When it comes to Apple TV+‘s Masters of the Air, the Steven Spielberg–Tom Hanks executive-produced project serves as a follow-up to HBO‘s Band of Brothers and The Pacific. A fact that never escaped its cast of young stars including Austin Butler, Callum Turner, Barry Keoghan, Raff Law, Nate Mann, and Anthony Boyle.
The show following the 100th Bomb Group as they take to the air over Nazi Germany offers a closer look at the lives of its key players, juxtaposing the quiet drama they face on the ground with the intense combat missions they’re fronting thousands of feet off the ground. “Pressures always a good thing,” Law, who plays Sgt. Ken Lemmons.
(Credit: Apple TV+)
“Yeah, you want to carry this on,” Keoghan who portrays Lt. Curtis Biddick says of Masters of the Air‘s impact. ‘They’re massively successful, those two shows,” he says, acknowledging Band of Brothers and The Pacific. The star thinks Masters of the Air has a chance to reach similar heights of success, particularly with “Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks at the top of it.”
Executive producer Gary Goetzman, who worked on both Band of Brothers and The Pacific shares, “We weren’t sure we were ever going to do a third. Steven Spielberg’s father had been in the Army Air Force, and after Band of Brothers, after he saw it, he said to Steven, ‘When are you going to do the pilots? When are you going to do the air war in Europe?’ So it was always in the back of our head, and we finally found a book from Don Miller called Masters of the Air that… we could put together in a series.”
Turner, who plays Major John “Bucky” Egan couldn’t be more honored to be included in the show and carrying on the legacy. “The story itself, what these men went and did for us… seventy-seven percent of the guys that went up into the planes didn’t come back… They sacrificed so much for themselves,” Turner says. “So to represent them and to continue their legacy and shed light on what they did and how they did it is so important and it means the world to me.”
See what else the stars and executive producer had to say about carrying on the legacy in the full video interview, above, and don’t miss Masters of the Air as it continues to roll out on Apple TV+.
Masters of the Air, New Episodes, Fridays, Apple TV+
This story originally appeared on TV Insider
