Documentary director Ken Burns returns to PBS with The American Revolution, a 6-part, 12-hour docuseries following the creation fantasy of the US. The Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt co-directed challenge premiered on the channel on November 16 and is airing over six consecutive nights.
If Burns’ earlier tasks are something to go by, The American Revolution guarantees his similar gold normal seen within the likes of Hemingway, The American Buffalo, and Benjamin Franklin. He additionally recruited his longtime collaborator and TV veteran Peter Coyote because the narrator, alongside a listing of Hollywood’s greatest names to voice essentially the most notable names in US historical past.
Who voices who in Ken Burns’ The American Revolution collection?
Josh Brolin as George Washington
Oscar-nominated actor Josh Brolin voices George Washington in The American Revolution. He is accomplished over 70 films in his profession, with a few of them as a voice actor. One in every of his most up-to-date voice appearing gigs is the Disney collection What If…?, the place he voices the character of Thanos, which he additionally performs within the live-action Avengers films.
Brolin’s different well-known and more moderen works embody the Dune collection, Deadpool, No Nation for Outdated Males, and The Working Man.
Jeff Daniels as Thomas Jefferson
Primetime Emmy winner Jeff Daniels voices former US President Thomas Jefferson in The American Revolution. He is remembered for writing the Declaration of Independence.
Daniels might be seen in TV reveals American Rust, A Man in Full, and Netflix’s Western drama Godless.
Paul Giamatti as John Adams
Two-time Oscar-nominated actor Paul Giamatti voices former US President John Adams in The American Revolution. Adams was a Founding Father and a key chief within the American Revolution. Giamatti additionally voiced Adams in Burns’ docuseries Benjamin Franklin.
Giamatti is known for enjoying Chuck Rhoades in Billions from 2016 to 2023. His different works embody A Mouthful of Air, Morgan, Sideways, and Cinderella Man.
Mandy Patinkin as Benjamin Franklin
Primetime Emmy winner Mandy Patinkin additionally returns to voice Benjamin Franklin in The American Revolution. He beforehand voiced the titular character in Burns’ documentary of the US President.
Patinkin is known for enjoying Saul Berenson in 96 episodes of Homeland. His different notable works embody Seasoned, Loss of life and Different Particulars, and Marvel.
Claire Danes as Abigail Adams
Three-time Primetime Emmy winner Claire Danes voices former First Girl Abigail Adams in The American Revolution. Adams is called one of many early advocates for ladies’s rights. In the meantime, Danes has almost 50 reveals and flicks to her title, together with the brand new Netflix collection The Beast in Me.
Her different works embody Homeland, the place she stars as Carrie Matheson, The Essex Serpent, and Full Circle. Some might also bear in mind her for enjoying Juliet reverse Leonardo DiCaprio within the 1996 epic, Romeo + Juliet.
Further voice solid and characters within the docuseries
- Michael Keaton as Benedict Arnold
- Tony Beck as Ludwig von Closen
- Invoice Camp as Jabez Fitch
- Martin Czembor as Georg Daniel Flohr
- Keith David as Theodore Roneyn
- Hope Davis as Elizabeth Drinker
- Morgan Freeman as James Forten
- Amanda Gorman as Phillis Wheatley
- Jonathan Groff as Erkuries Beatty
- Maya Hawke as Betsy Ambler
- Joe Keery as John Greenwood
- Tracy Letts as Elbridge Gerry
- Michael Mando as Lafayette
- Reece McCullagh as Patrick Ferguson
- Oliver Mercier as Cromot du Bourg
- Wendell Pierce as Willian Learn
- Matthew Rhys as Thomas Paine
- Meryl Streep as Mercy Otis Warren
- Yul Vazquez as Henry Knox and José de Gálvez
- Dan Stevens as William Howe and Rochambeau
- Chaske Spencer as Dragging Canoe and Shingas
- Liev Schreiber as Nathanael Inexperienced, Samuel Adams, and Lewis Beebe
- Jon Proudstar as Canasetego
- David Oyelowo as Olaudah Equiano and Sam
- Edward Norton as Benjamin Rush, Philip Vickers Fithian, and Philip Schuyler
- Joe Morton as Elisha Bostwick and Elias Dayton
- Tobias Menzies as Lord Cornwallis, Ambrose Serle, William Pitt, and Horatio Gates
- Lindsay Mendez as Catharine Macaulay and Mary M Campbell
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- Carolyn McCormick as Hannah Griffitts, Hannah Winthrop, and Esther Reed
- Josh Lucas as George Rogers Clark, John Glover, and Grury Mathis
- Laura Linley as Sarah Fisher, Sarah Mifflin, Ann Hilton, Eliza Wilkinson, and Eliza Lucas Pinckney
- Damia Lewis as King George III, Nicholas Cresswell, John André, and Bartholomew James
- Joel Kinnaman as Nils Collins, Thomas Hutchinson, and Samuel Seabury
- Samuel L. Jackson as Boston King, Lemuel Haynes, and Caesar Sarter
- Latanya Richardson Jackson as Elizabeth Freeman and Judith Jackson
- Josh Hutcherson as James Potter Collins, Thomas Mellen, and Jabez Campfield
- Lucas Hedges as Ebenezer Fletcher, John Laurens, and Garrett Watts
- Tom Hanks as Andrew Eliot, Josiah Bartlett, Isaac Bangs, David Griffith, Thomas Jones, Ezra Tilden, Albigence Waldo, and Ebenezer Denny
- Charlotte Hacke as Friederike Riedsel, Hannah Davis, Lucy Knox, and Martha Reed
- Michael Greyeyes as Joseph Brant and Solomon Uhhaunauwaunmut
- Domhnall Gleeson as Roger Lamb, Loftus Cliffe, John MacPherson, John Bowater, and William Barton
- Alden Ehrenreich as Joseph Plumb Martin
- Bruce Davidson as John P. Becker, Charles Inglis, and Samuel Webb
- Marcus Davis-Orrom as John Barker and William Bamford
- Tantoo Cardinal as Mary Jemison
- Kenneth Branagh as Thomas Gage, Henry Clinton, Joseph Reed, Samuel Graves, Samuel Johnson, Charles Lee, and Friedrich Adolf Riedesel
- Corbin Bleu as John Joseph Henry, Daniel McCurtin, Nathaniel Bacheller, and Isaac Jefferson
- Jeremiah Bitsui as Twethorechte
- Leon Dische Becker as Johann Friedrich von Bardeleben and Johann Conrad Doehla
- Adam Arkin as James Parker, Ashbel Inexperienced, Andrew Hunter, Samuel Shaw, Enoch Anderson, Robert Morris, and Timothy Dwight
The American Revolution premiered on PBS on Sunday, November 16, 2025. New episodes are launched every day till the finale on November 21.
Edited by Kinette Sumadia
