Back in 2015, documentarian Ken Burns was still working on his Vietnam War series when he decided the next project would be on the American Revolution. Soon, ten years after Burns first felt that spark, he’ll finally get to share “The American Revolution” with viewers.

The filmmaking team struggled to come to terms with the series, Burns told Boston Public Radio on Tuesday.

“This is about monarchs and the rebellion against them. It’s about a failed invasion of Canada. It’s arguments about inoculation of troops during the war,” he said.

Those themes may sound familiar to anyone clued in to the current political landscape of the United States, as President Donald Trump tests the limits of executive power, has threatened to annex Canada and health leaders resurface old debates around vaccine safety.

But Burns and his filmmaking partner Sarah Botstein said they do not let current events influence their production.

“The way we march through a history is both chronological and fact-based. And we leave the interpretation of those facts to the characters in the film, whether they’re scholars or writers or archival characters,” Botstein said.

Burns said this happens with every film they make. “We’ve been doing this long enough that we know that when we lift our heads up, it’s gonna rhyme with the present,” he said.

This new 12-hour series goes beyond the usual American founders’ story, and weaves in dozens of new stories that feature the lives of women and children, British Army officers, American loyalists and Native soldiers.

Burns said the diversity of voices may prompt viewers to ask themselves how they would have responded what they would have done under the same circumstances.

“What would you have done? Would you have been willing to give your life for an idea that was untested in all of human history? Would you be able to kill someone else in the defense of that idea?” Burns said.

That violence came as a surprise in Burns’ research. “I don’t think we fully appreciated how violent it is, how much we were born in violence,” he said.

“The American Revolution” premieres Nov. 16 on GBH. Ahead of the 250th anniversary of the start of the revolution, Burns and Botstein on Wednesday will discuss the series in a sold-out preview event presented by GBH and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.