National Geographic has renewed both Limitless with Chris Hemsworth and A Real Bug’s Life for second seasons. Season one of Limitless premiered on Disney+ in November 2022 and A Real Bug’s Life, narrated by Awkwafina, debuted in January 2024.
“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.”
Filmmaker Darren Aronofsky and Ari Handel created the series and will return to executive produce the new season. Additional executive producers include Hemsworth, Tom Watt-Smith, Jane Root, Ben Grayson, Brandon Hill, Bengt Anderson, and Simon Raikes.
“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. “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.”
Limitless with Chris Hemsworth Synopsis, Courtesy of National Geographic:
In season one, Hemsworth 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.
In season two, 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.
A Real Bug’s Life Synopsis and Episode Guide, Courtesy of National Geographic:
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 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.
Step into the spellbinding world of bugs with the following 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 – 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 crystal 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!
