An epic World War II series hailing from the producer of stone-cold episodic classics Band of Brothers and The Pacific – which is being directed in part by the mastermind behind the first and finest season of True Detective and an acclaimed recent action blockbuster – would surely be enough to generate massive hype, but it’s entirely okay if you totally forgot Masters of the Air even existed.
Apple TV’s sprawling saga based on the book of the same name that tells the story of the United States military’s 100th Bombardment Group has been in the works for a while, with shooting initially calling it a day in the summer of 2021, and the streaming service spending somewhere in the region of $250-300 million on the eight-episode extravaganza that has Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, and Cary Joji Fukunaga among its key creatives.
The ensemble cast, meanwhile, features such names as Austin Butler, Barry Keoghan, and Ncuti Gatwa to name but three, so why has it been radio silent for almost two years? The pandemic was cited as an obvious factor, but the allegations leveled against Fukunaga last year can’t be discounted as another potential reason for Masters of the Air biding its time to take to the promotional skies.
The strike definitely doesn’t help, anyway, but what’s even more bizarre is that IMDb recently updated Masters of the Air‘s release date to September 20, which is only a matter of weeks away. There’s been no trailer, no teasers, and not even a hint that the show is genuinely on its way to airwaves at long last, so maybe it’s best to take this one with a pinch of salt for the time being to see if the long-delayed and eye-wateringly expensive airborne adventure really is nearing the end of the tunnel.