Amitabh Bachchan took to his personal blog to share his reaction to ‘World War II With Tom Hanks’, the 20-part documentary series currently airing on the History Channel. The veteran actor, 83, described being deeply moved by what he watched. He wrote that the footage and accounts in the series stirred something within him, and left him questioning whether humanity had genuinely learned anything from one of the bloodiest chapters in its history.
It is not unusual for Bachchan to use his blog, which he has maintained on Tumblr for nearly two decades, to reflect on films, events, and ideas that affect him deeply. But his reaction to this particular documentary stood out for its weight.
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What the documentary covers
‘World War II With Tom Hanks’ is a 20-episode series offering what the History Channel describes as a sweeping and definitive retelling of the Second World War. The 20-part project covers every major theater of the war, from the Nazi invasion of Poland in September 1939 to the Japanese surrender in September 1945. It was created in collaboration with the National World War II Museum in New Orleans.
The series uses personal letters, diary entries, and rare, newly restored, and colorised archival footage to tell the deeply personal, ground-level stories of those who lived through the conflict. Each hour-long episode focuses on a different aspect of the war, from major battles to the Holocaust, espionage networks, and the home front.
The series also explores the human cost of total war, including civilian resistance and the hidden wars of espionage, codebreaking, and industrial might that shaped the outcome of the conflict.
Tom Hanks: A longstanding bond with WWII
Tom Hanks narrates and executive-produces the series, and has spent more than two decades retelling the story of World War II on screen, from ‘Saving Private Ryan’ to ‘Band of Brothers’, ‘The Pacific’, ‘Greyhound’, and ‘Masters of the Air’.
For Hanks, the subject goes beyond professional interest. He has said the war’s marks on his own family history made it deeply personal. “During my formative years, every single adult in my life would make references to two words: The War,” he explained. “The lasting effects of WWII on the world and my own family was not lost on me.”
Hanks has also spoken about why the series matters now, in 2026, beyond its historical value. He said that making the series forced him to think less about what those who lived through it did back in the 1930s and 1940s, and more about the choices people face today. He added that the kinds of decisions that had to be made during World War II were not so different from what individuals must confront in the present day.
Hanks also said that one of the things he hopes younger viewers understand is that history is not made of abstract events. It is made of choices, complicity, survival, and what people are willing to ignore until it is too late. “The best petri dish for tyranny is indifference,” he said, “and we have a choice every single day to do something or not based on what we think is right.”
Big B’s reaction
Bachchan’s blog post reflected on how the documentary’s content triggered larger questions about the state of the world today. The actor, who was born in 1942, the same year the war was at its peak, grew up in an India that had just come out of its own freedom struggle. He has often written on his blog about the state of global affairs and the lessons history offers.
After watching the series, Bachchan posed the question that many viewers of this documentary have grappled with: has the world genuinely changed, or do the same patterns simply repeat themselves in new forms?
It is a question the series itself seems designed to raise. Executive producer Jon Meacham explained why the series still feels important decades after the war ended: “World War II is the largest event in human history, one that has shaped and is shaping everything since. Its lessons are essential, about confronting tyranny, checking appetite, battling discrimination.”
The scale of the series
The series premiered on May 25, 2026, on the History Channel, launching with three back-to-back episodes beginning at 8 pm ET/PT. New episodes have continued to roll out weekly. There has also been a major international rollout across 200 territories and 40 languages.
The docuseries is the first to take such an all-encompassing, global perspective on the war since the 1974 British series ‘The World at War’ on ITV, which was narrated by Laurence Olivier.
Alongside Hanks, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham also serves as executive producer, as does Gary Goetzman, Hanks’ longtime collaborator. The production was done by Nutopia, with executive producers Ben Goold, Jane Root, and Steve Condie, along with A+E Factual Studios Group.