Tom Hanks’ WWII Documentary Series Sets Memorial Day Premiere on History Channel

On the brink of World War III, let’s look back at World War II.

WWII historian and sometimes actor Tom Hanks has a new documentary series set at History channel reexamining the Second World War through a modern lens. Across 20 episodes (in 200 territories and 40 languages), World War II with Tom Hanks will offer “a sweeping and definitive retelling” of the deadliest war in history. There are probably spoilers.

History channel’s D-Day, the series’ premiere date, is appropriately set for Memorial Day.

In addition to Hanks, the WWII series is executive produced by Gary Goetzman and Pulitzer-Prize winning historian Jon Meacham. Production houses are Nutopia (EPs: Ben Goold, Jane Root and Steve Condie) and A+E Factual Studios Group (EPs: Sharon Scott, Steve Ascher, Matt Pearl and Andy Seestedt) in association with Motion Entertainment (EP: Chet Fenster). History channel executive prodcers are Eli Lehrer, Mary E. Donahue and Jennifer Wagman.

The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana is also involved in the production. And there some pretty good fact-checkers there, I’d imagine.

WWII ended more than 80 years ago, but evidently, there are still stories to tell — and narrator Hanks is here to tell them. (He’s already told a bunch through HBO’s Band of Brothers and The Pacific, and Apple’s Masters of the Air and Greyhound.)

World War II With Tom Hanks “spans the global conflict from the opening shock of Germany’s invasion of Poland through the rise and fall of the Axis powers, capturing the ferocity of battles fought on land, sea, and air — from Stalingrad and Normandy to the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and the jungles and islands of the Pacific,” the synopsis reads.

Here’s the rest:

The series explores the human cost of total war, including the Holocaust, civilian resistance, and life on the home fronts, while also revealing the hidden wars of espionage, codebreaking, and industrial might that shaped the outcome of the conflict. Blending the actions and decisions of pivotal wartime leaders — among them Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Erwin Rommel, Joseph Stalin, Hideki Tojo and Adolf Hitler — with the experiences of soldiers and civilians across continents, the series culminates in the dawn of the atomic age and the uneasy aftermath that transformed wartime allies into Cold War adversaries, offering a comprehensive and deeply human portrait of the conflict that reshaped the modern world.

World War II With Tom Hanks is part of the History Honors 250 campaign, which culminates on the next American Patriotism holiday, the Fourth of July 2026, which will be our 250th birthday — the United States Semiquincentennial.

Here’s the World War II With Tom Hanks trailer: