Blue Planet is back, baby! So strap into your Bathysphere, take a deep breath, and dive down into the world’s most extraordinary biome.
Sixteen years after the series’ debut, BBC has again tapped Sir David Attenborough to narrate Blue Planet II. The latest season took several years to complete, and uses “new technology” to capture better, closer shots of marine wildlife.
Videos by VICE
The trailer, which dropped today, looks amazing. It’s not clear if Blue Planet II focuses on any theme in particular. But the series will probably touch on issues like climate change, overfishing, and other human behaviors that imperil our oceans.
A study published in the journal Science last year found that humans are the dominant threat to marine species—causing catastrophic losses that impact the largest to smallest creatures. We’re seeing species on the edge of extinction, and ecosystems dying off on a colossal scale. Shows like Blue Planet II aren’t a panacea for these crises, but they encourage people to give a shit.
BBC says this season will feature “never-before-filmed species,” like the hairy-chested Hoff crab (named after David Hasselhoff). The trailer shows charismatic favorites, too, like the mammoth whale shark and brilliant cuttlefish.
Composer Hans Zimmer and Radiohead collaborated on the music for the trailer. It’s set to a version of “Bloom” Radiohead’s The King of Limbs. The band’s lead singer, Thom Yorke, says Blue Planet inspired the original “Bloom.” Yorke has previously called himself a “climate optimist.”
Blue Planet II doesn’t have a premiere date in the US, but will air sometime in early 2018.
