Who narrates Masters of the Air?

❘ Updated: 2024-03-14T16:32:27

Anthony Boyle as Harry Crosby in Masters of the Air

Apple TV+

Masters of the Air, a new series exploring the missions of the Bloody Hundredth, has a narrator to guide us through the story – but who is it?

Band of Brothers tracked the Second World War campaign of “Easy” Company from their paratrooper training through to Japan’s capitulation, while its successor The Pacific switched the POV to Marines in the wake of Pearl Harbor.

Masters of the Air views the conflict through the chaos of the clouds, following the 100th Bomb Group in their notoriously fatal efforts to bombard Nazi Germany; many men died, but sometimes survival was a worse fate than death.

With Episode 4 dropping on Apple TV, you may have noticed the overarching voice of a narrator – but who narrates Masters of the Air?

Who is the narrator in Masters of the Air?

Masters of the Air is narrated by Anthony Boyle, who plays Lt. Harry Crosby.

While the real-life Crosby is no longer alive, having died in 2010, there’s a big reason his character is the narrator of the series: his memoir, A Wing and a Prayer, served as the source material alongside Donald L. Miller’s book.

Crosby also makes sense as a narrator in terms of the story. While Austin Butler’s Buck and Callum Turner’s Bucky are undoubtedly the leads of the ensemble and the leaders of the 100th, Crosby was the group’s navigator through thick and thin – aptly, he’s our guide too, providing important (and emotional) context for the missions and tragedies that befall the men.

In an interview with Goggler, Boyle was asked about “finding the voice” for Crosby as a narrator compared to his on-screen performance. “I wanted it to be a little bit different to Crosby’s voice when we meet him at the time, which is kind of all over the place and up here and a bit sort of nervous,” he explained.

“I wanted it to sound like the same guy, but almost like an omnipotent version of him; a sort of god-like version, as if he’s a 70, and it’s a bit more weighty… I wanted it to feel like an anchor that can guide us through.”

Executive producer Gary Goetzman told The Wrap that Crosby was a “natural” pick for the narrator. “We love the sound of Anthony Boyle’s voice, and we did expand a little bit in his voiceover area, because we liked it so much,” he said.

Masters of the Air Episodes 1-5 are streaming on Apple TV+, which you can sign up for here. You can also check out our other coverage below: