Nat Geo Kicks Off New Multi-Year Doc Franchise With ‘Africa Earth’s Wild Home’ — SkimNews
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- National Geographic will debut "Africa Earth's Wild Home" on Oct. 2 (streaming Oct. 3 on Disney+ and Hulu), the first of a multi-year franchise that will document the planet one continent at a time.
- The seven-part series took four years to produce, employed over 50 people, was filmed across nearly 30 African countries, and was made by BBC Studios Natural History Unit.
- Academy Award nominee Wunmi Mosaku narrates and executive produces the series, which features never-before-filmed animal behaviors including the smallest crocodile hunting bats in pitch-black caves, golden wolves hunting pelicans three times their size, and giant tortoises hunting birds.
- Nat Geo partnered with National Geographic Society's global community of Explorers and Rolex's Perpetual Planet Initiative for the franchise, building on a 70-year partnership between Nat Geo and Rolex.
- Showrunner Gavin Boyland said the team deliberately bypassed typical Western researchers and instead recruited local wildlife guides, drivers, photographers, and daily observers in Africa to surface new animal behaviors.
- Nat Geo president Courteney Monroe framed the collaboration as expanding natural history storytelling to elevate new voices and connect audiences to the planet.
- The final episode focuses on conservationists, photographers, and scientists whose work safeguarding the continent underpins the entire series.
Why it matters: Nat Geo is committing to a multi-year, seven-series natural history franchise at a moment when many conglomerate-owned media companies are cutting back on documentaries, and the structure — backed by Rolex's funding and the National Geographic Society's scientist network — creates a sustained conservation storytelling pipeline rather than one-off specials.
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