Amazon Prime spent a minor fortune on a 90-second Super Bowl spot to advertise Hunters, its latest splashy streaming series. If you haven’t heard of the upcoming conspiracy thriller, you may be mystified by the tonal mash-up of the trailer, which combines apple pie suburbia with a violent Nazi bloodbath. Here’s everything you’ll need to know to bring you up to speed on the new series, which portends to be Amazon’s next breakout hit.
What is Hunters about?
Created by David Weil, Hunters is set in 1970s America, where a ragtag group of vigilantes living in New York City discover that hundreds of high-ranking Nazi officials are living among Americans and conspiring to create a Fourth Reich in the United States. The group bands together to wipe out the Nazis and prevent a second genocide at their hands.
What’s the true story behind Hunters?
The trailer states that the series was “inspired by true events”; however, the show isn’t based on any single group or occurrence. Rather, it likely draws its source material from any number of the many Nazi-hunting groups that have emerged in the wake of World War II. Likely candidates include Nakam (Hebrew for revenge), a group of Holocaust survivors who formed to seek vengeance for the six million Jewish people killed at the hands of the Nazis.
The show may also have ties to Simon Wiesenthal, a noted non-violent Holocaust survivor who devoted his life to tracking down war criminals so that they would face justice in a court room. However, the Simon Wiesenthal Center denies all ties to the show, with Mark Weitzman, an official at the organisation, saying, “If Pacino is supposed to be Simon Wiesenthal, that does not come through.” That said, the series does take place in the years that Wiesenthal was active.
Who’s starring in Hunters?
Al Pacino heads up an all-star cast as the leader of the vigilante group, himself a Holocaust survivor, while Logan Lerman stars as the grandson of Pacino’s late partner in crime. Other actors rounding out the cast include Carol Kane, Josh Kate Mulvany, Tiffany Boone, Greg Austin, Louis Ozawa Changchien, Saul Rubinek, Dylan Baker, Lena Olin, Josh Radnor, and Jerrika Hinton.
How is Jordan Peele involved?
Hunters is the latest project from Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions, which is also hard at work on the upcoming Candyman remake starring Watchmen’s Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. Peele himself will executive produce.
When will it come out?
Hunters premieres its ten-episode season on Amazon Prime Video on 21 February.
Adrienne Westenfeld is the Books and Fiction Editor at Esquire, where she oversees books coverage, edits fiction, and curates the Esquire Book Club.
