Tom Hanks Explores World War 2 in 20-Part Memorial Day Series
Tom Hanks says he has been “wrestling” with why he keeps returning to world war 2 stories as his new 20-part series, World War II with Tom Hanks, premieres on Memorial Day. The project traces every major theater of the war from 1939 through 1945 and was made with the National WWII Museum.
Hanks said the new series is tied to choices that still matter in 2026, not just to wartime history. He has spent more than 25 years returning to the subject through Band of Brothers, Saving Private Ryan, Greyhound, The Pacific and Masters of the Air.
Tom Hanks on Memorial Day premiere
Hanks said, “I’ve been wrestling with this just recently,” and added, “I’ve been asking myself at nighttime, in those moments of the soul, 'Why do I keep turning to it again and again for that combination of poetry and solace and enlightenment?'” He said, “And I divined that it has to be about today,” and that the series should speak to “the palpable choices that we face here in 2026 as opposed to, look what those tough guys did back in the 1930s.”
The actor and producer said the series is executive produced with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham. The scope is unusually broad for a television project: every major theater of World War II is built into one 20-part documentary rather than a single-country or single-campaign account.
Jon Meacham and the National WWII Museum
The collaboration with the National WWII Museum gives the series a formal historical base, while Hanks and Meacham guide the storytelling. Hanks has said his interest in the war began as a child, after he saw an emotional reunion between his father and a fellow veteran in a grocery store.
That memory still sits behind the work. Hanks said, “I just saw these two men — they’re gods to you when you’re 10 years old — and they had a conversation then that was in such deep code that was not unlike moments I’ve heard again and again from an awful lot of veterans, who say, ‘Well, here’s something you have to understand.’ You try to get these guys to talk about their war years, and for a long time, they wouldn’t do it because, Hey, I was just a guy.”
Hanks still wants more stories
Hanks also signaled that this new series is not his last word on the subject. Asked whether World War II with Tom Hanks might be final, he replied, “Oh, every time I read a book, I come up with something else I want to option in order to try to turn it into a movie or miniseries.”
For viewers, the immediate takeaway is simple: Hanks is using the Memorial Day launch to frame World War II as a living historical subject, not a closed one. The next point of interest is the series itself, which arrives with a wide timeline, a major museum partnership and Hanks continuing to signal that he is still searching for the next story.
