Paul Rudd is narrating the latest installment of National Geographic's Secrets Of… This time, he's spilling the Secrets of the Octopus, Variety exclusively reported.
The Nat Geo series will premiere on April 21, Earth Day, and will be available to stream the next day on Disney+ and Hulu. James Cameron, the Natural Geographic explorer-at-large produced the three-episode docuseries.
Rudd said in a statement, “It's been an incredible journey learning about these mysterious creatures and their interconnected lives. I can't imagine audiences won't be as blown away with the secret lives of octopuses as I was working on this series.”
“If you're going to dive deep into natural history, you have to do it with National Geographic. I'm thrilled to be working with James Cameron and the Nat Geo team to deepen our connection with the ocean and all of its creatures and curiosities,” the actor's statement continued.
Ant-Man takes on the octopus
Rudd follows his fellow Marvel Cinematic Universe residents who have narrated a docuseries for the network. Awkwafina narrated A Real Bug's Life and Angel Bassett did Queens, which will premiere in March. Another Marvel actor who lent their voice to Secrets is Academy Award-winner Natalie Portman for the Emmy-nominated and Critics Choice winner 2023's Secrets of the Elephants.
Other Marvel actors who narrated for Nat Geo are Jeremy Renner for 2023's Incredible Animal Journeys and Michael B. Jordan for 2022's America the Beautiful.
The first installment of Secrets Of series was the Emmy-winning 2021 Secrets of the Whales narrated by Sigourney Weaver.
National Geographic head of global unscripted & factual Tom McDonald said, “As the leader in natural history storytelling, we are constantly thinking about ways to re-energize and re-invigorate how we tell these types of stories.”
“Secrets Of” Marvel actors
“With ‘A Real Bug's Life,' we gave bugs attitude by giving them a mischievous tone with clever narration from Awkwafina; In ‘Queens,' with a female-led production team, we flipped the previously male-dominated narrative on its head, and brought a completely new feel to the genre with music and editing I have not seen before; and in the ‘Secrets Of' franchise, we are partnered with arguably the world’s most dedicated super star conservationist in James Cameron, who always brings a unique and distinct vision to storytelling. All of this allows us to continue to push boundaries and redefine this field for our industry,” McDonald continued.
In Secrets of the Octopus, the series aims to see the creatures as “aliens on Earth: three hearts, blue blood, and the ability to squeeze through a space the size of their eyeball. Highly intelligent, octopuses can use tools, transform their bodies to mimic other animals and even communicate with different species, including us.”
Upcoming installments of Secrets Of include Secrets of the Bees and Secrets of the Penguins.
Rudd was recently in Only Murders in the Building. He has two upcoming projects in post-production: Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire and Death of a Unicorn.
Continuing on the Marvel trend, maybe Evangeline Lilly could narrate Bees as she played The Wasp to Rudd's Ant-Man. And before you say it, I know bees are different from wasps. I'm running on a theme here. Incidentally, bees, wasps and ants actually belong to the same family, the Hymenoptera.
And speaking of theme again, Benedict Cumberbatch could once again butcher his pronunciation of the word “penguins.” Or if not Marvel, Nat Geo could go DC this time and have Colin Farrell narrate.
Too on the nose?
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