The Americas: release date, animals, locations, trailer, interview and everything about the Tom Hanks narrated nature series

The Americas is a nature series worth waiting for! Stretching from pole to pole and home to Earth’s most varied habitats, the continents of The Americas are teeming with wildlife. Now, in this ambitious nature documentary series, Hollywood superstar Tom Hanks is helping us take a closer look at some of the strangest stories on Earth.

Filmed over five years, each hour-long episode features a different geographical location (see listed below) and also boasts music from the Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer.

"The Americas is the one place on the planet that nobody has ever fully done before on TV, yet it stretches between both poles and splits two great oceans – the Pacific and the Atlantic,’ says executive producer Mike Gunton, 66, who has also produced the BAFTA-winning Planet Earth II (2016) and Dynasties (2018).

"So the series is huge. It covers a huge variety of landscapes and wildlife, some of the world’s greatest animals, as well as phenomenal new behaviours. It’s like the ultimate safari where viewers will think, where are we going next? What’s the next adventure? And throughout it all we have Tom Hanks acting as our trusted guide."

Here’s everything you need to know about The Americas…

The Americas release date  

The Americas is a 10-part event series that premiered in the US on NBC and Peacock from Sunday, February 23, 2025 at 7pm ET/PT with the first two episodes then running weekly at the same time.

In the UK, the series starts on BBC1 from Sunday March 2 at 6.30pm with the episodes then running weekly every Sunday at around the same time and on BBCiPlayer. 

How to watch The Americas online: stream jaw-dropping nature documentary

Is there a trailer?

Yes you can watch Tom Hanks narrating The Americas. In it you'll see much of the wonderful wildlife featured starting with a wandering salamander 'that has never been filmed before' as revealed by Tom. Take a look below...

Locations, animals and producer Mike Gunton on what will feature in The Americas 

The Americas is an ambitious documentary series that uses cutting-edge technology to showcase never-before-seen animal behavior across the American continents.

From Canada to the Caribbean, the footage immerses us in ecosystems across North and South America and shows how wildlife survives and thrives in these diverse locations. We'll watch everything from bison, bears and bald eagles, to condors, wolves, pelicans and albatross.

Episodes include the Atlantic Coast, Mexico, Wild West, the Amazon, the Frozen North, the Gulf Coast, the Andes, the Caribbean, the West Coast and Patagonia.

Executive producer Mike Gunton spoke ot us to reveal some of the memorable animals featured throughout the series..

Bald eagle
"We wanted to show some of the classic American animals and, of course, Bald eagles are right up there because they’re the US’s national bird," says Mike Gunton. "You’d imagine that they’d be this powerful superstar of the natural world, yet they’re actually out-competed by osprey when it comes to catching fish. But we managed to capture an eagle stealing an osprey’s fish, which meant an extraordinary mid-air dogfight where they both got to show off their aerobatics. In the end the eagle showed that great American spirit and refused to give up!’

Burrowing owl
"My favourite sequence of the whole series comes in the episode about the Gulf Coast where we film this tiny little Burrowing owl, who’s late the party and has missed out on all the females," says Mike. "It’s a sad tale because everyone else has paired off. But finally after a long time lapse, the owl does this extraordinary little dance and then suddenly a female flies down and winks at him as if to say, okay then! It’s a really relatable story and actually very cute!"

Blue whale
"I’m very excited about some once-in-a-generation footage shot in the West Coast episode where we’ve filmed not just one blue whale, but four together – I’d never heard of that before because blue whales are actually very hard to see," says Mike. ‘"They’re also displaying this remarkable behaviour where they’re racing each other and leaping out of the ocean, although scientists aren’t exactly sure why. That’s got to be one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen. I find it amazing we’re still witnessing new things that we’ve never witnessed before!’

Raccoon
"In the very first episode, The Atlantic Coast, you get to see a very cute raccoon family that we’ve captured living on the streets of New York, amongst something incredible like eight million residents," says Mike. "The way they survive surrounded by all the people and the cars is extraordinary. But what’s nice about the footage is that, as Tom Hanks says, it shows you how nature can be happening around you, literally beneath your feet!"

Marbled four-eyed frog
"The Marbled four-eyed frog is a remarkable frog with spots that lives high up in The Andes where it’s brutally cold," says Mike. "Because they’re amphibians they can’t generate their own heat and it can get so cold that they freeze solid at night, meaning they effectively die. But then every morning they manage to thaw themselves out and somehow regenerate. Nobody really knows how they do it, but it’s incredible!"

Flamingo
"The Atacama Desert in Chile is a very hostile environment, but flamingoes have evolved to live there and we’ve filmed a lovely dance-off sequence that’s a bit like a disco scene featuring three different types of flamingo – the Chilean, the Andean and the James’s," says Mike. "There are mass aggregations of flamingo at the salt lakes where they arrive to feed and court, and where the females choose their mates on the basis of their dancing. But what’s weird is these flamingoes don’t dance individually, they dance en masse, so you get these huge troops of them all dancing in synchrony!"

Bison
"Bison were once one of the most abundant herbivores on the planet and yet humanity almost exterminated them to extinction where there were only 1000 or so left," says Mike. "It's taken a lot of effort to bring them back, so it’s wonderful to see them in such huge numbers now, and in this series we’ve even filmed them rutting, which is such fascinating behaviour to witness. Tourists actually come to watch the rut, although bison are so powerful you wouldn’t want to get too close!"

Behind the scenes and more on The Americas

The Americas is a natural history series presented by Tom Hanks. It is a collaboration between the BBC Natural History Unit, Universal Television and Alternative Studios.

The series, which took five years to make, was filmed over 180 expeditions, with each episode featuring a different iconic location across the Americas.

The Americas is executive produced by renowned Emmy and BAFTA Award-winning wildlife producer Mike Gunton (Planet Earth II, Planet Earth III, Dynasties) for BBC Studios Natural History Unit, the best-known and most respected producers of natural history content in the world, in association with Universal Television Alternative Studio, a division of Universal Studio Group.

Jo Lapping, Head of BBC Factual Acquisition says: “The BBC is delighted to bring NBC’s remarkable nature epic The Americas to BBC One and iPlayer. From Northern Canada to Patagonia, the spectacular beauty and diversity of the American continents has been captured in this mesmerizing series from a multi-award-winning dream team; Tom Hanks, Hans Zimmer, BBC Studios Natural History and Universal Television Alternative Studio.”

All about The Americas narrator Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks has a multitude of big roles under his belt, including his Oscar-winning turns in Philadelphia and Forrest Gump. He found fame in the movie Splash in 1984 and went on to have roles in hit films such as You’ve Got Mail, The Money Pit, Sleepless in Seattle, Big and Turner & Hooch. He’s also starred in Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan, The Green Mile, Cast Away, The Terminal, The Da Vinci Code, Elvis and A Man Called Otto. Tom voices Woody in the Toy Story franchise.