show some love for the losers Delightfully irreverent Underdogs isn’t your parents’ nature docuseries Ryan Reynolds narrates NatGeo's new series highlighting nature's much less cool and majestic creatures Jennifer Ouellette – Jun 15, 2025 3:11 pm | 5 The indestructible honey badger is just one of nature's "benchwarmers" featured in Underdogs Credit: National Geographic/Doug Parker The indestructible honey badger is just one of nature's "benchwarmers" featured in Underdogs Credit: National Geographic/Doug Parker Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more Narrator Ryan Reynolds celebrates nature's outcasts in the new NatGeo docuseries Underdogs. Most of us have seen a nature documentary or two (or three) at some point in our lives, so it's a familiar format: sweeping majestic footage of impressively regal animals accompanied by reverently high-toned narration (preferably with a tony British accent). Underdogs, a new docuseries from National Geographic, takes a decidedly different and unconventional approach. Narrated by with hilarious irreverence by Ryan Reynolds, the five-part series highlights nature's less cool and majestic creatures: the outcasts and benchwarmers, more noteworthy for their "unconventional hygiene choices" and "unsavory courtship rituals." It's like The Suicide Squad or Thunderbolts*, except these creatures actually exist. Per the official premise, "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." It's rated PG-13 thanks to the odd bit of scatalogical humor and shots of Nature Sexy Time Each of the five episodes is built around a specific genre. "Superheroes" highlights the surprising superpowers of the honey badger, pistol shrimp, and the invisible glass frog, among others, augmented with comic book graphics; "Sexy Beasts" focuses on bizarre mating habits and follows the format of a romantic advice column; "Terrible Parents" highlights nature's worst practices, following the outline of a parenting guide; "Total Grossout" is exactly what it sounds like; and "The Unusual Suspects" is a heist tale, documenting the supposed efforts of a macaque to put together the ultimate team of masters of deception and disguise (an inside man, a decoy, a fall guy, etc.).  Green Day even wrote and recorded a special theme song for the opening credits. Co-creators Mark Linfield and Vanessa Berlowitz of Wildstar Films are longtime producers of award-winning wildlife films, most notably Frozen Planet, Planet Earth and David Attenborough's Life of Mammals—you know, the kind of prestige nature documentaries that have become a mainstay for National Geographic and the BBC, among others. They're justly proud of that work, but this time around the duo wanted to try something different. Madagascar's aye-aye: "as if fear and panic had a baby and rolled it in dog hair" National Geographic/Eleanor Paish Madagascar's aye-aye: "as if fear and panic had a baby and rolled it in dog hair" National Geographic/Eleanor Paish An emerald jewel wasp emerges from a cockroach. National Geographic/Simon De Glanville An emerald jewel wasp emerges from a cockroach. National Geographic/Simon De Glanville A pack of African hunting dogs is no match for the honey badger's thick hide. National Geographic/Tom Walker A pack of African hunting dogs is no match for the honey badger's thick hide. National Geographic/Tom Walker An emerald jewel wasp emerges from a cockroach. National Geographic/Simon De Glanville A pack of African hunting dogs is no match for the honey badger's thick hide. National Geographic/Tom Walker A fireworm is hit by a cavitation bubble shot from the claw of a pistol shrimp defending its home. National Geographic/Hugh Miller As it grows and molts, the mad hatterpillar stacks old head casings on top of its head. Scientists think it is used as a decoy against would-be predators and parasites, and when needed, it can also be used as a weapon. National Geographic/Katherine Hannaford Worst parents ever? A young barnacle goose chick prepares t make the 800-foot jump from its nest to the ground. National Geographic An adult pearlfish reverses into a sea cucumber's butt to hide. National Geographic A vulture sticks its head inside an elephant carcass to eat. National Geographic A manatee releases flatulence while swimming to lose the buoyancy build up of gas inside its stomach, and descend down the water column. National Geographic/Karl Davies "There is a sense after awhile that you're playing the same animals to the same people, and the shows are starting to look the same and so is your audience," Linfield told Ars. "We thought, okay, how can we do something absolutely the opposite? We've gone through our careers collecting stories of these weird and crazy creatures that don't end up in the script because they're not big or sexy and they live under a rock. But they often have the best life histories and the craziest superpowers." Case in point: the velvet worm