(l-r) Dominic West and Sienna Miller star in WAR. ©HBO. CR: Justin Downing.

BY JUDY SLOANE

Front Row Features

HOLLYWOOD-HBO’s new legal drama, “War,” spotlights two warring, powerful firms, Cathcarts & Sons and Taylor & Byrne, whose lawyers clash over a headline grabbing case – the divorce between British tech entrepreneur Morgan Henderson (Dominic West,) and film star Carla Duval (Sienna Miller). Both firms will stop at nothing to win for their clients.

Creator, writer, executive producer George Kay and director and executive producer Ben Taylor met with journalists to talk about their new eight-episode series which premieres on HBO on October 1, 2026, 9:00-10:00 p.m. ET/PT and will be available to stream on HBO Max.

Q: George, we’ve enjoyed your fast-paced thrillers such as “Hijack” and “Lupin”. Could you tell us a little bit about the origins of “War”?

George Kay: I was wanting to do a legal show, maybe something not quite as fast-paced as the shows that you’ve just mentioned, more about characters and set in a workplace. I had this idea to do a show between two law firms warring with each other every season.

I hadn’t really found a case to tell across season one. I was in this queue and minding my own business, when the woman behind me on the phone, who was a quite affluent woman and [a] strong character, started saying the word “yes,” over and over. And then finally she screamed the word, “yes,” and hung up. I turned around because I’m a nosy man and I asked her what had happened? She said, “The bastard signed.” She then told me about her four-year rollercoaster divorce, and she was so physically relieved by this news that it was finally over. I thought maybe that’s the beginnings of an idea for season one.

Q: Ben, as a director and executive producer on the show, the divorce case in “War” is being battled out by two major competing law firms.  Could you tell us a little bit about the creative measures you took to distinguish the law firms from one another?

Ben Taylor: A big part of the early design discussions were just to try and get as much contrast between these teams. They were referred to in the early stages as “the goodies” and “baddies.” I’ll let you decide which way that went. It was tricky because Cathcarts had old money which meant they were going to be in an older building. So, it’s about doing that in a way that was opulent so you could tell they could afford anything and everything. In England, we have this annoying habit to contrast that you tend to do a bit of a rubbish, crappy, other firm could be based in Reading or Slough. But we went the other way, and we made Taylor & Byrne’s place even better than Cathcarts, so it was bigger and more space. It meant we could build these two sets that were really fun [and] playful.

Q: How does the city of London play a role in “War” and do you think the show would be different with the backdrop of a city like New York or Los Angeles?

George Kay: We both love network 90s American TV and how glossy and aspirational it is. And we feel very proud as Londoners that we have this amazing city. We wanted to show off London in the way that you see Boston in “Ally McBeal” or you see in “The Good Wife” you really lean into the locations. It was always a big part of Ben’s vision to show the city off, wasn’t it?

Ben Taylor: Yeah, New York shoots beautifully, it has for decades of film and TV. London’s a stunning city, but it tends to get missed, because it’s more of a jumble. So, we were really keen on it playing a big character and giving it the best possible treatment. It all comes down to compositions and a mission. We just shoot the nice bits.

Q: Ben, there’s all these brilliant ways in which we see the two law firms cutting back and forth side-by-side on screen. We’re seeing a little of this team strategy, against the big picture. When you were shooting these scenes, were you constantly playing the two side-by-side in your head to see how they were going to fit together in post-production?

Ben Taylor: It was a challenge. It’s all credited to George because he writes cross-cuts, which are really exciting to read. They’re quite difficult to pick and shoot. We would overwrite, because you can’t go in and just do bits and bobs. So they get combined into a mega scene that you know you’re going to have to lose every other sentence from. But you’d shoot that in bulk. Figure out the eye lines. It’s fiddly, but it’s such a joy in the edit to put those together.

Q: Is there an overreaching theme in the different cases each season, as they play out?

George Kay: In season one at the heart of it is a marriage and we’re looking to find, with our guest stars of Dominic and Sienna, a metaphor for everyone else. The job of the central case is to set that theme and then we see how all these other (characters react.) Season two’s a defamation story, it becomes about reputation and what it’s like for all the lawyers as well as the clients. So, you take the central case and you apply it to the rest of the cast.

Q: What have you enjoyed about the fact that each season is going to have different themes?

Ben Taylor: We’re so spoiled with this cast. But there are not enough minutes in an episode to enjoy [them.] The dream of us being able to do two seasons back-to-back is that you do get to do that. So, with a few of the characters, it was like, hold on, we’ll get more depth. All of them are so fantastic, you get excited each time you see them come on screen.

George Kay: Yeah, in season one, we’re joking about goodies and baddies, but in season two, we get to see who they are. There’s no fun in just writing characters that are doing dastardly things. You want to understand them properly, and we’ve had a great time in season two [doing that.]