Netflix Expands ‘Turning Point’ Franchise With New Season Of Docuseries On The Cold War

EXCLUSIVE: Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror was a five-part series that aired on Netflix in 2021.

The streamer is now expanding the franchise with a new season telling the story of the Cold War.

Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War comes from director Brian Knappenberger, who was also behind The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz and We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists.

The series will tell the story of the development of the atomic bomb and the dramatic proliferation of nuclear weapons in the decades after, and traces Cold War history past the collapse of the Soviet Union to the rise of Vladimir Putin and into the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

It features more than 100 interviews conducted in 7 countries around the world revealing personal stories that show how much the Cold War transformed lives and drove world history. From survivors of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima to extensive filming in Ukraine, Germany, and some of the former Soviet Republics, the series includes interviews with seven current or former world leaders including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as well as prominent political figures like NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, former CIA Director Robert Gates and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

It also features key figures of the Cold War, including the son of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, prominent German protest leaders who helped topple the Berlin Wall, as well as one of the last long form interviews with nuclear activist Daniel Ellsberg, who called the United States classified nuclear plans “institutional insanity.”

Knappenberger will direct the series, which will feature nine episodes and will launch on March 12. He will also exec produce the series with Lowell Bergman, Sarah Huisenga and Jennifer Jo Janisch. Clare Tucker and Mohammed Ali Naqvi will co-exec produce.

The series is produced by Knappenberger’s Luminant Media, which produced Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror as well as Netflix docuseries Scouts Honor: The Secret Files of the Boy Scouts of America and The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez.