EXCLUSIVE: 9/12, a six-episode limited series starring and executive produced by Emmy and Tony winner Jeremy Strong (Succession, Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere), has been given an official green light by Paramount+. The project, about ailing 9/11 first responders’ David vs. Goliath legal fight for compensation, is one of the first two series ordered by the streamer’s new regime led by Chair of DTC Cindy Holland and Head of Originals Jane Wiseman who called it “the kind of ambitious, resonant narratives Paramount+ will champion.”
9/12 joins legal thriller Discretion, starring Nicole Kidman and Elle Fanning, which just landed a straight-to-series pickup. Of the two, 9/12, written, directed and executive produced by Tobias Lindholm (The Investigation) and written and executive produced by Frank Pugliese (House of Cards), is in far more advanced stages. Filming on the series, produced by Paramount TV Studios and Sister, had actually targeted an August start but was caught up in the prolonged regulatory approval of the $8 billion Skydance-Paramount Global merger. It will now begin in summer of 2026 for a 2027 launch on Paramount+.
9/12 marks the streamer’s first original production from the revived Paramount Television Studios overseen by chair Dana Goldberg and President Matt Thunell. It dramatizes a landmark case that reshaped the fight for accountability: a relentless legal war that stretched nearly a decade to secure almost $1 billion in compensation for first responders who fell gravely ill in the wake of 9/11.
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Strong stars as renowned class action lawyer Jason Smith — a composite fictional character inspired by real-life people — who risked everything to take on entrenched institutions, exposing the politics, greed, corruption and betrayal that compounded tragedy set against the emergency workers’ remarkable unity and bravery as The World Trade Center was collapsing.
9/12 “asks what happens when those who risked everything are abandoned by the very institutions meant to protect them,” Lindholm said. “The series is a testament to human strength and perseverance in the face of unthinkable adversity — the very tension that compelled me to tell this story.”
In a lengthy, thoughtful statement, which you can read in full below, Strong reflected on how first responders rose to the occasion on 9/11 and the weeks after and were failed by the system in the years that followed.
“9/12 is a story about justice, about the restitution of human dignity and about the real-life heroes of this country who we must never forget,” Strong said, calling Lindholm “one of the world’s greatest writer/directors and has the depth, restraint, integrity, clarity and power to honor this story.”
9/12 was originally set up at Sister in 2021 as The Best Of Us before moving to Skydance Television following Holland’s departure as Global CEO of Sister to become a senior adviser to Skydance CEO David Ellison on the streaming aspects of the Paramount Global deal.
After getting fast-tracked, 9/12 sailed through development and by the spring, it was prepping for production, becoming Skydance’s first and only production budgeted against the Skydance-Paramount deal. With the FCC review taking far longer than anticipated, new spending on 9/12 was paused in early May, and the project was put on hold altogether a couple of weeks later.
As Deadline reported at the time, Skydance remained committed to the series. Following the August completion of Skydance’s Paramount acquisition, 9/12 got back on track at Paramount TV Studios, the new streaming-focused studio, which absorbed Skydance Television and Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios. Called a special project for everyone involved and a priority for the studio by Goldberg, 9/12 took awhile to get a formal green as the schedule had to be adjusted to fit Strong’s existing commitments, including his starring role in Peter Morgan’s new Netflix series The Boys From Brazil.
Thunell, who was also involved in 9/12 in his former role as Skydance TV President, was previously at Netflix where the shows he worked on there included House of Cards with Pugliese as a writer, producer and co-showrunner.
“Tobias has created a heroic underdog story that we know Jeremy will brilliantly bring to life,” Thunell said. “I’m thrilled to be reunited with Frank and we are equally proud to partner with Sister on this timeless story as our first limited series for our Paramount+.”
At Paramount+, 9/12 is being overseen by Wiseman who previously shepherded the series’ development as Head of US Television for Sister.
“This project reminds us why storytelling matters,” she said. “Working with visionaries like Tobias, Frank, and Jeremy has set the tone for the kind of ambitious, resonant narratives Paramount+ will champion.”
Strong is coming off an Oscar nomination for The Apprentice. Here is his 9/12 statement, which seems to be referencing the series’ original title, The Best of Us:
The great American historian David Halberstam once wrote about September 11th, 2001, ‘On a day when the worst of mankind showed itself, the best of mankind answered.’
9/12 is about the best of us — our first responders whose official response time on 9/11 was five seconds. It is about a moment of unity and togetherness in this divided country, when, amidst the wreckage, we rebuilt and rose again from the rubble. But it is also about the ways our institutions failed to respond to those heroes—whom we pledged we would never forget — in their moment of greatest need.
9/12 is a story about justice, about the restitution of human dignity and about the real-life heroes of this country who we must never forget. Tobias Lindholm is one of the world’s greatest writer/directors and has the depth, restraint, integrity, clarity and power to honor this story.