7 Years Later, HBO's Award-Winning Historical Epic Conquers a New Streaming Home

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Published Feb 20, 2026, 6:13 PM EST

Erielle Sudario is a Collider News and Feature Author from Australia and has worked in the journalism industry since 2018. She has a passion for entertainment and pop culture news and has interviewed YouTubers, voice actors, film directors, and musicians throughout her career. When she's not writing, you can see Erielle building keyboards, reading a good book, playing video games, and creating content on social media.

Craig Mazin has been busy lately, with Season 3 of The Last of Us currently in the works and the recently announced Baldur's Gate 3 adaptation. While he may now be known for his video game adaptation, the filmmaker has produced other works, one of which put his name on the map, earning high acclaim from fans and critics alike and being praised for its storytelling.

Mazin began his career in 1997, working on various films before entering television. Some of the movies he worked on include Scary Movie 3 and 4, Superhero Movie, The Hangover Part II and III, The Huntsman: Winter's War, and The Specials. It wasn't until 2019 that Mazin released his first TV show: a historical drama miniseries that told the story of one of the largest disasters in European history. Now, people are revisiting this show as it has entered the VOD charts.

Chernobyl is an HBO miniseries that aired in 2019 and only had one Season that contains 5 episodes. Recently, the series entered the Top 10 TV Shows on the Apple TV Store, sitting at #6 between Halt and Catch Fire and Vigil. Since its release, Chernobyl has received high praise from fans and critics alike, generating a Certified Fresh critics' score of 95% and a high audience score of 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, and received 19 PrimeTime Emmy Award nominations and won 10 awards, including "Outstanding Limited Series" and "Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special." Chernobyl was also Mazin's first TV series, which eventually led him to work on other HBO dramas.

What Is 'Chernobyl' About?

Chernobyl revisits the 1986 disaster, where the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located in the Soviet Union (now in Ukraine), exploded and was seen as one of the "worst accidents in the history of nuclear power." Starring Jared Harris (Resident Evil: Apocalypse), the series revisits the moment when Reactor No. 4 at the power plant exploded on April 26, 1986, and the actions of government officials and emergency services to not only reduce panic and misinformation but also contain the fallout and save lives while preventing a greater catastrophe. It also addresses the reactor's design flaws and the individual, political, and environmental consequences of this disaster.

The series featured a long list of talents, including Stellan Skarsgård (Dune), Emily Watson (Hamnet), Jessie Buckley (Dolittle), Adam Nagaitis (The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon), Con O'Neill (The Penguin), Adrian Rawlins (Harry Potter), Ralph Ineson (The Fantastic Four: First Steps), Barry Keoghan (Crime 101), and Michael McElhatton (Game of Thrones), just to name a few. Aside from its Emmy wins, Chernobyl received other accolades, including numerous BAFTA wins, like "Best Mini-Series," "Best Lead Actor," and "Best Writer: Drama," a Grammy Award win for "Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media" and two Golden Globe Award wins for "Best Limited Series or Television Film" and "Best Supporting Actor – Series, Limited Series or Television Film."