In this article I cover the news of Prehistoric Planet: Discovering Dinosaurs a new upcoming immersive experience for the public, which is releasing in the summer of 2025.
Prehistoric Planet A Monumental Series
Both seasons of the Apple TV+ documentary series Prehistoric Planet were highly acclaimed by critics and palaeo enthusiasts alike. Produced by the BBC Natural History Unit in collaboration with Apple TV+ the series was executive produced by Jon Favreau and Mike Gunton.
The documentary series covered ten episodes in total with incredible wildlife film footage, the latest palaeontological research, and ultramodern CGI to display the incredible environments and the prehistoric life that lived in the Late Cretaceous 66 million years ago.
The life-like CGI reconstructions of the prehistoric creatures throughout the documentary such as dinosaurs, pterosaurs, marine reptiles and more were created by the Moving Picture Company (MPC), responsible for the CGI wildlife depictions in Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book (2016) and The Lion King (2019).
I really loved how the series highlighted a range of dinosaur behaviour from evidence from the fossil record, such as nesting/parental behaviour, to speculative mating display behaviour based on what we know of close living relatives of today.
Prehistoric Planet is in my opinion the best palaeobiology focused documentary released to date. The series set the benchmark for palaeontology documentaries extraordinarily high, with lifelike CGI by MPC and the enormous amount of scientific research and consultation undertaken over ten years, serving the development and backbone of the series.
This research is identifiable on screen alongside Sir David Attenborough’s fantastic audio commentary, sharing scientific facts about the lives of the dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures featured throughout.
An Immersive Prehistoric Planet Experience
Whilst we eagerly await any news of a potential third season, it was recently announced that a new Prehistoric Planet immersive visual experience will be dropping in the summer of 2025! This immersive projection experience by Lightroom is called Prehistoric Planet: Discovering Dinosaurs.
The 360-projection experience will feature projections of the dinosaurs and environments from the series at an incredible scale, enabling the public to travel back through time and walk alongside these awe-inspiring creatures of the past. This will be quite a unique experience compared to watching the series on a television screen offering a more tangible size comparison between the public and the creatures of the show.
The lightroom venue opened in London in 2023 and is in Kings Cross. The venue offers an innovative show space, created because of a joint venture between 59 productions and the London Theatre Company.
You can read more about the Prehistoric Planet: Discovering Dinosaurs experience in the Lightroom press release described in detail below.
Lightroom Press Release
The press release from Lightroom states the following:
Prehistoric Planet: Discovering Dinosaurs at Lightroom is a celebration of our natural world through captivating storytelling, breath-taking visuals and ground-breaking technology, in collaboration with Apple TV+.
Evoking a feeling of wonder, you will be guided on a once in a lifetime adventure, exploring the fascinating role dinosaurs have played in shaping our world from 66 million years ago until now.
Through this epic journey, viewers will step inside some of the most beloved scenes from seasons one and two of Apple TV+’s Emmy Award-nominated series Prehistoric Planet and encounter a vast array of dinosaurs (from Ammonites to Mosasaurs, Adaltheriums to the Tyrannosaurus rex) at the most pivotal moments of their lives.
Lightroom’s ultramodern 360 projections allow viewers to see these majestic creatures at an awe-inspiring scale and travel alongside them through dangerous deserts, soaring skies and the deep sea.
As escapist as it is educational, the show will also include never seen before material, including exclusive extended CGI scenes and bespoke illustrations.
Prehistoric Planet: Discovering Dinosaurs will be directed and designed by 59 Studio in close collaboration with the makers of Prehistoric Planet, Apple TV+, and Executive Producer and BBC Studios Natural History Unit Creative Director Mike Gunton. The show will also include the original score by multiple Academy Award winner Hans Zimmer, Anže Rozman and Kara Talve for Bleeding Fingers Music.
Prehistoric Planet Public Engagement
It is exciting to hear Prehistoric Planet will be expanded upon in an experience form. Hopefully, this will not only engage long term fans of the series but will make Prehistoric Planet wider known for those who may not have checked the show out on Apple TV+ yet.
Engaging the public in science communication about our prehistoric past is incredibly important, so I am thrilled that Prehistoric Planet will be expanded upon in an audio-visual 360-projection experience like this. Extensive work went into the development of Prehistoric Planet so it is great that this work will be highlighted in an innovative, unique way.
If you haven’t listened to it already Prehistoric Planet: The Official Podcast is also well worth checking out! See below for details.
Prehistoric Planet: The Official Podcast
The Prehistoric Planet team released the official podcast on the 2nd of May 2023 delving into the development, research and scientific consulting work that pulled Prehistoric Planet together. The podcast is hosted by executive producer Mike Gunton who is joined across the four episodes by executive producer Jon Favreau, producer Tim Walker and lead scientific advisor Dr. Darren Naish.
The podcast makes a great companion to the Prehistoric Planet series providing insight into the monumental work and craftmanship which went into the ground-breaking documentary series.
The podcast is a must listen for anyone interested in learning more about the development of Prehistoric Planet. You can listen to the first episode below.
You can find the Prehistoric Planet: The Official Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon, Pocket Casts and Podbean.
My Science Communication Outreach
If you would like to learn more about palaeontology do explore all of what my website has to offer! From dinosaur palaeobiology fact files to fossil finds pages, there is a wealth of engaging palaeontology content to view and read. You can find all my science communication links at the scicomm page for easy access.
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Check out my past article sharing my overview of Prehistoric Planet 2 below.
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