Ryan Reynolds Celebrates Wildlife Underdogs in Nat Geo’s Boundary‑Breaking Series
Mumbai, 20 June 2025: 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 unsavory courtship rituals, UNDERDOGS celebrates the unique behaviors 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 starts June 19, airing every Thursday-Friday at 8 PM on National Geographic.
“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 behaviors. 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. The “Underdogs (Original Series Soundtrack),” which will consist of Harry Gregson-Williams’ score, released on June 13 on Hollywood Records and is now available on all major music platforms. Global rock superstars Green Day wrote the original theme song for the series, which is featured in the trailer. Their deluxe album, “Saviors (édition de luxe),” featuring seven newly added tracks including the UNDERDOGS theme song “Underdog,” is also now available everywhere you listen to music.
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.
Watch Underdogs June 19 onwards, every Thursday-Friday at 8 PM on National Geographic Channel.