Apple’s Hit Miniseries ‘Masters of the Air’ Debuts in January

It’s been years in the making, but Apple’s landmark follow-up to HBO’s Band of Brothers is set to debut early next year, joining Foundation as one of the company’s most ambitious — and expensive — projects.

For those who may not recall, Band of Brothers was a hit wartime drama miniseries produced by legendary duo Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks for HBO in 2001, following closely on the heels of the critically acclaimed World War II film, Saving Private Ryan.

The pair followed that up in 2010 with The Pacific, a sequel miniseries that focused on the US Marine Corps in the Pacific theatre during World War II, which turned out to be another massive hit. So, in the months leading up to the debut of its streaming service, Apple decided to seal the deal by securing the rights to a third installment that would focus on “the men of the Mighty Eighth” — the American “bomber boys” of the Eighth Air Force that were credited with bringing the war to Hitler’s doorstep.

However, there’s one other thing that makes the new series, dubbed Masters of the Air particularly groundbreaking: It was the first production that Apple secured the rights to that would be produced by Apple Studios — Apple’s own in-house production company.

While Apple Studios has produced and released over two dozen movies and TV shows — and has just as many more in the works — it was Masters of the Air that first accompanied the news that Apple would be spearheading its own productions rather than producing original shows through third-party production studios.

For example, Apple’s hit debut series, The Morning Show, was produced by Echo Films and Hello Sunshine, the two studios owned by stars Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon. For All Mankind was backed by Sony Pictures Television and Tall Ship Productions, and even the hit series Ted Lasso was a Warners Bros. and Universal Television project.

Along similar lines, CODA, the film that allowed Apple to make history by becoming the first streaming service to win an Academy Award for Best Picture, was merely bankrolled by Apple. It was an existing film that the company picked up for $25 million at the Sundance Film Festival and then marketed and released under its own banner. That’s not unusual in the industry; film festivals exist to shop films around to find backing from larger studios.

However, that’s not to say that Apple hasn’t had a few hits out of its studio, but these have taken a bit longer to get off the ground. Spirited, a fun and whimsical take on Dickens’ holiday classic, and the Will Smith-led Emancipation are both Apple Studios projects, as is the Scorsese-De Niro Killers of the Flower Moon that will be premiering in two weeks.

However, those are all film projects with concurrent theatrical releases to go alongside their Apple TV+ debuts. By contrast, Masters of the Air is the biggest TV project yet to come out of Apple Studios.

In a press release today, Apple announced the premiere date for Masters of the Air while sharing the cast list and unveiling the first images from the production. It’s expected to be “a nine-episode limited series,” similar to its predecessors, and will debut globally on Friday, January 26, 2024 with the first two episodes. One episode will follow each week after that until it wraps up on March 15, 2024.

Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks are reuniting with Gary Goetzman, who also worked on Band of Brothers and The Pacific.

“‘Masters of the Air’ is a salute to the brave men of the 8th Air Force, who, through their courage and brotherhood, helped defeat Nazi Germany in World War II. 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.”

Gary Goetzman, Executive Producer

As expected, the series will be based on Donald L. Miller’s book of the same name, which allows the men of the 100th Bomb Group (the “Bloody Hundredth”) of the Eighth Air Force in the European theatre of operations during World War II.

“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.

The miniseries, which Apple is calling “enormous in both scale and scope” and “a genuine cinematic achievement,” will star Academy Award nominee Austin Butler (Elvis), as well as Callum Turner (Fantastic Beasts), Anthony Boyle, Nate Mann and Academy Award nominee Barry Keoghan ( The Banshees of Inisherin).

Masters of the Air is rumored to have cost Apple around $250 million to produce the nine episodes, which are expected to involve extensive special effects and aerial warfare scenes, making it one of the company’s most expensive projects and likely the biggest production Apple has yet attempted in-house.

While Apple has yet to release a trailer, the page for Masters of the Air is live on Apple TV+ so that you can add it to your Up Next queue now, so you’ll be ready when it arrives on January 26.