EXCLUSIVE: Nat Geo is currently on a two-track tear of shows with A-list stars exploring a world such as Limitless with Chris Hemsworth and Tucci in Italy and blue-chip wildlife titles that dive deeper in the natural world such as Ocean with David Attenborough and Secrets of the Bees.

The latter is part of a franchise, led by Avatar director James Cameron, that Nat Geo is currently building out even further.

Deadline understands that the Disney-owned factual brand is doubling down with two new iterations of the Secrets Of… franchise. It has ordered Secrets of the Bears (w/t) and Secrets of the Deep (w/t).

These follows Secrets of the Bees, which launched earlier this month, Secrets of the Whales, which premiered in 2021, Secrets of the Elephants, which debuted in 2023, Secrets of the Octopus, which launched in 2024 and Blake Lively-narrated Secrets of the Penguins, which aired last year.

The new titles come from James Cameron, who is a National Geographic Explorer at Large, and National Geographic Explorer Bertie Gregory. 

Secrets of the Bears is a three-part series that sees Gregory and Dr. Rae-Wynn Grant travel the globe to meet the planet’s eight extraordinary species of bear. Premiering in spring 2027, it will explore charismatic brown bears and secretive sun bears, and reveal new science and never-before-seen behaviors that show bears are smarter, more adaptable, and even more sociable than people ever imagined. The series is produced by Wildstar Films.

Secrets of the Deep features Gregory and marine biologist Diva Amon that journeys into the ocean’s most unexplored realms around the world. The three-part series, which comes from BBC Studios Natural History Unit, will reveal the strange, emotional, and deeply interconnected lives of creatures in Earth’s most mysterious and least understood ecosystem.

Vanessa Berlowitz and Chloe Sarosh executive produce Secrets of the Bears, while Roger Webb executive produces Secrets of the Deep with Mark Wheeler as series producer. James Cameron exec produces both shows with Maria Wilhelm via his Lightstorm Earth banner with Gregory as a producer on both series.

Courteney Monroe, President, National Geographic said that the Secrets Of… franchise reflects its investment in natural history storytelling.

“We’ve had a legacy of telling natural world stories for 138 years, longer than any other brand or competitor in this space. The fact that we’re still building on that legacy is really exciting,” she told Deadline.

She said that the company realized that it had a franchise on its hands early on after diving deep with whales. “Jim Cameron is a huge part of the success. We’ve had a lot of conversations with him about the longevity of the franchise and he has really helped us, he’s got this relentless push towards cutting-edge cinematography and technology. [We’re asking], ‘What are new ways we can tell the story? How can we bring the natural world to life for audiences in ways we haven’t before?’,” added Monroe.

Monroe, who has been with the company for nearly 15 years, said that one of the keys was to make sure that these shows don’t feel like homework. “They have a real kind of joyous, celebratory tone. They don’t feel like homework at all. It’s a way to look at these animals in new and beautiful and inspiring and revelatory ways, but they’re light and they’re accessible,” she added.  

These shows do take time, though, as anyone who has ever made a natural history show knows; Secrets of the Bees, for instance, was revealed in 2023.

Monroe says as a result they plan far ahead. “These are not quick turnaround shows. It’s partly why we plan ahead… we’re already thinking about what is next beyond [Secrets of the Deep] so we can deploy teams into the field to capture behavior over a long period of time,” she said. “There’s some flexibility when you’re when you’re building it as a recurring franchise, but it’s not scripted. We can’t tell the animals where to be on what day and what to do. That’s kind of the beauty of the natural world.”

Elsewhere, in the natural history space, Nat Geo also has more episodes of Underdogs, narrated and produced by Ryan Reynolds, in the can, two seasons of A Real Bug’s Life, and The Real Finding Nemo coming up.

“That’s also aimed at a family and kids audience, so there’s just a real kind of fun and mischievous tone, all real depth, real insight, real animal behavior. Everything is real, but the delivery in tone is different,” she said.

A Real Bug’s Life and The Real Finding Nemo also allow Nat Geo to play in the IP space that many of Monroe’s colleagues on the scripted side specialize in. “We are on Disney+ sitting alongside Disney and Pixar and Marvel and Lucasfilm, there is a very high bar for entertainment. There is a lot of Disney IP that is underpinned by the real world, so we’re taking a look across the portfolio, to find opportunities to tell real world stories,” she added.

The other genre that Nat Geo has been focusing on is the hot male celebrity exploring; shows such as Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted, which ran for four seasons, Limitless with Chris Hemsworth, which has aired two seasons, Pole to Pole with Will Smith, which premiered in January, Tucci in Italy, the spiritual successor to CNN’s Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy, and its upcoming Pompeii adventure with The Night Manager star Hiddleston.

Monroe is particularly excited for the latter, in which the Thor star essentially plays a “time detective”.

“The thing that’s amazing about Tom, aside from being such an extraordinary actor, is that what many people might not know about him is that he was a classics major at Cambridge, and so he studied ancient history, he studied Pompeii. He has such a depth of understanding,” she added. “People expect authenticity from National Geographic.”

Monroe said that Nat Geo is in talks with Chris Hemsworth, Will Smith and Stanley Tucci “about what to do next with them” and is also open to new ideas.

This strategy of “fewer, bigger, better” shows has been in place for a few years now, essentially replacing reality shows like Wicked Tuna, which ran for 13 seasons, Life Below Zero, which ran for 23 seasons, and Alaska State Troopers, which had eight seasons.

“The economics of the business has have obviously evolved. I do think that this strategic shift we made away from high-volume, low-cost, reality and, not to besmirch that, it’s just not what’s distinctively Nat Geo. We’re very focused on telling stories that align with our brand and that actually work across our entire content ecosystem,” she said.

Nat Geo is one of the biggest brands on social media and has over 274M followers on Instagram. In the olden days, if you saw a cute video or photo of an animal doing something funny, you knew it was real, but A.I. has somewhat ruined that.

Monroe said that trust is integral to the Nat Geo brand and it can take advantage of its stamp of approval. “You know you can trust that every single image you see from National Geographic is real. It is captured by either a human photographer or a human cinematographer. I think that is more relevant to audiences than ever. That is the expectation of the National Geographic yellow border, that you can trust it. It’s credible. It’s authentic,” she said. “While we are certainly, like everyone, exploring ways to leverage A.I. to drive efficiency, every image you see from us is real. So, when you see penguins jumping off of a cliff for the very first time, that is real. When you are up close in a bees’ nest, that is real. That is a huge advantage in this marketplace, for people to be able to trust that from us, and we will not veer from that.

All of this comes as Nat Geo has been celebrating Earth Month with projects such as Secrets of the Bees, Dolphins Up Close with Bertie Gregory and Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story.

“We’re always striving to deliver new ways for people to fall in love with this planet. If you fall in love with this planet, you’re going to want to save the planet,” Monroe added.