featured in the "Superheroes" episode, which creeps up on unsuspecting prey before squirting disgusting slime all over their food. (It's a handy defense mechanism, too, against predators like the wolf spider.) Once Linfield and Berlowitz decided to focus on nature's underdogs and to take a more humorous approach, Ryan Reynolds became their top choice for a narrator—the anti-Richard Attenborough. As luck would have it, the pair shared an agent with the mega-star. So even though they thought there was no way Reynolds would agree to the project, they put together a sizzle reel, complete with a "fake Canadian Ryan Reynolds sound-alike" doing the narration. Reynolds was on set when he received the reel, and loved it so much he recoded his own narration for the footage and sent it back. "From that moment he was in," said Linfield, and Wildstar Films worked closely with Reynolds and his company to develop the final series. "We've never worked that way on a series before, a joint collaboration from day one," Berlowitz admitted. But it worked: the end result strikes the perfect balance between scientific revelation and accurate natural history, and an edgy comic tone. That tone is quintessential Reynolds, and while he did mostly follow the script (which his team helped write), Linfield and Berlowitz admit there was also a fair amount of improvisation—not all of it PG-13.  "What we hadn't appreciated is that he's an incredible improv performer," said Berlowitz. "He can't help himself. He gets into character and starts riffing off [the footage]. There are some takes that we definitely couldn't use, that potentially would fit a slightly more Hulu audience."  Some of the ad-libs made it into the final episodes, however—like Reynolds describing an Aye-Aye as "if fear and panic had a baby and rolled it in dog hair"—even though it meant going back and doing a bit of recutting to get the new lines to fit. Cinematographer Tom Beldam films a long-tailed macaque who stole his smart phone minutes later. National Geographic/Laura Pennafort Cinematographer Tom Beldam films a long-tailed macaque who stole his smart phone minutes later. National Geographic/Laura Pennafort The macaque agrees to trade ithe stolen phone for a piece of food. National Geographic The macaque agrees to trade ithe stolen phone for a piece of food. National Geographic A family of tortoise beetles defend themselves from a carnivorous ant by wafting baby poop in its direction. National Geographic A family of tortoise beetles defend themselves from a carnivorous ant by wafting baby poop in its direction. National Geographic The macaque agrees to trade ithe stolen phone for a piece of food. National Geographic A family of tortoise beetles defend themselves from a carnivorous ant by wafting baby poop in its direction. National Geographic A male hippo sprays his feces at another male who is threatening to take over his patch. National Geographic A male proboscis monkey flaunts his large nose. The noses of these males are used to amplify their calls in the vast forest. National Geographic Dream girl: A blood-soaked female hyena looks across the African savanna. National Geographic A male bowerbird presents one of the finest items in his collection to a female in his bower. National Geographic The male nursery web spider presents his nuptial gift to the female. National Geographic Cue the Barry White mood music: Two leopard slugs suspend themselves on a rope of mucus as they entwine their bodies to mate with one another. National Geographic Despite their years of collective experience, Linfield and Berlowitz were initially skeptical when the crew told them about the pearl fish, which hides from predators in a sea cucumber's butt (along with many other species). "It had never been filmed so we said, 'You're going to have to prove it to us,'" said Berlowitz. "They came back with this fantastic, hilarious sequence of a pearl fish reverse parking [in a sea cucumber's anus)." The film crew experienced a few heart-pounding moments, most notably while filming the cliffside nests of barnacle geese for the "Terrible Parents" episode. A melting glacier caused a watery avalanche while the crew was filming the geese, and they had to quickly grab a few shots and run to safety. Less dramatic: cinematographer Tom Beldam had his smartphone stolen by a long-tailed macaque mere minutes after he finished capturing the animal on film. If all goes well and Underdogs finds its target audience, we may even get a follow-up. "We are slightly plowing new territory but the science is as true as it's ever been and the stories are good. That aspect of the natural history is still there," said Linfield. "I think what we really hope for is that people who don't normally watch natural history will watch it. If people have as much fun watching it as we had making it, then the metrics should be good enough for another season." Verdict: Underdogs is positively addictive; I binged all five episodes in a single day. (For his part, Reynolds said in a statement that he was thrilled to "finally watch a project of ours with my children. Technically they saw Deadpool and Wolverine but I don't think they absorbed much while covering their eyes and ears and screaming for two hours.") Underdogs premieres June 15, 2025, at 9 PM/8 PM Central on National Geographic (simulcast on ABC) and will be available for streaming on Disney+ and Hulu the following day.  