Josh Holloway Officially Enters “‘Top Gun’ Mode” for His High-Flying ‘Ace Combat 8’ Live-Action Prequel Series [Exclusive]
September 14, 2026 · cpstestersofficial@gmail.com
Again in December at The Game Awards, the Ace Fight sequence roared again to life with the announcement of its eighth installment, Wings of Theve. The newest effort from the Bandai Namco Aces workforce within the high-flying fighter jet simulation franchise might be its first installment made completely for current-generation consoles after Ace Fight 7: Skies Unknown took to the air in 2019. From the trailers alone, it seems extra breathtaking than ever, with explosive motion, graphics that seize the realism and depth of screaming-fast dogfights, and an emotional story of duty and survival that places gamers within the function of a legendary pilot taking on the titular mantle to encourage hope inside their homeland. To drive house the emphasis on cinematic storytelling and action, Bandai is treading new floor and pairing the sport with a brand new live-action miniseries constructed as a prequel to Wings of Theve and an introduction to every thing Ace Fight stands for.
That sequence is Hour Zero. Premiering on September 15 and set within the first days of the Republic of Sotoa’s invasion of the Federation of Central Usea, it will tell the stories of three survivors in reverse as they navigate a world modified by conflict and occupation, grounded in how their household lives are torn aside. Bandai introduced in three notable names to carry these characters to life, too, together with Misplaced star Josh Holloway as a pilot with no secure place to land, former Superman and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World alum Brandon Routh as a health care provider who saved his enemy, and The Day After Tomorrow‘s Tamlyn Tomita as a information reporter silenced from sharing the reality throughout the battle. What they expertise units the stage for the world gamers will navigate in Wings of Theve and goals to create an emotional connection to a nation in its darkest hour.
In coordination with a brand new teaser, Collider’s Maggie Lovitt had the prospect to take a seat down with Holloway and preview his character and mindset in direction of becoming a member of the world of Ace Fight. Whereas he is been part of some large universes on-screen, showing in Yellowstone and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, the long-running online game franchise allowed him to do one thing he is lengthy dreamed of and marveled at by movies like Top Gun. “I’ve at all times wished to be a fighter pilot since these motion pictures got here out,” he stated. “Even earlier than that, once I was a child, I assumed I used to be going to go to pilot faculty and every thing, after which I noticed it is all math, and I am like, ‘oh shoot!’ So I didn’t turn out to be a fighter pilot, however it’s one thing that I’ve at all times gravitated in direction of and had fantasies about.” Being part of Hour Zero not solely gave him a really feel for the expertise of an actual pilot, but in addition tied that in with heartfelt, character-driven storytelling that he may simply join with.
“In fact, it is simply such a cool function to get to play, and so lastly I used to be in a position to do it with this, and so I actually simply loved the method, and actually. I beloved their manufacturing worth since you actually, you sat in an actual cockpit of a fighter jet, realized simply how robust these pilots are, as a result of that isn’t snug! Simply to take a seat, I can not think about pulling Gs, and being by a Mig or one thing on high of the steel field. But it surely simply gave me such a respect for fighter pilots and what they really do, how they function. In order that helped quite a bit with simply flowing proper into the character. And I misplaced my father not way back. That was very simple to faucet into as a result of he loses his father, and so there are issues constructed within the character. And I am older with youngsters, so me being in that place of a frontrunner answerable for youthful folks additionally may be very a lot part of this function. Pure for me.”
Collider Unique · Motion Hero Quiz Which Motion Hero Would Be Your Good Accomplice? Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt
5 legends. 5 fully other ways of getting out alive — with fashion, with muscle, with attraction, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it in all probability should not work. Ten questions will reveal which motion hero was constructed to have your again.
🎖️Rambo
🍸James Bond
🏺Indiana Jones
🔧John McClane
🎭Ethan Hunt
01
You are dropped right into a harmful state of affairs with no warning. What do you want most from a companion? The primary few seconds let you know every thing about who belongs beside you.
02
It’s important to get someplace harmful, quick. How do you journey? The way you get there may be half the mission.
03
You are pinned down and outnumbered. What does your excellent companion do? That is whenever you discover out what somebody is admittedly manufactured from.
04
The mission is paused. You might have one night to decompress. What does your companion counsel? Who somebody is when the strain drops is who they really are.
05
How do you favor your companion to speak mid-mission? Good communication is the distinction between companions and a legal responsibility.
06
Your enemy is highly effective, well-resourced, and has the higher hand. How ought to your companion strategy them? The strategy to the enemy defines the partnership.
