Apple Will Bring 'Band of Brothers' Sequel to Television

"Masters of the Air," originally developed for HBO, will be a sequel to World War II series "Band of Brothers" and "The Pacific."

Produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, the new series will be based on Donald L. Miller's 2006 history "Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany."

"Masters of the Air" tells the stories of the men of the American Eighth Air Force, the pilots and crew who flew the bombers that brought the war to Nazi Germany. The missions devastated Berlin, Hamburg and Dresden before the kind of soldiers portrayed in "Band of Brothers" invaded Germany in the months after D-Day.

Since "Band of Brothers" and "The Pacific" are two of the most successful series in HBO history, you might be wondering how they could let "Masters of the Air" get away. The new series is rumored to have a massive $250 million budget.

The first two series were also expensive and only turned a profit because of massive home video sales on DVD. DVD (and Blu-ray) sales have cratered since the rise of streaming services, so HBO shied away from such a huge investment.

Enter Apple. They're investing billions in programming for their new Apple TV+ service that's set to debut on November 1st. They've been buying programming from outside providers to get ready for the launch and "Masters of the Air" will be the first project they've produced in-house.

Will a computer company be any good at making their own shows? If an online shopping site like Amazon can make "Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan" and "The Man in the High Castle," then there's a reason for hope.

The creative team that Spielberg and Hanks have hired includes writers, producers and directors who all worked on the two earlier series. There's no set release date set, but a series this complicated likely won't air before sometime in 2021.