A celebration of the lesser spotted animals…
For 137 years, National Geographic has been documenting breathtaking wildlife footage of iconic animals – penguins, elephants, whales and more. As if those windbags need any more free PR. Hold on to your binoculars, folks, as Nat Geo gets up close and personal with the outcasts of the animal kingdom in Underdogs, narrated by Ryan Reynolds.
From their hidden talents to their unconventional hygiene choices to their unsavoury courtship rituals, Underdogs celebrates the unique behaviours of the animals who don’t usually get to be the stars of the show.
Ryan Reynolds:
“Getting to work with National Geographic on Underdogs was a dream come true – mostly because I can finally watch a project of ours with my children. Technically, they saw “Deadpool & Wolverine” but I don’t think they absorbed much while covering their eyes and ears and screaming for two hours,”
“We’re so proud to elevate the unsung heroes of the natural world to the top of the entertainment food chain and can’t wait for everyone to see.”
Each episode of the five-part series showcases a different aspect of these underdogs’ bizarre mating strategies, surprising superpowers, deception, dubious parenting skills and gross-out behaviours.
The series features a range of never-before-filmed scenes, including the first time a film crew has ever entered a special cave in New Zealand – a huge cavern that glows brighter than a bachelor pad under a black light thanks to the glowing butts of millions of mucus-coated grubs. All over the world, overlooked superstars like this are out there 24/7, giving it maximum effort and keeping the natural world in working order for all those showboating polar bears, sharks and gorillas.
Episodes include “Superzeroes”, it premieres 18th June at 9 pm on Nat Geo Wild; Streams Disney+ 16th June. Ryan Reynolds assembles a team of “Superzeroes,” apparently pathetic animals with unexpectedly awesome superpowers. Forget about the cheetah’s speed, the eagle’s eyesight or the elephant’s brute strength, and say hello to the invisible glass frog, the indestructible honey badger and the pistol shrimp who can fire bubbles that are as hot as the surface of the sun.
In “Terrible Parents” Ryan reveals some highly questionable parenting strategies from the animal kingdom’s worst parents, the underdogs. From a goose who lays their eggs on the top of a cliff to a koala that feeds its baby poop, it’s uncertain if they are bad parents or just misunderstood. But no matter how bad you think you may be at parenting, you can’t be as bad as these guys. Premieres 18th June at 9:45 pm on Nat Geo Wild; Streams Disney+ 16th June.
“Sexy Beasts”. Forget the birds and the bees, Ryan reveals the steps to finding “the one,” underdog-style. From the “first attraction” in giant-nosed proboscis monkeys to the importance of wingmen in turkey courtship to foreplay in flying foxes, these guys have re-written the rule book on messy and complicated relationships. Premieres 25th June at 9 pm on Nat Geo Wild; Streams Disney+ 16th June.
With “The Unusual Suspects”, which premieres 2nd July at 9 pm on Nat Geo Wild; Streams Disney+ 16th June, Reynolds puts the spotlight on the underdogs who get ahead by sneaky tactics. From the master-of-disguise frogfish to a butt-biting jackal and a multi-headed caterpillar playing the decoy, these are the masters of deception and deceit. And bringing all these hustlers together is the greatest con artist of them all – a cunning macaque who feeds on the spoils from unsuspecting tourists.
And in “Total Grossout” Ryan gives his unique take on the animals who use gross-out tactics to achieve their goals, from defending their home to finding a mate and winning at the game of life. His cast includes manatees that use flatulence to control their buoyancy and cave-dwelling fungus gnats that create beautiful, illuminated fly traps from the mucus lit by their bioluminescent butts. Premieres 9th July at 9: pm on Nat Geo Wild; Streams Disney+ 16th June.
The programme is produced by Wildstar, a Fremantle company, in partnership with Maximum Effort for National Geographic. For Wildstar, Mark Linfield, Vanessa Berlowitz and Dan Rees are executive producers. For Maximum Effort, Ryan Reynolds, George Dewey, Ashley Fox and Patrick Gooing are executive producers; Sophia Travaglia and Molly Milstein are producers. Polly Billam serves as co-series producer and writer.
For National Geographic, Tracy Rudolph Jackson is the executive producer, Janet Han Vissering is senior vice president of Production, Charlie Parsons is the senior vice president of Development, Bengt Anderson is the executive producer and senior vice president of Unscripted Production, and Tom McDonald is the executive vice president of Global Factual and Unscripted Content.