You should watch it, if only to get that second season. Jennifer Ouellette Senior Writer Jennifer Ouellette Senior Writer Jennifer is a senior writer at Ars Technica with a particular focus on where science meets culture, covering everything from physics and related interdisciplinary topics to her favorite films and TV series. Jennifer lives in Baltimore with her spouse, physicist Sean M. Carroll, and their two cats, Ariel and Caliban. 5 Comments

The Fantastic Four: First Steps doesn’t just look unlike any other mainstream superhero movie in recent years, it’s also got an unusual sound to match. Following tickets going on sale for the movie, Marvel released the full track for the film’s main theme, created by longtime film composer Michael Giacchino. There’ve been snippets of the theme present in trailers and the IMAX pre-roll for Thunderbolts*, so we already knew it would sound as 1960s as the world the heroes live in. But hearing the full thing really underlines the importance of a composer that vibes with the material and wants to make a score that’s exciting and memorable music. For the most part, this is something Marvel’s not really done well at, save for works composed by Alan Silvestri or Ludwig Göransson or Son Lux’s more recent work on Thunderbolts*. But having memorable music is what Giacchino’s always been good at—his scores for the most recent Star Trek movies are still sublime, and his Fantastic Four: First Steps work sounds like some of his best for Marvel specifically. (Starting with the first Doctor Strange, he’s composed for the MCU Spider-Man trilogy, Thor: Love & Thunder, and Werewolf by Night, the latter of which he also directed.) Like everything else from this movie, the score is sounding promising, and we can’t wait to hear all of it, ditto seeing the punny titles Giacchino has undoubtedly come up with for each track. Fantastic Four: First Steps comes to theaters July 25. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

Imaginary Forces has unveiled a reimagined Marvel Studios logo alongside the premiere of Thunderbolts*. Produced under the creative direction of Tosh Kodama, the logo pays homage to Marvel Studios’ iconic comic book flip-intro imbued with the darker, edgier tone of Thunderbolts*. “The latest Marvel Studios logo builds on the rich creative history between Imaginary Forces and Marvel Studios,” said Kodama. “Our goal was to retain the iconic essence of the comic book flip while pushing it into new visual territory within the Thunderbolts* canon.” The sequence features thousands of comic book images from the pages of Thunderbolts*, projected onto a drifting 3D rendering of the Marvel wordmark. The camera pans in, around, and through the passageways of each letter. The logo is never fully revealed and eventually dissolves into blackness, foreshadowing of The Void, Sentry’s alter ego. “We wanted to create something truly epic and large-scale,” added Kodama. “The sequence tells a story, albeit a subtle one, evoking the gritty, morally complex world of the Thunderbolts*. Aesthetically, it’s also a notable departure from the warm and vibrant hues of the previous logo animations, with the black slowly creeping in and overtaking everything, creating a sense of mystery and unease.” To express The Void sonically, Imaginary Forces overlaid a haunting sound effect over Michael Giacchino’s iconic ‘Marvel Studios Fanfare,’ reflecting the character’s hollow, engulfing nature. “Fans get jazzed the minute they hear the fanfare and they know it well,” said Kodama. “So, sonically augmenting it was a simple but highly effective choice to subvert expectations and add intrigue.” As a long-time branding and storytelling partner, Imaginary Forces created its first Marvel logo animation for the 2002 release of Spider-Man. 10 years later, they partnered with Marvel Studios for a stereoscopic 3D reimagining that premiered before Thor: The Dark World (2012). “Back in 2002, no one could have predicted Marvel would grow into the expansive Marvel Cinematic Universe we know today,” concluded Kodama. “We’ve been thrilled to collaborate with Marvel on the evolving logo animations over the years. Being part of the MCU’s next chapter is always an exciting and rewarding experience.” Source: Imaginary Forces Journalist, antique shop owner, aspiring gemologist—L'Wren brings a diverse perspective to animation, where every frame reflects her varied passions.

