Tom Hanks & Hans Zimmer Join Forces for NBC's Nature Docuseries The Americas (WATCH)
The Americas will premiere on February 23, 2025, at 7:00 p.m. ET, with a special two-hour episode.
Academy Award-winner Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump, Saving Private Ryan) channels his inner David Attenborough with our first look at The Americas, a nature docuseries coming to NBC and Peacock in early 2025.
Molded in the vein of the BBC's acclaimed naturalism shows like Planet Earth and Blue Planet, the 10-episode event will explore the extraordinary ecosystems found throughout the Western Hemisphere. Fun fact: did you know the Americas is the most varied landmass on Earth and the only one to stretches between both poles? To that end, each installment focuses on a different location across the continent: The Atlantic Coast, Mexico, The Wild West, The Amazon, The Frozen North, The Gulf Coast, The Andes, The Caribbean, The West Coast, and Patagonia.
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“It was expensive," Toby Gorman, President of Universal Television Alternative Studio (a division of Universal Studio Group), admitted while in conversation with The Hollywood Reporter this past spring. "There were so many risks. It is the most expensive, unscripted project in NBC’s history, as far as I know. But we are confident it’s been worth it.”
Yet another Oscar recipient, Hans Zimmer (Gladiator, Dune), is providing the original music for the show, which promises "unprecedented scale and ambition delivers remarkable world firsts; new species, new intimate courtship, dramatic deep sea hunting and some of nature’s strangest stories — even a frog that seems to defy death every day," reads the official synopsis.
Tom Hanks narrates the trailer for NBC nature series The Americas
How to watch The Americas
The series, which took half a decade and over 180 expeditions to make a reality, will premiere on February 23, 2025, at 7:00 p.m. ET, with a special two-hour episode.
Following the premiere, the series will move into its ordinary 8:00 p.m. ET time slot, beginning March 2, 2025. Episodes will also be available to stream on Peacock. After all 10 episodes have aired, an eleventh bonus episode is set to dive into the behind-the-scenes strategies and technologies that allowed for this breathtaking view into the natural world.
The project hails from Emmy and BAFTA Award-winning wildlife producer Mike Gunton (Life, Planet Earth II, Dynasties) on behalf of BBC Studios' Natural History Unit.
“I had the idea that there was an area of the planet no one had ever really covered,” he told THR. “It’s the Americas. What’s so exciting is that nowhere has this range. You cannot imagine anything more diverse. As a wildlife filmmaker, you are looking for superlatives. It hasn’t got elephants but it’s got everything else. [We] are delivering things people have never seen before."
