Tom Hanks’ Secret 9-Part Band of Brothers Sequel Is Worth A Binge

Mar 13, 2026 - 00:30

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Tom Hanks’ Secret 9-Part Band of Brothers Sequel Is Worth A Binge

Published Mar 12, 2026, 4:30 PM EDT

Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020.

Although Apple TV’s Band of Brothers follow-up, Masters of the Air, is an official part of the franchise, the show’s move from HBO to the streaming service meant that viewers who caught The Pacific may have missed its links to the two earlier shows. Apple TV’s 2024 miniseries, Masters of the Air, was a big TV show by any metric.

Masters of the Air Was Apple TV’s Belated Band of Brothers Follow-up

That said, the release of Masters of the Air was still not as big a cultural moment as readers might have expected, considering its predecessors. Some viewers weren’t aware that Masters of the Air is part of the Band of Brothers franchise, which began back in 2001 with the original series produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg.

Band of Brothers was a massive success upon its original release, and the series made major stars of many of its cast members. Based on the 1992 book of the same name by Stephen E. Ambrose, Band of Brothers centered its story on the real-life E Company, 506th Infantry Regiment, nicknamed “Easy Company,” and their WWII experiences.

It was nine years before Band of Brothers received a sequel, 2010’s The Pacific. Starring Rami Malek, Jon Bernthal, Nate Corddry, among others, The Pacific was based on Eugene Sledge’s With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa and Robert Leckie’s Helmet for My Pillow. Darker and more violent than Band of Brothers, The Pacific expanded the franchise’s world.

Focused on a unit in the Eighth Air Force stationed in German-occupied Europe during World War II, the 100th Bomb Group, Masters of the Air was adapted from Donald L. Miller’s book of the same name. The show was intended to complete the Band of Brothers triptych, but changing distributors meant that Masters of the Air lost some of the franchise’s prestige.

Masters of the Air Is A Worthy Successor To Band of Brothers and The Pacific

Like the classic shows The Sopranos, Game of Thrones, Deadwood, and The Wire, Band of Brothers and The Pacific are closely associated with the HBO brand. Both shows feature the graphic violence, moral ambiguity, and intense content that the cable network is famous for pioneering, and both helped cement HBO as one of TV’s most important creative powerhouses.

As such, it makes sense that some fans of Band of Brothers and The Pacific may not have realized that Masters of the Air was a direct addition to the existing franchise. The fact that Masters of the Air wasn’t as dark as Band of Brothers, let alone The Pacific, didn’t help to clarify this issue, which is a shame considering how good the 2024 series was on its own merits.