Josh Holloway Officially Enters "'Top Gun' Mode" for His High-Flying 'Ace Combat 8' Live-Action Prequel Series [Exclusive]

Image via Brian Bowen Smith / ©CBS /courtesy Everett Collection Published Sep 10, 2026, 10:00 AM EDT Sign in to your Collider account Back in December at The Game Awards, the Ace Combat series roared back to life with the announcement of its eighth installment, Wings of Theve. The latest effort from the Bandai Namco Aces team in the high-flying fighter jet simulation franchise will be its first installment made exclusively for current-generation consoles after Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown took to the air in 2019. From the trailers alone, it looks more breathtaking than ever, with explosive action, graphics that capture the realism and intensity of screaming-fast dogfights, and an emotional story of duty and survival that puts players in the role of a legendary pilot taking up the titular mantle to inspire hope within their homeland. To drive home the emphasis on cinematic storytelling and action, Bandai is treading new ground and pairing the game with a new live-action miniseries built as a prequel to Wings of Theve and an introduction to everything Ace Combat stands for. That series is Hour Zero. Premiering on September 15 and set in the first days of the Republic of Sotoa's invasion of the Federation of Central Usea, it'll tell the stories of three survivors in reverse as they navigate a world changed by war and occupation, grounded in how their family lives are torn apart. Bandai brought in three notable names to bring these characters to life, too, including Lost star Josh Holloway as a pilot with no safe place to land, former Superman and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World alum Brandon Routh as a doctor who saved his enemy, and The Day After Tomorrow's Tamlyn Tomita as a news reporter silenced from sharing the truth during the conflict. What they experience sets the stage for the world players will navigate in Wings of Theve and aims to create an emotional connection to a nation in its darkest hour. In coordination with a new teaser, Collider's Maggie Lovitt had the chance to sit down with Holloway and preview his character and mindset towards joining the world of Ace Combat. While he's been a part of some massive universes on-screen, appearing in Yellowstone and Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, the long-running video game franchise allowed him to do something he's long dreamed of and marveled at through films like Top Gun. "I've always wanted to be a fighter pilot since those movies came out," he said. "Even before that, when I was a kid, I thought I was going to go to pilot school and everything, and then I realized it's all math, and I'm like, 'oh shoot!' So I did not become a fighter pilot, but it's something that I've always gravitated towards and had fantasies about." Being a part of Hour Zero not only gave him a feel for the experience of a real pilot, but also tied that in with heartfelt, character-driven storytelling that he could easily connect with. "Of course, it's just such a cool role to get to play, and so finally I was able to do it with this, and so I really just enjoyed the process, and really. I loved their production value because you really, you sat in a real cockpit of a fighter jet, realized just how tough these pilots are, because that is not comfortable! Just to sit, I can't imagine pulling Gs, and being by a Mig or something on top of the metal box. But it just gave me such a respect for fighter pilots and what they actually do, how they operate. So that helped a lot with just flowing right into the character. And I lost my father not long ago. That was very easy to tap into because he loses his father, and so there are things built in the character. And I'm older with children, so me being in that position of a leader responsible for younger people also is very much a part of this role. Natural for me." Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz Which Action Hero Would BeYour Perfect Partner? Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn't work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back. 🎖️Rambo 🍸James Bond 🏺Indiana Jones 🔧John McClane 🎭Ethan Hunt FIND YOUR PARTNER → 01 You're dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you. ASomeone who already has three contingency plans running and is calmly working through all of them. BSomeone who reads the terrain instinctively and knows exactly how to use it against the enemy. CSomeone who keeps their nerve and their sense of humour when everything is falling apart. DSomeone who knows the history of wherever we are and what we're walking into. ESomeone with the right contact, the right cover identity, and the right exit already arranged. NEXT QUESTION → 02 You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission. AOn foot through terrain no one else would attempt — I move where vehicles can't follow. BOn a motorcycle, a cargo plane, or anything else that gets me there before I think too hard about it. CIn something that belongs to someone else — borrowed, stolen, or improvised under fire. DFirst class, with a cover identity and a gadget that does something I won't explain until it's needed. EBy whatever means are available — I've driven, flown, and once arrived by camel. The destination matters, not the method. NEXT QUESTION → 03 You're pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of. ADisappears into the environment, flanks them silently, and ends it before I've reloaded. BCracks a one-liner, grabs a fire extinguisher or a chair, and improvises something that somehow works. CProduces a gadget specifically