WATCH: A closeted Marine recruit heads to boot camp where he’s not the only one with a secret

Ten-hut! Netflix just airdropped in the first official trailer for gay marine boot camp dramedy Boots, one of our most anticipated shows of the fall.

Adapted from Greg Cope White’s memoir The Pink Marine: One Boy’s Journey Through Boot Camp To Manhood, the series updates his story to the early ’90s, a time before Don’t Ask Don’t Tell when homosexuality was strictly forbidden in the U.S. military and, if found out, could get you discharged—or worse.

How about we take this to the next level?

Subscribe to our newsletter for a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today

Tired of being bullied and with few other prospects, closeted teen Cameron Cope (13 Reasons Why‘s Miles Heizer) is convinced by his one-and-only friend Ray McAffey (The Thing About Harry‘s Liam Oh) to join the Marines and make something of themselves.

So, Cameron tells his harried single mother Barbara (The Conjuring series’ Vera Farmiga) he’s enlisting, who’s so distracted she asks him to buy some milk on his way back home, not realizing that, the next time she sees her son, he’ll be a very different person.

Boots wastes no time in taking us to boot camp, where Cameron, Ray, and their fellow recruits are forced to leave their pasts behind, shave their heads, and “man up” for the most grueling 13 weeks of their lives, which includes intense training courses, toilet cleaning, and limited contact with the outside world.

In that sense, the series calls to mind something like early Netflix hit Orange Is The New Black, introducing us to a sprawling ensemble with compelling characters whose arcs come into focus over the course of eight episodes, with flashbacks and more telling us what brought each of them to this point in their lives.

Among the other recruits is the anxious Ochoa (Johnathan Nieves), in way over his head; the tough-talking Slovacek (Kieron Moore, of the upcoming Blue Film), there to avoid ending up behind bars; brothers John (Blake Burt) and Cody Bowman (Brandon Tyler Moore), whose sibling rivalry might get the best of them, wildcard Hicks (out actor Angus O’Brien), and the intelligent Nash (Brandon Goodman), who catches Cameron’s eye.

We also meet the no-nonsense drill instructors, chief among them the decorated Sergeant Sullivan (out Emmerdale star Max Parker), a hard-nosed leader who takes a special interest in Cameron—but is it because he knows the young recruit’s secret, or because he has some secrets of his own?

Related

Former on-screen brothers/IRL boyfriends Kris Mochrie & Max Parker share their plans for getting hitched
They met while playing on-screen brothers on ‘Emmerdale,’ but now they’re ready to walk down the aisle next summer.

As training continues, Cameron must push his body to the limit, confront his fears, and unpack whether his new band of brothers would treat him the same way if they knew his truth.

Heizer himself come out as gay when he was 19, admitting in a recent interview with Attitude that he grew up without male friends because “I was scared they’d think I was gay or being weird with them.” In that sense being on set among a cast of predominantly male actors was a new experience for him.

“I ended up having a change of view about straight men,” Heizer shared, reflecting on his experience. “I grew up with this extreme fear of them, a lack of connection. And I would say some of the [actors in Boots] had the same thing: They weren’t familiar with gay culture, hadn’t met a lot of gay people. For us to come together and create these deep friendships was interesting. I felt connected to these boys. We still talk all the time.”

Boots comes from creator Andy Parker (the Tales Of The City revival) who is co-showrunner alongside Jennifer Cecil (Umbrella Academy) and boasts the late Norman Lear as an executive producer, the television legend who gave us generation-defining classics like All In The Family and The Jeffersons.

Though the series first began filming back in early 2023, Hollywood’s SAG and WGA strikes halted production for a number of months, only to resume over a year later in 2024. And because Netflix knows all good things are worth the wait, Boots is finally set to make its highly anticipated premiere on the streamer on October 9.

Check out the first official trailer for Boots below:

Related

Gays in fatigues: 10 LGBTQ+ military films worth watching
‘The Inspection,’ ‘Tom of Finland,’ and more movies to watch that spotlight queer people serving in the military.

Sign up for the Queerty newsletter to stay on top of the hottest stories in LGBTQ+ entertainment, politics, and culture.