Nat Geo Launches Continent-by-Continent Franchise With Africa Series

National Geographic premieres "Africa Earth's Wild Home" on Oct. 2, launching a multi-year documentary franchise that will document the planet one continent at a time.

The seven-part series took four years to make and employed more than 50 people. It was filmed in nearly 30 African countries and was produced by BBC Studios Natural History Unit for National Geographic. It streams on Disney+ and Hulu from Oct. 3.

The series opens a seven-series franchise built in partnership with the National Geographic Society's global community of Explorers and scientists and Rolex's Perpetual Planet Initiative.

Nat Geo president Courteney Monroe says the partnership demonstrates a "shared commitment to protecting our natural world."

"It's proof of what's possible when storytelling, science and a shared sense of purpose come together," Monroe says. "Through this collaboration, we are expanding what natural history storytelling can reveal, whose voices it can elevate and how deeply it can connect audiences to the wonders of our planet."

Academy Award nominee Wunmi Mosaku narrates and executive produces the series, which uses new technology and CGI to reveal the continent's history and the forces that shaped its natural environments. Crews filmed in deserts, forests, jungles, mountains and islands to capture how Africa's varied ecosystems shape the animals living within them.

Showrunner and series editor Gavin Boyland explains that Africa came first because people often associate wildlife with the continent.

"Africa got the best wildlife," Boyland says. "It's got the most spectacle. It's got the charismatic animals. So, what we wanted to do from the outset is show people a different side of Africa. So, while we absolutely filmed lions and elephants and all the kind of familiar wildlife, but we also wanted to show different environments, different landscapes and different species that live in those landscapes as well."

Boyland and his team departed from the convention of consulting Western researchers. Instead, they went to Africa and approached wildlife guides, drivers, photographers and locals who saw wildlife daily.

"Those people were able to point us towards new behaviors," says Boyland.

The results include sequences never filmed before: the smallest crocodile hunting bats in pitch-black caves, a grumpy black rain frog, a flying saucer beetle that digs trenches to harvest water from coastal fog, giant "vegetarian" land tortoises hunting birds, golden wolves hunting pelicans three times their size and a male fossa fighting to gain access to a female's mating tree.

National Geographic Society CEO Jill Tiefenthaler ties the series to the organization's mission.

"The series inspires us to look closer, learn more and care more deeply," Tiefenthaler says. "That's the same passion that drives our National Geographic Explorers, who are working every day to understand and protect the natural world. With partners like Rolex and Disney, we magnify the impact of their work, inspiring millions to care about our planet and its future."

The final episode turns the camera on the conservationists, photographers and scientists whose work safeguarding the continent underpins the series. Both the episode and the series build on a 70-year partnership between National Geographic and Rolex.

Rolex executive Arnaud Boetsch frames the series' stakes in conservation terms.

"Across seven episodes, the extraordinary filmmaking reveals that protecting Africa's wild heart starts with understanding its fragile ecosystems," Boetsch says. "By shining a spotlight on the Explorers and scientists working on the frontlines of conservation, the series promises to spark not just wonder but hope for the future."

The franchise now moves to six more continents, testing whether audiences will follow natural history storytelling at this scale and ambition over multiple years.