07
Issues go badly unsuitable and also you’re captured. What do you belief your companion to do? Who somebody is whenever you want them most is the one factor that issues.
08
What does your excellent companion carry to the desk that you just could not change? An amazing companion fills the hole you did not know you had.
09
Each partnership has a price. Which of those can you reside with? Nobody comes with out baggage. The query is whether or not you possibly can carry it collectively.
10
It is the ultimate second. Every thing is on the road. What do you want out of your companion proper now? The final query is probably the most trustworthy one.
Your Accomplice Has Been Assigned Your Good Accomplice Is…
Your solutions have pointed to at least one motion hero above all others. That is the particular person constructed to have your again — for higher or significantly, spectacularly worse.
Rambo
Your companion would not speak a lot, would not have to, and could have assessed each risk in your quick atmosphere earlier than you’ve got completed your first sentence. John Rambo will not be a person of plans or politics — he’s a drive of nature formed by survival, loyalty, and a capability for endurance that goes past something coaching can produce. He is not going to go away you behind. He has by no means left anybody behind who deserved to return house. What you get with Rambo is probably the most succesful, most quietly ferocious companion possible — one who has been by issues that may have damaged anybody else, and who selected to maintain going anyway. You will by no means have to ask if he has your again. You will simply know.
James Bond
Your companion will arrive completely dressed, completely briefed, and with a canopy story so convincing it will take you a second to recollect what’s truly true. James Bond is probably the most professionally harmful particular person in any room he enters — and probably the most disarmingly charming, which is the purpose. He operates in a world of layers, the place nothing is what it seems and each benefit is used with out apology. You will by no means be bored. You will sometimes be livid. However when it issues — when the mission is genuinely on the road and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is strictly the companion you need. He has survived issues that don’t have any enterprise being survivable. He does it with fashion. That’s not nothing.
Indiana Jones
Your companion will know the historical past, the language, the cultural context, and precisely why the factor everybody else is ignoring is definitely an important factor within the room. Indiana Jones is good, reckless, and sometimes inconceivable — however he’s additionally one of the resourceful, most genuinely educated companions you could possibly end up beside. He approaches each state of affairs with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s intuition, which is an uncommon mixture and a remarkably efficient one. He hates snakes and will get personally hooked up to things of historic significance, each of which is able to gradual you down not less than as soon as. It would not matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you may have collectively would be the sort folks write books about. Assuming you survive them.
John McClane
Your companion was not alleged to be right here. He doesn’t have the fitting tools, the fitting data, or something approaching the fitting odds. He has a sarcastic comment and an absolute refusal to just accept that the state of affairs is as unhealthy because it seems. John McClane is the best unintentional hero within the historical past of motion cinema — a person whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capability to soak up punishment and preserve transferring could be alarming if it weren’t so helpful. He’ll complain your complete time. He’ll make it considerably extra chaotic than it wanted to be. And he’ll completely, unconditionally, with out query come by when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.
Ethan Hunt
Your companion has already run seventeen eventualities by the point you’ve got completed studying the briefing, and the plan he is settled on includes not less than two issues that must be bodily inconceivable. Ethan Hunt operates on the absolute fringe of human functionality — technically, bodily, and intellectually — and he brings the identical relentless precision to defending his companions that he brings to dismantling organisations that should not exist. He isn’t simple to know and he won’t ever absolutely let you know every thing. However he’ll carry the load of the mission so fully, so completely, that your job is solely to belief him — and the exceptional factor is that trusting him at all times seems to be the fitting name. The mission might be inconceivable. He’ll full it anyway.
‘Hour Zero’ Reignited Holloway’s Curiosity within the ‘Ace Fight’ Video games
Holloway got here into the Ace Fight brief movie sequence as a relative non-gamer, however he has a private connection to the sequence going again to its arcade progenitor, Air Fight. “It is truly a reentry level since I used to be younger,” he revealed. “I imply, I bought actually into Centipede and Miss Pac-Man and Galaga and all that again within the early days, and I needed to play Ace Fight within the arcade as a result of that they had the large sport you’d sit in and such. It felt actual, like a flight simulator.” Admittedly, he fell off of gaming as a result of he lacked the persistence for more complicated, modern titles. Nonetheless, as is the aim of Hour Zero for these unfamiliar with the sequence, the brief movies spurred him to return to the video games to higher perceive what he is working with. The in-depth customization and upgrades of every jet and a focus to element helped him fall again in love with the sequence, even when there’s been quite a bit to study.
