Apple TV has offered the first proper look at 12 12 12, an upcoming international heist drama that puts Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan on opposite sides of a meticulously planned crime. The eight-episode series begins streaming worldwide on Friday, November 13, with its first two episodes arriving together before the rest roll out weekly through Christmas Day.

At a glance, 12 12 12 has the ingredients of a familiar cat-and-mouse thriller: a disgraced FBI agent, a skilled career criminal, and a huge target sitting beneath one of Europe’s most closely watched financial cities. But the show’s structure is what gives it a more distinctive hook. Each episode moves among three periods in the same crime story – the 12 months spent planning the robbery, the 12 hours in which the heist happens, and the 12 days that follow it.

That means viewers will not simply be waiting to find out whether the crew gets into the vault. The format leaves room for the harder questions that usually make heist stories stick: who set whom up, what went wrong long before the alarms sounded, and whether getting away with the money is ever really the end of the job.

Mackie stars as the fallen FBI agent drawn into the chase, while Dornan plays the American professional criminal at its center. Their characters are locked in what Apple describes as a zero-sum game played across Europe, with the story building toward an audacious raid on a bank vault beneath Zurich’s streets.

Zurich is a fitting setting for a show built around secrecy, money, and precision. It gives 12 12 12 a different flavor from the usual American bank-job thriller: less strip-mall getaway, more polished international operation. The newly released footage and images lean into that sense of scale, showing a sleek, tense world where everyone appears to be carrying private information and a few people may be carrying much more than that.

The title itself is not just a catchy sequence of numbers. It is effectively the show’s storytelling blueprint. By cutting between preparation, execution, and fallout, 12 12 12 can reveal the heist from several angles at once. A decision that seems smart during the robbery may look reckless once the audience sees the earlier planning. Likewise, the aftermath can add pressure to scenes that initially appear calm, since viewers know every quiet conversation could be setting up consequences that land days later.

That kind of nonlinear construction has become a useful way for crime dramas to sustain momentum without relying only on a final twist. The audience gets the immediate tension of watching a robbery unfold, but also the slow-burn satisfaction of learning how the machinery behind it was built. For a series with just eight episodes, it could make the plot feel dense without becoming drawn out.

The supporting cast includes Jack Kesy, Agathe Rousselle, Sallie Harmsen, José Garcia, and Kali Reis. It is an eclectic international lineup, and that matters for a story expected to move across Europe rather than remain narrowly focused on its two headline stars. Heist dramas work best when the job has moving parts: people who finance it, people who make it possible, people who complicate it, and people who believe they are in control right up until they are not.

Behind the camera, the series was created by Dudi Appleton and Jim Keeble. Kari Skogland, the Emmy-nominated and BAFTA-winning filmmaker known for directing major television projects including The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and The Handmaid’s Tale, directs multiple episodes including the pilot and serves as an executive producer. Mackie and Dornan are also executive producers, with Mackie producing through his Make It With Gravy banner.

That combination suggests 12 12 12 is aiming for more than a straightforward action show. Skogland has a track record with stories that balance character pressure and large-scale stakes, while Mackie and Dornan bring contrasting screen personas that could give the central rivalry some real texture. Mackie can make even a morally bruised protagonist feel grounded and watchable; Dornan has often been at his most effective when he brings charm and menace into the same frame.

For Apple TV, the series arrives as another sign that the service is continuing to build a broader drama slate rather than leaning on one type of prestige series. The platform has found substantial attention with high-concept titles such as Severance, while also investing in more accessible thrillers, crime stories, and star-driven international productions. Apple says its service is available in more than 100 countries and regions, and 12 12 12 will launch globally rather than follow a staggered territory-by-territory release.

The November timing is notable, too. A weekly run ending on December 25 gives Apple TV a season-long thriller to carry through the holiday period, when streaming platforms compete hard for viewers who have more time at home and an overwhelming number of options. Releasing the first two episodes at once should give audiences enough of the story to settle into its multiple timelines before the weekly wait begins.

There is still plenty Apple has not shown. The first-look announcement does not spell out the precise reason Mackie’s agent has fallen from grace, the motive behind Dornan’s criminal operation, or how the wider ensemble fits into the vault job. That restraint works in the show’s favor. A heist is inherently about withheld information, and 12 12 12 is selling the promise that every answer may expose a new problem.

For now, the main draw is clear: a Zurich vault, an elaborate plan, two stars playing a high-pressure game across Europe, and a narrative designed to show the same crime before, during, and after everything falls apart. 12 12 12 premieres on Apple TV on November 13, 2026.