‘The Mosquito Bowl’ teaser trailer sends college football stars from the field to war
Four of America’s top college football players trade the football field for the U.S. Marines in the first teaser for The Mosquito Bowl, Peter Berg’s upcoming World War II drama starring Nicholas Galitzine, Bill Skarsgård, Ray Nicholson and Tom Francis.
Netflix released the teaser on September 9, offering a first look at a story in which athletic ambition, friendship and the realities of war collide. The film is based on Buzz Bissinger’s nonfiction book The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II, which recounts the extraordinary events surrounding a legendary football game played by servicemen during the war.
From college football stars to Marines
The story begins in the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Four celebrated college football players, John McLaughry, Bob Bauman, Tony Butkovich and David Schreiner, put their sporting careers on hold and enlist in the Marines.
Nicholas Galitzine plays McLaughry, with Bill Skarsgård as Bauman, Ray Nicholson as Butkovich and Tom Francis as Schreiner. Their decision to serve takes them far from the fame and promise of their college football careers and into the violent reality of World War II.
As they undergo military training and prepare for the invasion of Okinawa, the four men find themselves confronted with a very different kind of challenge from anything they experienced on the football field.
A football game with tragic stakes
At the center of the story is the football game that gives the film its title. Before the Battle of Okinawa, the players take part in a legendary match involving some of the greatest college football players of their generation.
For the men involved, the game provides a brief return to the sport and camaraderie they knew before the war. But its significance is transformed by what awaits them. For many of the players, it will be the final football game they ever play.
The teaser plays on that contrast, moving between the energy of football and the increasingly grim circumstances surrounding the young Marines. Moments of training and competition are set against images of battle, underscoring how quickly their lives have changed.
The film’s story is based on the real experiences documented in Bissinger’s 2022 book. Netflix describes the movie as a story about four young men whose lives are upended by history, while also exploring the bonds formed between them and the human cost of war.
Peter Berg brings a true story to the screen
Berg, whose credits include Friday Night Lights and Lone Survivor, directs and produces The Mosquito Bowl. He also co-wrote the screenplay with Mark L. Smith.
The project continues Berg’s creative relationship with Netflix and Film 44. Brian Grazer produces for Imagine Entertainment alongside Berg and Alex Gayner, while Ezra Emanuel, Buzz Bissinger and Jeb Brody serve as executive producers.
Berg’s connection to Bissinger’s work also stretches back to Friday Night Lights. Bissinger wrote the nonfiction book Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream, which Berg adapted into the 2004 film and later helped develop into the 2006 television series.
The production was filmed in Australia, including Queensland and northern New South Wales, with the locations standing in for Marine training grounds and the Pacific Theater.
A cast led by Galitzine, Skarsgård and Nicholson
Alongside the four leads, the cast includes Brent Comer and Dominic Bogart. Netflix’s production information also lists Pat McAfee among the cast.
The teaser puts particular emphasis on the relationship between the four central characters as they move from the football field into military life. Their shared background as athletes becomes part of the bond that carries them through training and into combat.
For Galitzine, the production also involved an unusually physical approach to the material. Netflix reports that the actors worked with limited use of stunt doubles, with the production incorporating explosions, fire and other elements designed to place the performers close to the action.
When is ‘The Mosquito Bowl’ released?
The Mosquito Bowl will arrive in select cinemas on October 30, 2026, before its Netflix release on November 25, 2026.
The film is based on The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II by Buzz Bissinger and is directed by Peter Berg from a screenplay by Berg and Mark L. Smith.