“Video video games bought actually sophisticated, and the way in which you construct, so I simply type of went away from it till this venture, as a result of I used to be like, ‘Properly, if I am going to do that, I have to really feel this sport.’ So I began enjoying it, and now I am addicted. Thanks quite a bit. And I am enjoying it on a regular basis, and it is as a result of it is actual. I imply, and I notice the explanation I am not a gamer is I get too emotionally concerned, and I am getting chased, and I am about to die, and I die, after which I am like, ‘Oh shit!’ You actually get it, which is enjoyable, and so I’ve gotten into Ace Fight, however there once more, my son is like, ‘Dad, you simply do not know how you can do it’ as a result of you must construct your jets, and there is so many various jets, and it is so wonderful how detailed they’re. I imply, out of your engine to avionics to your cannons, you improve all these items throughout the board. There’s heaps to know. It isn’t Centipede or Galaga [Laughs].”
Even together with his hands-on analysis, Ace Fight has grown right into a wealthy sequence since its origins in arcades. Whereas Wings of Theve marks eight mainline titles, the franchise additionally incorporates a myriad of spin-offs, prequels, and extra, with widespread fan-favorites together with the fourth and fifth installments and Ace Fight 0: The Belkan Warfare. Over 18 million complete copies have been bought for the reason that sequence jumped to house consoles and, by every title, an extensive history has been formed throughout the Strangereal universe and the numerous nations the pilots inhabit.
Bandai was certain to arrange Holloway with a primer on every thing taking place on Strangereal’s model of Earth and the related historical past heading into Wings of Theve. “They gave me as a lot as they might for somebody who wasn’t a gamer and did not know something about it, so that they compressed it and stated, ‘Right here, that is what is going on on,’ and the evolution of it,” he recalled from his expertise. What most impressed him concerning the video games and the inclusion of Hour Zero within the lore was how focused on peopleAce Fight was. The thrills of the sequence come from its dogfights, however it’s the human connection, each to the pilots and the folks they’re combating for, that he believes is able to drawing folks in and inspiring them to battle by, even when they are not superb but.
“However to me, I simply actually like the concept of the sport to make folks to lift the stakes. It is a part of our human nature. We are able to disassociate simply except you give us an actual human connection there, after which routinely our feelings begin to wrap round that, and it simply raises the stakes. So I like what they’re doing with that as a result of just a little story behind one thing actually engages our artistic aspect and creativeness, and it did so for me as a result of, after doing it now, I am enjoying the sport, and I am flying as Ledger! I am like, ah, however I suck, so I am not an excellent OG pilot but [Laughs]. But! As a result of I additionally do not consider in shopping for my jet. I’ve to earn the upgrades, which takes extra time than going and shopping for a pack to improve your complete jet, proper?”
Josh Holloway Hopes ‘Hour Zero’ Sparks Actual Feelings and Not Dissociation
When requested concerning the final takeaway and what he hopes folks will see in Hour Zero, Holloway once more highlighted that human connection. The non-public focus of the miniseries on the people affected by war, he believes, will make the sport hit even tougher because of how grounded it’s in actuality. He believes it is the right companion piece to point out what separates Ace Fight from a lot of modern gaming mainstays and pairs effectively with the sequence’ deep strategy to aerial fight.
“I hope that they type a connection to what they’re truly doing, and never a dissociation from the world or themselves or feelings whereas they’re enjoying. The concept, not less than for me, the idea includes them and creates greater stakes. So I hope to see that occur, and I believe it is… Ace Fight is an ideal kind of sport for that as a result of it is nonetheless rooted in actuality, in the way in which the jets fly, the quantity of issues coming at you. It isn’t like, say, Fortnite, the place there’s 1,000,000 issues that your mind is attempting to course of at one time, and it isn’t grounded in actuality, . So it is a completely different feeling. It is simpler to dissociate after, but when it is grounded in actuality, I believe that making a movie about it makes and could have the specified impact. That is my hope.”
Greater than something, becoming a member of the Ace Fight world was a blast for Holloway and let him embrace the necessity for velocity. “I used to be like full-on in my Prime Gun mode,” he concluded. “It was so enjoyable.” Ace Fight 8: Wings of Theve releases in October for PlayStation 5, Xbox Sequence X|S, and PC. Within the meantime, the brief movie sequence Hour Zero kicks off on September 15 and concludes on October 2, simply earlier than the sport launches.
