National Geographic has picked up the second seasons of Limitless with Chris Hemsworth and A Real Bug’s Life. Limitless with Chris Hemsworth follows the actor as he unearths the transformative secrets of improving our lives and unlocking our greatest potential. A Real Bug’s Life is a genre-defying natural history series.
In season one of Limitless with Chris Hemsworth, the Thor star pushed the limits of his body and mind to discover how fasting can unlock the body’s anti-aging power, how to manage stress so it doesn’t kill you, and how exposure to extreme temperatures can trigger our bodies’ own defenses against the killer diseases of old age, all in a quest to live a longer, healthier life.
Now, in this next installment, he’s taking on four more epic challenges on a global journey through Nepal, Italy, Australia, and the United Kingdom to help him — and us — understand how to live not just longer but better.
Limitless creators Darren Aronofsky and Ari Handel of Protozoa Pictures return to executive produce season two; Jane Root and Tom Watt-Smith are executive producers for Nutopia; and Chris Hemsworth and Ben Grayson are executive producers for Wild State.
“Working on Limitless was an eye-opening experience that allowed me to reflect on my strengths, vulnerabilities, and all the ways in which we as humans can plan toward longevity,” said Hemsworth. “For this next season, we are attempting to raise the bar and go even deeper in this exploration alongside health and wellness experts from around the globe.”
In season two of Limitless, Chris Hemsworth will delve into a series of physical and mental obstacles that people across the world face daily: mental agility, pain, burnout, and interpersonal connection. Amazing science and intense challenges are the inspiration for experiences that will push Chris to explore and grow as he’s never done before.
To do that, Chris will need to travel to the ends of the Earth to uncover the latest scientific thinking and unlock some of the world’s best-kept secrets to living a better life Through Hemsworth’s travels, guided by a number of experts, mentors, and spiritual leaders, audiences can seek the everyday changes, both big and small, that can allow us to see improved versions of ourselves.
“Millions of viewers around the world were inspired and wowed by the combination of science, endeavor, and the incredibly committed Chris Hemsworth in the first season, so it’s with huge pride that we announce its return,” said Tom McDonald, executive vice president, Global Factual and Unscripted Content, National Geographic.
McDonald continued: “This new season will have the scale, the drama, and the challenges you’d expect from Limitless, but we’ve also got some big and exciting surprises in store for the audience and for Chris himself.”
Arif Nurmohamed serves as co-executive producer, and Tom Watt-Smith and Jane Root serve as executive producers for Nutopia. Ari Handel and Darren Aronofsky serve as executive producers for Protozoa, and Chris Hemsworth, Ben Grayson, and Brandon Hill are executive producers for Wild State.
For National Geographic, Bengt Anderson and Simon Raikes are executive producers, Charlie Parsons is senior vice president of Global Development, and Tom McDonald is executive vice president of Global Factual And Unscripted Content.
Narrated by award-winning actress Awkwafina and produced by Plimsoll Productions, A Real Bug’s Life Season 2 will take viewers on five new and exciting trips around the world to get up close and personal with insects and their moving stories. The new season will come to Disney+ this fall.
Inspired by the World of Disney and Pixar’s A Bug’s Life, the new season of the genre-busting series will feature an all-new cast of insects, including the femme fatale firefly, bachelor luna moth, a real-life assassin bug, the botany bay weevil and other incredible tiny heroes living on our planet. The five-episode season of A Real Bug’s Life will continue to tell the tales of love, perseverance, and triumphs in their very own microworlds.
Using the latest camera technology, scientific revelation, and an incredible score, audiences will crawl, fly, and jump alongside bugs, experiencing new locations. With new microscopic terrains to explore, A Real Bug’s Life will build off the first season, uncovering epic tales, mind-boggling facts, and never-before-seen insect behavior.
A REAL BUG’S LIFE SEASON 2 EPISODES
LOVE IN THE FOREST (Smoky Mountains, Tennessee) – It’s the end of the longest day of summer. A young fawn frolics to exhaustion. While it falls asleep, the forest comes to life – and tonight, love is in the air. At the forest edge, a lonely female firefly is looking for a male, but the Big Dipper fireflies nearby are dancing to a different tune.
LIFE’S A BEACH (Borneo, Malaysia) – The beach may look like paradise to us… but it’s a brutal place for bugs to make a home. From the sand all the way out to the reef, the waves and the tides hammer their home 24/7. Time and tide wait for no bug.
TINY HEROES DOWN UNDER (Australia) – Down Under is a land filled with familiar fluffy faces like kangaroos and koalas, but the bugs here are a lot of people’s worst nightmares. A eucalyptus forest in eastern Australia is full of ’em: funnel web fangs, ant stings… even exploding bombardier beetles! But there’s much more to Australian bugs than horror stories. Some are actually really cute as it goes.
ONCE A POND A TIME (England) – Water is a cradle of life for all sorts of amazing tiny creatures, but when one is “bug-sized,” its strange shape-shifting properties can have huge consequences. Through the year, the pond undergoes a series of near-magical transformations from ice crystals to water vapor. The tiny creatures that make their home here have found amazing ways to cope with life in this turbulent world.
THE MAKING OF… A FLY ON THE WALL – Surrounded by hordes of army ants, chasing the fastest-running insect on Earth, crawling through muddy mangroves … this was everyday life for the team of world-renowned scientists, experts, and filmmakers who created A Real Bug’s Life. Armed with innovative filming equipment, they stopped at nothing to reveal the untold stories of the planet’s most underappreciated animals – bugs!
A Real Bug’s Life is produced by Plimsoll Productions for National Geographic. Martha Holmes, Grant Mansfield, and Tom Hugh-Jones are executive producers for Plimsoll. For National Geographic, Justine Schmidt and Pamela Caragol serve as executive producers.
Mirko Parlevliet has been reporting on the entertainment industry since 1998 and founded Vital Thrills in 2018 to cover the latest news on streaming, movies, TV, and video games.