ATTN: frames this as a golden opportunity to bring American history to global audiences through modern, entertaining storytelling. Matthew Segal calls Chris and Doris an 'unexpected but perfect pairing' that makes constitutional values feel 'distinctly modern.' The project celebrates America's 250th anniversary with star power.
Sources are raising eyebrows at the timing—this federal funding comes as Trump targets humanities programs for elimination and DOGE has already gutted education initiatives. Critics ask: why funnel government money to a Hollywood celebrity for history lessons when National Endowment for the Arts budgets hang by a thread?
U.S. Department of State's Office of Public Diplomacy and Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs is funding the project. The series launches ahead of America's 250th anniversary in 2026, with each episode exploring constitutional values through historical figures via live action and animation.
The taxpayer-funded irony is thick enough to cut: while Trump dismantles humanities programs and DOGE ransacks educational agencies, Washington is writing checks so Chris Pratt can explain the Constitution. Doris Kearns Goodwin deserves better collaborators than a guy who once played a cartoon tree.
Chris Pratt is trading in his action-hero credentials for a different kind of patriotic performance—federal-funded American history lessons. The 'Guardians of the Galaxy' star is headlining an untitled series of comedy shorts focused on U.S. history, co-starring presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, with production handled by digital media studio ATTN: and funding from the U.S. Department of State's Office of Public Diplomacy, Variety reports.
The timing couldn't be more fascinating if it were scripted. While Pratt gears up to school international audiences on America's founding principles, humanities programs back home are bleeding out. The project has received backing from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, designed as what producers call 'a public diplomacy initiative intended to engage international audiences with America's constitutional values and history through modern digital storytelling.' Each short will explore a defining constitutional value through pivotal historical figures, blending live action with animation in a format creators are calling a 'FasterClass' for U.S. history.
Goodwin isn't just appearing on screen—she's serving as executive producer and editorial advisor, essentially acting as the fact-checker to Pratt's enthusiastic but apparently unreliable grasp of American history. The shorts will follow Pratt as he attempts to share his passion for the subject, only to discover 'his grasp of the facts may not be quite as strong as his enthusiasm,' per Variety. Emmy winner Alex Gregory, known for 'Veep' and 'White House Plumbers,' is producing.
Here's where it gets juicy: since Trump took office for his second term, humanities have been squarely on the chopping block, gutted largely through Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency—now defunct as a centralized agency but its damage lingers. Congress has moved recently to uphold budgets for federal agencies like the National Endowment for the Arts, which Trump repeatedly called to eliminate entirely. So while funding for actual cultural institutions remains precarious, Washington is greenlighting a Chris Pratt vehicle to explain American values to the world.
ATTN: co-founder and CEO Matthew Segal defended the project in a statement: 'America's 250th anniversary presents a unique diplomacy opportunity to reintroduce the stories, principles, and people that shaped the nation.' The studio, founded in 2014, has partnered with figures across the political spectrum including Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Michelle Obama, Laura Bush, Jill Biden, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Ann Romney. For a company positioning itself as 'nonpartisan,' the optics of accepting federal cultural funding during an administration actively dismantling arts and humanities agencies is... a choice. The shorts are still untitled but expected to roll out internationally through U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide—because nothing says soft power like watching Chris Pratt fumble through the Bill of Rights while Goodwin sighs heavily off-camera.
