Featuring some incredible Irish talent and coming from some of the best film-makers in the world.
We've been keeping an eye on
Masters of the Air for a long time. Coming from executive producers Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, it is the follow-up to the land-set Band of Brothers and the sea-set The Pacific.
The show was initially confirmed by HBO in 2013, but by 2019, the very costly production - reported to be $250 million for the nine episodes - had switched over to Apple. So we've been waiting for about a decade to know when we'd finally get to see this epic wartime series, and finally this week, the premiere date has been announced. The show's official synopsis, provided via Apple TV+, is as follows:
"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."
Austin Butler chats about his Irish co-stars in Masters of the Air
Along with Oscar-nominees
Barry Keoghan and
Austin Butler, the impressive cast list also includes Callum Turner (Fantastic Beasts), Anthony Boyle (Tetris),
Fionn O'Shea (Normal People), Nate Mann (Licorice Pizza), Rafferty Law (Repo Men), Josiah Cross (King Richard), Branden Cook (Industry), and Ncuti Gatwa (Sex Education).
Additionally, the nine episodes are directed by Cary Joji Fukanaga (No Time To Die), Dee Rees (Mudbound), Tim Van Patten (Game of Thrones), and Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (Captain Marvel). Spielberg and Hanks are truly pulling out all of the stops on this one.
The first two episodes of Masters of the Air will debut on Apple TV+ on Friday 26 January 2024.
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