“Maverick Before Maverick”: Masters of the Air Producer on “Hollywood” Criticisms

The producer of “Masters of the Air” have reacted to complaints about the characters of Buck and Bucky.

Viewers have said that the characters played by Austin Butler and Callum Turner appear to Hollywood and are too similar to Steve and Bucky from Captain America movies.

The action drama show Masters of the Air is based on a nonfiction 2007 book by Donald L. Miller. In an interview with Variety, co-creator John Orloff revealed that Buck and Bucky were based on real-life figures and that they talked like movie stars and wore their hats cocked with toothpicks in their mouths.

He said, “I’ve read some criticisms: “Oh, they’re so Hollywood.” Yeah, because they were! They were Maverick before Maverick existed. They really were those guys with the hat cocked and the toothpick and the scarf, and they would talk like movie stars.”

The creator also revealed that the characters were similar to Maverick from the movie Top Gun. He said that Rosie’s character brought a different energy to the show as part of the next generation.

The producer continued by saying, “Rosie is the next generation, and he’s not about that. He’s about “Let’s get the job done. Let’s do whatever we got to do to get this job done.” It’s not about romanticism, it’s not about getting laid. It’s about winning the war.”

However, according to Orloff, Buck and Bucky are authentic to the real people they are based on. Orloff stated, “Not that Buck and Bucky weren’t about winning the war, but it was about a lot more stuff for them above and beyond that.”

Apart from John Orloff, John Shiban also serves as the co-creator; meanwhile, Gary Goetzman, Tom Hanks, and Steven Spielberg serve as the executive producers.