Get an in-depth look at Hulu's Catch-22 series with new footage

John Yossarian just wants to stay alive. That’s all. But as a bombardier serving in World War II, that’s much easier said than done. “It’s not that he’s afraid to die,” Catch-22 star Christopher Abbott says. “He doesn’t want to die at the hands of some inane bureaucratic rule.”

Yossarian is at the center of Hulu’s upcoming Catch-22 series, which is based on the 1961 book by Joseph Heller. The six-episode series follows Yossarian as he fights for his life while his commanding officers continue to put him in harm’s way. EW has an exclusive look at a new featurette for the series, which shows George Clooney, who also serves as a producer and director on the project, talk about his role as Lieutenant Scheisskopf. “It’s fun to play characters that are really mad, really crazy,” Clooney says, calling Scheisskopf a “raging, screaming madman.”

Also playing a madman? Kyle Chandler, who stars as Colonel Cathcart, Yossarian’s no. 1 enemy for most of the series. “There are things that my character does that are absolute insanity,” Chandler says.

Mix that insanity with the reality of war and you get a series that, as Abbott puts it, “In one moment, it’s extremely funny and satirical, and then in the next moment it could be extremely grounded.”

Watch more in the video above.

Catch-22 hits Hulu on May 17.

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