Steve Carell Takes His Moonshot in New 'Space Force' Trailer

Steve Carell plays a four-star general tasked with the semi-heroic duty, and bureaucratic headache, of militarizing space in the trailer for the new series, Space Force.

The show obviously recalls President Donald Trump’s efforts to add his own Space Force to the United States military, and Carell’s character, General Mark R. Naird, is the career serviceman tasked with overseeing the creation of this new branch.

Despite recognizing the obvious ridiculousness of the venture at the beginning of the clip, General Naird ends up devoting himself completely to the mission of Space Force, even as it leads to all sorts of anxieties, frustrations and exploding spaceships. To deal with all that stress, the clip boasts a delightful sequence in which Naird tries to ease his mind by singing the Beach Boys’ “Kokomo” to himself.

Carell co-created Space Force with Greg Daniels, who helmed the U.S. version of The Office. The show was initially pitched by Netflix as nothing more than a title, but Carell and Daniels ran with it and tried to construct a show that captured the mythic quality of early space travel, while also functioning as a satire.

“We wanted to make sure that we were being accurate and more than respectful — I would say complimentary — of the military virtues that Steve’s character holds,” Daniels said in a statement. “We have astronaut advisors, science advisors and our military advisor, Mark Vazquez, has been very useful in teaching us about military behavior. Both Steve and I have relatives in the military who we love and respect, and hope are going to enjoy watching the show.”

Along with Carell, Space Force stars John Malkovich, Ben Schwartz, Diana Silvers, Tawny Newsome, Lisa Kudrow, Jimmy O. Yang and Noah Emmerich. The show premieres May 29th.