Masters of the Air: Apple’s World War II series from Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg releases first-look images

Last Updated on October 9, 2023

Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks have famously honored stories of one of the most significant events in our nation’s history with their World War II projects — the Academy Award-winning Saving Private Ryan and the Emmy Award-winning HBO miniseries Band of Brothers. The legendary duo takes to the air as they return with a new nine-episode series for AppleTV+ titled Masters of the Air. Apple has recently previewed a collection of images that gives us an advanced look at the show.

The official synopsis from Apple reads,
“Based on Donald L. Miller’s book of the same name, and scripted by John Orloff, Masters of the Air follows the men of the 100th Bomb Group (the “Bloody Hundredth”) as they conduct perilous bombing raids over Nazi Germany and grapple with the frigid conditions, lack of oxygen, and sheer terror of combat conducted at 25,000 feet in the air. Portraying the psychological and emotional price paid by these young men as they helped destroy the horror of Hitler’s Third Reich, is at the heart of Masters of the Air. Some were shot down and captured; some were wounded or killed. And some were lucky enough to make it home. Regardless of individual fate, a toll was exacted on them all.

Ranging in location from the bucolic fields and villages of southeast England, to the harsh deprivations of a German Prisoner of War Camp, and depicting a unique and crucial time in world history, Masters of the Air is enormous in both scale and scope, and a genuine cinematic achievement.”

The ensemble cast is headed up by Academy Award-nominee Austin Butler, Callum Turner, Anthony Boyle, Nate Mann, Rafferty Law, Academy Award-nominee Barry Keoghan, Josiah Cross, Branden Cook, and Ncuti Gatwa. Spielberg and Hanks are on board as executive producers with Gary Goetzman, who also produced Band of Brothers and The Pacific. Goetzman boasts, “Tom and Steven have always wanted to visualize cinematically what our author Don Miller has called, this ‘singular event in the history of warfare.’ We’re thrilled that Apple TV+ has given us the opportunity to combine the efforts of so many talented people, on-screen and behind the camera, to tell this important story.” One of the high-profile directors on this series is No Time to Die‘s Cary Joji Fukanaga, although he is interestingly absent from the details of the project as Apple may have cut ties with the director.

The limited series is set to debut on the streaming platform starting on Friday, January 26, 2024. It will start with the first two episodes, then will be followed by one new episode every Friday through March 15, 2024.