AllMovie

This speculative cable TV series was an extension of a special which aired in January 2003, posting the Animal Planet networks' second-highest ratings. The premise: What sort of animals will exist in the future, long after humankind has left the planet? The first episode was set some five million years in the future, when a probe from outer space returns to the earth's surface to find 120-ton "toratons" living in the swamps of India, giant termites thriving in the New York desert, and saber-toothed weasels "the size of sheep" roaming the Arctic wastes of Paris. Subsequent episodes examined the state of the world 100 million and 500 million years from now. The series combined computerized animation, vivid imagination, and authentic scientific input. Designed as a seven-part series, The Future Is Wild had been pared down to three installments by the time the property made its Animal Planet bow on July 8, 2003.