designed for this exact scenario and uses it with infuriating precision. DPulls out a whip, a pistol, and an archaeological insight that somehow gets us out alive. ENeutralises the threat with maximum efficiency and minimum words — they were already three moves ahead. NEXT QUESTION → 04 The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are. AA bar with terrible lighting, cold beer, and absolutely no questions about feelings. BThe finest restaurant in the city, a bottle of something expensive, and a conversation that is equal parts brilliant and exhausting. CA local dig site, a museum after hours, or a long story about why that particular artefact matters to human civilisation. DPizza. Bad TV. Falling asleep halfway through a movie neither of you were watching anyway. EA debrief that turns into three hours of contingency planning that somehow becomes the most fun you've had all week. NEXT QUESTION → 05 How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability. APrecise and minimal — tell me what I need to know and nothing else. Every word has a cost. BDeadpan and dry — keeping it light keeps me sharp, even when everything is on fire. CEnthusiastic and slightly chaotic — but always with useful information buried somewhere in the noise. DCalm and controlled through an earpiece, with a plan that covers every variable I haven't thought of yet. EBarely at all — silence is a language and they speak it fluently. NEXT QUESTION → 06 Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership. AInfiltrate their inner circle, learn everything, and dismantle them from inside out before they know we're there. BStudy the historical pattern — every villain of this type has a weakness written somewhere in the past. CGet them talking. The more they monologue, the more time I have to figure out how to beat them. DGo through them. Directly. With as much force as the terrain allows. EFind the one thing they haven't accounted for — there's always one thing — and make sure we're holding it. NEXT QUESTION → 07 Things go badly wrong and you're captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters. ACome in alone, quietly, and get me out before anyone knows they were there. BHave already been working on the extraction since the moment I disappeared — the plan is already running. CCome in loud, come in fast, and worry about the collateral damage later — I'd do the same for them. DUse every resource, every contact, and bend every rule until I'm out — they don't leave people behind. ECharm their way in somehow, bluff through the hard part, and still manage to look good doing it. NEXT QUESTION → 08 What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn't replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn't know you had. ATechnology that shouldn't exist yet and the training to use it under any conditions. BSurvival instinct so refined it borders on supernatural — and the scars to prove it's been tested. CKnowledge of history, language, and culture that makes them invaluable in places where force is useless. DThe ability to walk into any room in the world and immediately become the most trusted person in it. EStubbornness that refuses to accept a situation is hopeless — and the improvisational skill to back it up. NEXT QUESTION → 09 Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together. AA partner who never fully switches off — always watching exits, always calculating threats, even at dinner. BA partner who gets the job done brilliantly but has the emotional availability of a locked filing cabinet. CA partner who makes everything ten times more complicated than it needs to be — but who always comes through. DA partner who gets personally attached to every relic, ruin, and artefact we encounter, which slows everything down. EA partner who was not built for this and knows it — but shows up anyway, every time, without being asked. NEXT QUESTION → 10 It's the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one. AOne line. Absolutely dry. Delivered like the world isn't ending. Then we move. BNothing said at all — just a look that means we both already know what has to happen. CA plan I don't fully understand that somehow accounts for everything, delivered in thirty seconds flat. DA piece of historical context that reframes the entire situation and tells us exactly what to do next. ESomeone who steps forward instead of back — because that's who they've always been. REVEAL MY PARTNER → Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is…Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse. RamboYour partner doesn't talk much, doesn't need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you've finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You'll never need to ask if he has your back. You'll just know. James BondYour partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it'll take you a moment to remember what's actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You'll never be bored. You'll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing. Indiana JonesYour partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar's eye and a brawler's instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn't matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you'll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them. John McClaneYour partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren't so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay. Ethan HuntYour partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you've finished reading the briefing, and the plan he's settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn't exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ 