National Geographic and Disney+ are going off-script with Underdogs, a new wildlife docuseries narrated by Ryan Reynolds that gives centre stage to nature’s most overlooked oddballs.
Premiering June 16, the five-part series highlights under-the-radar animals and their unusual survival strategies, from glow-in-the-dark larvae to bubble-shooting shrimp.
Produced by Wildstar Films and Reynolds’ own Maximum Effort, the series features original music from Green Day and aims to celebrate the strange, sneaky, and surprisingly smart creatures usually left out of the nature documentary spotlight.
From Disney:
RYAN REYNOLDS CELEBRATES NATURE’S UNSUNG HEROES WITH UNDERDOGS TRAILER, A BOUNDARY-BREAKING NATURAL HISTORY EXPERIENCE
For 137 years, National Geographic has been bringing you 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.
From Reynolds’ Emmy® Award-winning Maximum Effort and Emmy® and BAFTA Award-Winning Wildstar Films (a Fremantle company), National Geographic’s Underdogs premieres June 16 on Disney+.
“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,” said Reynolds.
“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.
Underdogs 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.
With stunning imagery from the world’s leading wildlife cinematographers and music by multiple award-winning composer Harry Gregson-Williams (“Shrek,” “The Martian,” “Gladiator 2”), Underdogs is edgy and informative.
It’s the unexpected superhero blockbuster of the summer that celebrates the oddballs and outcasts while highlighting remarkable survival techniques, mental resilience, and exceptional instincts.
“Underdogs (Original Series Soundtrack),” which will consist of Harry Gregson-Williams’ score, will be released on Hollywood Records on June 13 and will be available everywhere you listen to music. Global rock superstars Green Day wrote the original theme song for the series, which is featured in the trailer.
Green Day’s deluxe edition of their latest album, “Saviors,” includes seven newly added tracks, including the Underdogs theme song “Underdog.” “Saviors (édition de luxe)” is available everywhere you listen to music.
Episodes include the following:
“Superzeroes”
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.
“Terrible Parents”
Ryan Reynolds 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.
“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.
“The Unusual Suspects”
Ryan 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.
“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 wining 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.
Underdogs 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, and Tom McDonald is the executive vice president of Global Factual and Unscripted Content.
