Over the course of human history, several conflicts have been fought. Some on larger scales than others. Some were extensively covered by history books, while others weren’t. These conflicts have played out in various locations, across different centuries, and Hollywood has adapted some of them. However, no conflict quite shaped the modern world like World War II, and there is no actor quite as fascinated with the conflict as the legendary Tom Hanks. The Oscar-winning actor has done his fair share of bringing this part of human history to life. Hanks has produced WWII-based series like Band of Brothers, The Pacific, and Apple TV’s Masters of the Air. Now, the actor is set to further his connection to this time period.
For over two decades, Hanks has returned to the defining conflict of the 20th century, repeatedly. Besides his behind-the-scenes roles, the actor has starred in films such as the 2020 feature film, Greyhound,and 1992’s A League of Their Own. While the naval thriller in Greyhound, thrust Hanks into the theater of war as Captain Ernest Krause, who leads an armada of Allied ships escorting troops through the Atlantic in World War II. A League of Their Own offers a softer yet inspiring touch as Hanks embodies Jimmy Dugan, a coach in the All-American Girls Baseball League of 1943, which flourished while a large portion of the country’s men were at war. His latest work, a massive new documentary series titled World War II with Tom Hanks, will also offer a distinct feel.
Done in collaboration with the History Channel, World War II with Tom Hanks will span 20 episodes and launch globally in 200 territories and 40 languages. Per a new report, the documentary series will arrive on screens next month, with May 25 as its premiere date. The series will, according to the network, provide “a sweeping and definitive retelling” of the deadliest, most consequential conflict in human history. Iconic moments from the conflict will likely make it into the series, like the bits Hanks himself portrayed in the 1998 film Saving Private Ryan.
Collider Exclusive · Oscar Best Picture Quiz Which Oscar Best Picture Is Your Perfect Movie? Parasite · Everything Everywhere · Oppenheimer · Birdman · No Country
Five Oscar Best Picture winners. Five completely different visions of what cinema can be — and what it can do to you. One of them is the film that was made for the way your mind works. Ten questions will figure out which one.
🪜Parasite
🌀Everything Everywhere
☢️Oppenheimer
🐦Birdman
🪙No Country for Old Men
01
What kind of film experience do you actually want? The best movies don’t just entertain — they leave something behind.
02
Which idea grabs you most in a film? Great films are driven by a central obsession. What’s yours?
03
How do you like your story told? Form is content. The way a story is shaped changes what it means.
04
What makes a truly great antagonist? The opposition defines the protagonist. What kind of opposition fascinates you?
05
What do you want from a film’s ending? The final note is the one that lingers. What do you want it to sound like?
06
Which setting pulls you in most? Where a film takes place shapes everything — mood, stakes, what’s even possible.
07
What cinematic craft impresses you most? Every great film has a signature — a technical or artistic element that makes it unmistakable.
08
What kind of main character do you root for? The protagonist is the lens. Who you choose to follow says something about you.
09
How do you feel about a film that takes its time? Pace is a choice. Some films sprint; others let tension accumulate slowly, deliberately.
10
What do you want to feel walking out of the cinema? The best films leave a mark. What kind of mark do you want?
The Academy Has Decided Your Perfect Film Is…
Your answers have pointed to one Oscar Best Picture winner above all others. This is the film that was made for the way your mind works.
Parasite
You are drawn to films that operate on multiple levels simultaneously — that begin in one genre and quietly, brilliantly migrate into another. Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite is a film about class, desire, and the architecture of inequality that manages to be darkly funny, deeply suspenseful, and genuinely shocking across a single extraordinary running time. Your instinct is for cinema that hides its true intentions until the moment it’s ready to reveal them. Parasite is exactly that — a film that rewards close attention and punishes assumptions, right up to its devastating final image.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
You want it all — and this film gives you all of it. The Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of the most maximalist films ever made: action comedy, multiverse sci-fi, family drama, existential crisis, and a genuinely earned emotional core that sneaks up on you amid the chaos. You are someone who responds to ambition, who doesn’t want cinema to choose between being entertaining and being meaningful. This film refuses that choice entirely. It is overwhelming by design, and its overwhelming nature is precisely the point — because the feeling of being crushed by infinite possibility is exactly what it’s about.
Oppenheimer
You are drawn to cinema on a grand scale — films that understand history not as a backdrop but as a force, and that place their characters inside that force and watch what happens. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is a film about the terrifying gap between what we can do and what we should do, told with the full weight of one of the most consequential moments in human history behind it. You want your films to feel important without feeling self-important — to earn their ambition through sheer craft and the gravity of their subject. Oppenheimer does exactly that. It is enormous, complicated, and refuses easy comfort.
Birdman
You are drawn to films that foreground their own construction — that make the how of the filmmaking part of the what it’s about. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, shot to appear as a single continuous take, is cinema examining itself through the cracked mirror of a fading actor’s ego. You respond to formal daring, to the feeling that a film is doing something that probably shouldn’t be possible. Michael Keaton’s performance and Emmanuel Lubezki’s restless camera create something genuinely unlike anything else — a film that is simultaneously about creativity, relevance, self-destruction, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing if your work means anything at all.
No Country for Old Men
You are drawn to cinema that trusts silence, that refuses to explain itself, and that treats dread as a form of meaning. The Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men is a film about the arrival of a new kind of evil — implacable, arbitrary, and utterly indifferent to the moral frameworks we use to make sense of the world. It is one of the most formally controlled films ever made, and its controlled restraint is what makes it so terrifying. You want your films to haunt you, not comfort you. You are not interested in resolution if resolution would be dishonest. No Country for Old Men is honest in a way that most cinema never dares to be.
What Is ‘World War II with Tom Hanks’ About?
World War II with Tom Hanks, will span the entirety of the Second World War. The union of the Axis Powers, the Invasion of Poland, which ultimately ignited the war on a global stage, will likely be a starting point. The multiple theaters of war which opened up across land, air, and sea, as well as the brutal battles they witnessed, will be covered. The documentary will include the experiences of soldiers as well as focus on the wartime decisions of pivotal leaders. Figures in the spotlight include Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Joseph Stalin, Erwin Rommel, Hideki Tojo, and Adolf Hitler.
According to the official synopsis, the story will cover the iconic clashes such as the Battle of Stalingrad and Normandy landings, as well as the broader global conflict stretching across the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and the Pacific.
World War II with Tom Hanks will premiere on May 25.
