When was World War II with Tom Hanks made?
Given how long Tom Hanks has been telling stories about this war, you'd be forgiven for assuming this one has been sitting in the archive for decades. It's actually the newest thing he's put his name to.
Here's everything worth knowing — dates, episodes, and where it fits in his long run of war projects.
The short answer
World War II with Tom Hanks is a brand-new 20-part docuseries that premiered on The HISTORY Channel on 25 May 2026 — Memorial Day in the US. Episodes dropped two at a time on Mondays, starting with "The Beginning", "Blitz", and "Barbarossa", and finishing with "Endgame " and "Fallout " on 27 July 2026. In the UK, it airs on Sky History and streams on Now.
Twenty episodes, twenty hours. Hanks produces and narrates the whole thing.
What it covers
The series runs the full arc of the war — from Germany's invasion of Poland through Pearl Harbor, Stalingrad, D-Day ("Overlord"), and the atomic age, with episodes on the home front, resistance movements, and the war at sea along the way. The National WWII Museum, which partnered on promotion, billed it as a sweeping retelling of the conflict for a new generation.
The critics went along with the scale of the thing:
"One of the largest documentaries in human history," is how The Guardian's review put it in May 2026.
Not his first trip to the war
Hanks has been circling this conflict on screen for nearly three decades. If you searched for this title but actually meant one of his dramas, here's the full run:
- Saving Private Ryan (1998 ) — the Spielberg D-Day epic that started it all, with Hanks as Captain John Miller.
- Band of Brothers ( 2001) — the HBO miniseries he produced with Spielberg.
- The Pacific (2010) — the companion series covering the war against Japan.
- Greyhound (2020) — the Apple TV+ naval thriller Hanks wrote and starred in.
- Masters of the Air (2024) — the bomber-crew series with Austin Butler and Callum Turner.
The 2026 docuseries is the first time he's tackled the entire war, start to finish, in one project.
Where can you watch it?
All 20 episodes are available on The HISTORY Channel and its streaming platforms in the US, and via Sky History and Now in the UK, following the finale on 27 July 2026.