When viewers see Robert De Niro in his new Netflix political thriller Zero Day wearing a suit and tie — and with an American flag pin on his lapel — “he immediately strikes you as the president we all wish we had.”
Those are the words (more here) of former NBC News president Noah Oppenheim, the co-creator of Netflix’s forthcoming Zero Day series alongside producer and screenwriter Eric Newman (American Primeval, Griselda, The Watcher, Narcos, and Narcos: Mexico) and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael S. Schmidt. Their new series, featuring De Niro in his first starring TV role, is far and away the biggest Netflix new release of the upcoming week, one that’s essentially nightmare fuel for anyone who worries about the potential impact and aftermath of a catastrophic cyberattack.
The last time Netflix released a high-profile thriller about a cyberattack, writer-director Sam Esmail’s Leave the World Behind, it blew up big-time on the streamer. That movie, about a cyberattack that causes widespread devastation, was one of the most-watched Netflix original movies during the back half of 2023 — in fact, it racked up 4.5 billion viewing minutes during December 2023 alone. Clearly, streaming viewers have a perverse fascination with seeing some of their worst fears dramatized.
As for Zero Day, De Niro is both a star in and an executive producer for the show — his first time both acting in and executive producing a TV series. Here’s everything to know about the show, which also features an absolutely star-studded cast that we’ll take a closer look at below.
Release date: The six-episode series hits Netflix on Feb. 20.
Who’s in it: In addition to De Niro, the Zero Day cast includes Jesse Plemons, Lizzy Caplan, Connie Britton, Joan Allen, Matthew Modine, Angela Bassett, and Clark Gregg.
What’s it about: De Niro plays George Mullen, a respected former US president. After a devastating cyberattack causes chaos and thousands of fatalities, Mullen is tasked with leading a Zero Day commission. Per Netflix, “As disinformation runs rampant and the personal ambitions of power brokers in technology, Wall Street, and government collide, Mullen’s search for the truth forces him to confront his own dark secrets while risking all he holds dear.”
In a Netflix promotional interview, Newman said about De Niro that he “very much became our partner in this process — very hands-on, very involved, read everything at every stage, and it’s been an incredible honor and privilege. You can count on one hand the actors and actresses in history who bring this level of gravitas, pedigree, and talent to their work.”
What are so-called zero-day attacks? These are a particular type of cyberattack, wherein an attacker exploits a software developer vulnerability before the developer even knows about the vulnerability — and, thus, no fix is yet available. The name comes from the fact that the software maker has had zero days to address the flaw.