We’ve got two major Hollywood movies this holiday weekend, Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning and Lilo & Stitch, and they’re both killing it in theaters. Per Variety, the two films have made for the “largest Memorial Day holiday in history.” At $341.7 million worldwide, Lilo has blown well past initial projections and its current domestic take of $145.5 million has replaced Top Gun: Maverick (which earned $160 million through all four days in 2022) as Memorial Day’s best opening weekend.  Domestically, it’s the second-best holiday weekend start behind Black Panther’s $242 million during Presidents Day 2018. Lilo is one of the biggest debuts for Disney’s live-action remakes, just behind 2019’s The Lion King and 2017’s Beauty & the Beast, which respectively grossed $191 million and $174 million, but it’s likely to earn $183 million by the end of the four-day weekend. Meanwhile, Final Reckoning opened to $190 million worldwide. It released a week prior in Australia, South Korea, and other territories, so its international audience made up $127 million’s worth of that haul. By weekend’s end, its $63 million domestic take may jump up to $77 million, a new record for the Mission: Impossible series. Both films have received strong critical and audience reception, helped by growing momentum ahead of their releases. Nostalgia drives both movies: Lilo is based on Disney’s 23-year-old classic, and Reckoning may be the last film in the series, or just the last to star Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt. Regardless, audiences are going out in droves to see movies this weekend, including holdovers like Final Destination Bloodlines, Sinners, and Thunderbolts. Variety noted it’s been over a decade since people went to the theaters this much during Memorial Day, and a marked improvement from 2024’s weaker showing of Furiosa and Garfield. And the summer season continues with Ballerina, How to Train Your Dragon, and 28 Years Later in June, followed by Superman and Fantastic Four in July. Let us know what you thought of Mission: Impossible and Lilo & Stitch in the comments below. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

Two months ago, Marvel announced the cast for the highly-anticipate Avengers: Doomsday in a, let’s call it “unique,” manner. On social media, the studio streamed video of cast chairs with a particular actor’s name on it. The camera would hold for twelve minutes or so, and then Alan Silvestri’s Avengers theme would play and the camera would pan to the right for the next reveal. Odd as it was, the gamble mostly worked, as we nerds spend all day talking about the names on the internet. Turns out, the methodical pace of the reveal had something else to tell us about Doomsday: that we were going to have to wait a bit. Yesterday, Hollywood Reporter announced that Marvel has pushed Doomsday‘s release date from May 1, 2026 to Dec. 18, 2026 and the release date to the sequel Avengers: Secret Wars from Dec. 17, 2027 to May 7, 2027. At this point, the release date change shouldn’t be much of a surprise. After all, the fourth Avengers movie was supposed to have released a few weeks ago, on May 1, 2025. Of course, that announcement came back in 2022 and it was for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, staring Jonathan Majors as the time-traveling baddie Kang the Conquerer. Since then, Majors’s off-screen behavior got him booted from the universe and Kang was defeated, first by Ant-Man and a giant bug in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and then his variants were dealt with in the second season of Loki. Since then, the Avengers movie has been in creative overhaul, first by moving Kang Dynasty director Destin Daniel Cretton over to Spider-Man: Brand New Day and replacing him with Joe and Anthony Russo, who helmed Infinity War and Endgame. Further, Marvel brought back Robert Downey Jr., now as Fantastic Four arch-villain Doctor Doom, in a move that still doesn’t make sense, but hopefully will on screen. In short, Marvel’s had a lot of work to do and the pauses make sense, even if Doomsday is now currently in production. However, the decision to push back the release date is a good thing on creative level. It’s no secret that Marvel has been struggling since Endgame. It’s not just that superhero fatuige has set in and it’s not just that Endgame and it’s exit of many beloved characters gave fans a good jumping-off point. It’s that the company has spread itself too thin, drawing MCU chief Kevin Feige‘s attention away from quality and pushing out substandard entries that most people don’t want. For a while, audiences kept showing up for the good stuff, as demonstrated by the success of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and X-Men ’97, and for stuff that resonates with them, like Spider-Man: No Way Home and Deadpool & Wolverine. But too many bland entries, such as Thor: Love and Thunder and Secret Invasion have burned the