SHOOT for the MOON

Steve Carell is a US general heading up a pioneering space army in a hilarious Netflix comedy

- BENJI WILSON

NEW COMEDY

Space Force

From Friday 29 May, 10 episodes as a box set, Netflix

Some ideas are so fantastical that they could only be real. Space Force, a new Netflix comedy about a special galactic division of the US military, came from a speech in 2018 by US President Donald Trump. In a surprise move, he announced: ‘We must have American dominance in space… and establish a space force as the sixth branch of the armed forces.’

Those two words – ‘Space Force’ – set brains whirring at Netflix. They’d been looking for a project that would suit Steve Carell and his old friend from the US version of The Office, the writer Greg Daniels.

‘Netflix asked, “Do you want to do a show called Space Force?’” says Carell, 57. ‘And I pretty much immediately said, “Well, yeah, sure. That sounds great.” And then I called Greg, and he loved the title, too. So it was really based on nothing, except this name that made everybody laugh.’