''Prehistoric Planet'' is a British-American

nature documentary A nature documentary or wildlife documentary is a genre of documentary film or series about animals, plants, or other non-human living creatures, usually concentrating on video taken in their natural habitat but also often including footage of t ...

streaming television Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as TV shows, as streaming media delivered over the Internet. Streaming television stands in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air a ...

series about

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

s that premiered on

Apple TV+ Apple TV is a digital media player and microconsole developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is a small network appliance hardware that plays received media data such as video and audio to a television set or external display. Since its secon ...

beginning May 23, 2022. It is produced by the

BBC Studios Natural History Unit The BBC Studios Natural History Unit (NHU) is a department of BBC Studios that produces television, radio and online content with a natural history or wildlife theme. It is best known for its highly regarded nature documentaries, including '' ...

with Jon Favreau as showrunner, visual effects by MPC, and narration by natural historian

Sir David Attenborough Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and author. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit, the nine natural histor ...

. The documentary follows

s and other prehistoric animals recreated with computer-generated imagery living around the globe in the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', ...

period, 66 million years ago (

Maastrichtian The Maastrichtian () is, in the ICS geologic timescale, the latest age (uppermost stage) of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series, the Cretaceous Period or System, and of the Mesozoic Era or Erathem. It spanned the interval ...

), just before the dinosaurs’ extinction. It set out to depict prehistoric life using current palaeontological research by including accurately

feathered dinosaur A feathered dinosaur is any species of dinosaur possessing feathers. While this includes all species of birds, there is a hypothesis that many, if not all non-avian dinosaur species also possessed feathers in some shape or form. It has been su ...

s, and probable speculative animal behaviour.

Hans Zimmer Hans Florian Zimmer (; born 12 September 1957) is a German film score composer and music producer. He has won two Oscars and four Grammys, and has been nominated for two Emmys and a Tony. Zimmer was also named on the list of Top 100 Living G ...

, Kara Talve and Anže Rozman composed the soundtrack. It is the first major dinosaur-focused documentary series produced by the BBC since ''

Planet Dinosaur ''Planet Dinosaur'', is a six-part documentary television series created by Nigel Paterson and Phil Dobree, produced by the BBC, and narrated by John Hurt. It first aired in the United Kingdom in 2011, with VFX studio Jellyfish Pictures a ...

'' in 2011, and the third overall (the first was ''

Walking with Dinosaurs ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' is a 1999 six-part nature documentary television miniseries created by Tim Haines and produced by the BBC Science Unit the Discovery Channel and BBC Worldwide, in association with TV Asahi, ProSieben and France 3. Envi ...

'' in 1999). ''Prehistoric Planet'' received critical acclaim for its visual effects, depiction of dinosaurs, and Attenborough's narration.

Premise

A documentary that follows dinosaurs recreated with computer-generated imagery living around the globe in the

period, 66 million years ago. It set out to depict dinosaurs using current paleontological research such as feathered dinosaurs.

Production

According to palaeontologist and consultant Steve Brusatte, the series had been in development "a decade" prior to its trailer release. On May 8, 2019, it was first reported by ''

Deadline Deadline(s) or The Deadline(s) may refer to: * Time limit, a narrow field of time by which an objective must be accomplished Arts, entertainment, and media Comics * Deadline (DC Comics), a fictional villain * ''Deadline'' (magazine), a British ...

'' that

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...

had ordered a new documentary series by BBC Studios titled ''Prehistoric Planet'', to be executively produced by Jon Favreau. An original score was composed by Kara Talve, Anže Rozman and

. The series uses up-to-date palaeontological research to depict its animals of the Cretaceous with scientific rigour; for example,

s are featured in the series, such as juvenile ''

Tyrannosaurus rex ''Tyrannosaurus'' is a genus of large theropod dinosaur. The species ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' (''rex'' meaning "king" in Latin), often called ''T. rex'' or colloquially ''T-Rex'', is one of the best represented theropods. ''Tyrannosaurus'' live ...

.'' Palaeozoologist

Darren Naish Darren William Naish is a British vertebrate palaeontologist, author and science communicator. As a researcher, he is best known for his work describing and reevaluating dinosaurs and other Mesozoic reptiles, including '' Eotyrannus'', '' Xenop ...

was the lead consultant for the depictions of prehistoric life in the series. The concept art and creature design was created by

Jellyfish Pictures Jellyfish Pictures is a British VFX company specializing in the creation of digital visual effects and animation. History The studio opened up in 2001 with a team of three artists and one producer, opening up their first studio around 2003 i ...

, while computer-generated imagery was developed by MPC and intended to be

photorealistic Photorealism is a genre of art that encompasses painting, drawing and other graphic media, in which an artist studies a photograph and then attempts to reproduce the image as realistically as possible in another medium. Although the term can be ...

, as with their previous productions ''The Jungle Book'' (2016) and ''The Lion King'' (2019). After its release, the series consultants other than Darren Naish were revealed to be Steve Brusatte, Alexander Farnsworth, Kiersten Formoso, Michael Habib, Scott Hartman, John R. Hutchinson, Luke Muscutt, Peter Skelton, Robert Spicer, Paul Valdes and Mark Witton. David Krentz, the director of '' Dinosaur Revolution'' and character designer on

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

's ''Dinosaur'', was also revealed to have been involved in the creature development and design. In March 2023, Apple renewed the series for a second season, which is scheduled to premiere on May 22, 2023.

Marketing

A first sneak peek was posted to the official Apple TV+ YouTube channel on April 2, 2022, along with a trailer, with a May 23 airdate set for the first episode. A ten-second teaser was released on April 19, 2022, followed by an official trailer the following day. A second trailer was released on May 19, 2022, in the lead up to the show's premiere. The teaser of the second season was uploaded to the official Apple TV+ YouTube channel on April 18, 2023.

Episodes

Season 1 (2022)

Season 2 (2023)

TBA

Reception

The

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website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reported a 100% approval rating with an average rating of 8.4/10, based on 30 reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Marrying state of the art visual effects with equally immersive narration by David Attenborough, ''Prehistoric Planet'' wondrously brings viewers back to the age of dinosaurs." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the series has a weighted average score of 85 out of 100, based on 8 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".

Accolades

References

External links

* * {{Apple TV+ 2022 American television series debuts 2022 American television series endings 2022 British television series debuts 2022 British television series endings 2020s American documentary television series 2020s British documentary television series Documentary television series about dinosaurs David Attenborough Documentary films about nature Apple TV+ original programming English-language television shows Television series by BBC Studios Television shows scored by Hans Zimmer