general viewer too many times, and even solid releases like Loki‘s second season went underwatched. We are starting to see that turn around. Thunderbolts* proved a hit among critics and audiences, even if it didn’t do the box office numbers of movies from the MCU’s heyday. Likewise, Daredevil: Born Again didn’t dominate the discussion, but it generated decent buzz. Marvel knows all this. They’ve been quite open about the need to slow production. They already made the bold move of revamping Daredevil: Born Again midway through production, which resulted in a first season that sometimes showed the seams of being two radically different shows stitched together, but overall gave people what they want from Marvel: likable characters, good drama, and cool superhero action. In fact, Daredevil: Born Again should be the project that fans keep in mind when they consider the Doomsday news. There’s no question that Feige et al. made the right decision when bringing on new showrunner Dario Scardapane and directing duo Aaron Benson and Justin Moorehead, who changed the series from a superhero-adjacent courtroom drama to more of a character piece about Daredevil struggling with the ethics of vigilantism. But they needed to hit their new launch date and so retained a great deal of the original footage shot by the previous creative team. So as good as the final product was, the first season of Daredevil: Born Again didn’t always feel like a coherent vision and often shifted tones wildly. Scardapane, Benson, and Morehead have been promising that season two of the series will be more coherent, and that’s a good thing. But that’s also something they can do because they’re working on a television series. The Russo brothers can’t do the same thing with a movie, even a serialized one like the Avengers films. The story that hits the screen is going to be the story. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! And so, we wait a bit more and we’re glad to do it. We want Marvel to get this right, to tell a high adventure story that does right by the characters we love, that makes us feel like we did when we left the theater after Infinity War. In the meantime, we can keep looking at the back of casting chairs and speculating. Avengers: Doomsday comes to theaters on May 1, 2026 Dec. 18, 2026

Marvel Studios has chosen to delay its next two high-stakes Avengers movies by seven months apiece. Avengers: Doomsday moves from May 1 to December 18, 2026, while Avengers: Secret Wars shifts from May 27, 2027 to December 17 of that year. Insiders told Deadline that the delay is just to accommodate the “gargantuan vision” of two films that will be “among the biggest ever made.” (Or maybe Marvel is scared of GTA 6.) The films are being made back-to-back by directors Joe and Anthony Russo, who directed the two previous Avengers team-up movies and Marvel’s two highest-grossing films: 2018’s Infinity War and 2019’s Endgame. Avengers: Doomsday is in production now. Marvel owner Disney won’t have any concerns about moving the Avengers movies from their traditional early summer slots to the holidays. Spider-Man: No Way Home launched in mid-December 2021 and was a massive success, becoming the third-highest-grossing Marvel film. (Avengers: Doomsday’s coveted May 1, 2026 slot will go to another big Disney movie, The Devil Wears Prada 2.) Still, the move reflects a shift from quantity to quality at Marvel Studios, which Disney CEO Bob Iger said during an investor call had “lost a little focus by making too much.” After releasing only one film in 2024 (Deadpool & Wolverine), Marvel is putting out three in fairly quick success in 2025: Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts*, and the forthcoming The Fantastic Four: First Steps. But then there will be a break of a full year — long by Marvel standards — before Spider-Man: Brand New Day in July 2026, followed by another yearlong break between the two upcoming Avengers movies. Underlining this point, Variety notes that Disney has removed or swapped out several slots for “untitled Marvel” projects in 2026 and 2027, though it has three slots in 2028 reserved for Marvel films. What these might be — indeed, what the future holds generally for the Marvel Cinematic Universe after Secret Wars — remains a mystery. The status of the Armor Wars movie is unknown, to say nothing of the beleaguered Blade, while plans for Shang-Chi and Black Panther sequels remain vague. Above all this looms the specter of a possible X-Men movie, which finally seems to be coming together. The two Avengers films ought to be more than enough to look forward to in the meantime. Marvel’s announced cast for Doomsday is a multiversal pile-up of MCU veterans, newcomers from Fantastic Four and Thunderbolts*, actors from the legacy Fox X-Men movies, and wild cards like Channing Tatum’s Gambit. The cast is led by Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom, not Tony Stark. They really could go anywhere from here.

