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule which specifies that a concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers which are real and immediate is the process of a rational mind; a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but a request to be removed from duty is evidence of sanity and therefore makes him ineligible to be relieved from duty.

Catch-22 will debut on Hulu on May 17, 2019.