'Hour Zero' Reignited Holloway's Interest in the 'Ace Combat' Games Holloway came into the Ace Combat short film series as a relative non-gamer, but he has a personal connection to the series going back to its arcade progenitor, Air Combat. "It's actually a reentry point since I was young," he revealed. "I mean, I got really into Centipede and Miss Pac-Man and Galaga and all that back in the early days, and I had to play Ace Combat in the arcade because they had the big game you'd sit in and such. It felt real, like a flight simulator." Admittedly, he fell off of gaming because he lacked the patience for more complicated, modern titles. However, as is the goal of Hour Zero for those unfamiliar with the series, the short films spurred him to return to the games to better understand what he's working with. The in-depth customization and upgrades of each jet and attention to detail helped him fall back in love with the series, even if there's been a lot to learn. "Video games got really complicated, and the way you build, so I just kind of went away from it until this project, because I was like, 'Well, if I'm going to do this, I need to feel this game.' So I started playing it, and now I'm addicted. Thanks a lot. And I'm playing it all the time, and it's because it's real. I mean, and I realize the reason I'm not a gamer is I get too emotionally involved, and I'm getting chased, and I'm about to die, and I die, and then I'm like, 'Oh shit!' You really get it, which is fun, and so I have gotten into Ace Combat, but there again, my son is like, 'Dad, you just don't know how to do it' because you have to build your jets, and there's so many different jets, and it's so amazing how detailed they are. I mean, from your engine to avionics to your cannons, you upgrade all this stuff across the board. There's lots to know. It's not Centipede or Galaga [Laughs]." Even with his hands-on research, Ace Combat has grown into a rich series since its origins in arcades. While Wings of Theve marks eight mainline titles, the franchise also features a myriad of spin-offs, prequels, and more, with common fan-favorites including the fourth and fifth installments and Ace Combat 0: The Belkan War. Over 18 million total copies have been sold since the series jumped to home consoles and, through each title, an extensive history has been formed within the Strangereal universe and the many nations the pilots inhabit. Bandai was sure to prepare Holloway with a primer on everything happening on Strangereal's version of Earth and the relevant history heading into Wings of Theve. "They gave me as much as they could for someone who wasn't a gamer and didn't know anything about it, so they compressed it and said, 'Here, this is what's going on,' and the evolution of it," he recalled from his experience. What most impressed him about the games and the inclusion of Hour Zero in the lore was how focused on people Ace Combat was. The thrills of the series come from its dogfights, but it's the human connection, both to the pilots and the people they're fighting for, that he believes is capable of drawing people in and encouraging them to fight through, even if they're not very good yet. "But to me, I just really like the idea of the game to make people to raise the stakes. It's part of our human nature. We can disassociate easily unless you give us a real human connection there, and then automatically our emotions start to wrap around that, and it just raises the stakes. So I love what they're doing with that because a little story behind something really engages our creative side and imagination, and it did so for me because, after doing it now, I'm playing the game, and I'm flying as Ledger! I'm like, ah, but I suck, so I'm not a good OG pilot yet [Laughs]. Yet! Because I also don't believe in buying my jet. I have to earn the upgrades, which takes more time than going and buying a pack to upgrade your whole jet, right?" Josh Holloway Hopes 'Hour Zero' Sparks Real Emotions and Not Dissociation When asked about the ultimate takeaway and what he hopes people will see in Hour Zero, Holloway again highlighted that human connection. The personal focus of the miniseries on the people affected by war, he believes, will make the game hit even harder due to how grounded it is in reality. He believes it's the perfect companion piece to show what separates Ace Combat from a lot of modern gaming mainstays and pairs well with the series' deep approach to aerial combat. "I hope that they form a connection to what they're actually doing, and not a dissociation from the world or themselves or emotions while they're playing. The idea, at least for me, the concept involves them and creates higher stakes. So I hope to see that happen, and I think it's... Ace Combat is a perfect type of game for that because it's still rooted in reality, in the way the jets fly, the amount of things coming at you. It's not like, say, Fortnite, where there's a million things that your brain is trying to process at one time, and it's not grounded in reality, you know. So it's a different feeling. It's easier to dissociate after, but if it's grounded in reality, I think that making a film about it makes and will have the desired effect. That's my hope." More than anything, joining the Ace Combat world was a blast for Holloway and let him embrace the need for speed. "I was like full-on in my Top Gun mode," he concluded. "It was so fun." Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve releases in October for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. In the meantime, the short film series Hour Zero kicks off on September 15 and concludes on October 2, just before the game launches.