The Avengers are not returning to theaters as initially planned.Marvel had previously slated the two Avengers sequels, Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars for May 1, 2026 and May 7, 2027, respectively. Both films have been pushed back from the summer to the holiday season. Their new dates are December 18, 2026 (for Doomsday) and December 17, 2027 (for Secret Wars).Marvel’s next film, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, is still scheduled to open this summer on July 25, 2025. The only other upcoming MCU movie with a confirmed release date at this point besides the two Avengers is Spider-Man: Brand New Day. That’s currently scheduled for July 31, 2026. In other words, it was originally intended (and presumably carefully planned) to open betweenDoomsday and Secret Wars. Now, unless Sony and Marvel delay that film as well, it will open before either Avengers sequel.MarvelMarvelloading...READ MORE: Every Marvel Movie Ranked From Worst to BestThat could be a major headache for Brand New Day. If the movie was supposed to be set after whatever cliffhanger concludes Doomsday, that could conceivably require major changes to the film’s story. That’s why I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if Brand New Day gets delayed now as well. If it’s tied in any significant way to the events of Avengers: Doomsday, it would almost have to be.With this change, the next Avengers movies will be the only installments of the franchise not to open in either early May or late April. Marvel typically releases their films either in the late winter, the early summer, mid-July, or November. But Sony (in conjunction with Marvel) did release Spider-Man: No Way Home in theaters on December 17, 2021, and that movie grossed $1.91 billion worldwide. So perhaps that is a good time for a massive superhero crossover film.Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars mark the return of Robert Downey Jr. to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this time as Doctor Doom. The massive cast also includes Anthony Mackie, Chris Hemsworth, Letitia Wright, Kelsey Grammer, Patrick Stewart, Tom Hiddleston, Alan Cumming, Rebecca Romijn, Ian McKellen, James Marsden, and Channing Tatum, as well as the stars of The Fantastic Four: First Steps and the recent Thunderbolts*.Get our free mobile appThe Worst Movies With $200 Million BudgetsThese movies cost a lot of money. But money isn’t everything.

Marvel Studios has pushed back the release dates of Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Doomsday is being delayed from May 1st, 2026, to December 18th, 2026. Secret Wars’s release has been pushed from May 7th, 2027 to December 17th, 2027. The Russo brothers are returning to direct the two films. Robert Downey Jr. will also be back, though this time as Doctor Doom instead of Iron Man, and Marvel reportedly spent big to get him. Marvel has also already revealed that Doomsday will have a gigantic cast that includes actors from other Avengers movies, more recent Marvel films, a bunch of X-Men, and even stars from this year’s Fantastic Four: First Steps. Chris Evans is reportedly returning for Doomsday, too, but it’s unclear in what role. Disney will replace Doomsday’s May 1st, 2026 release slot with The Devil Wears Prada 2, THR says. Earlier this month, Disney released Thunderbolts*, and First Steps will follow on July 25th.