“The balance of nature has been altered. There is someone out there who may change our fate. And yet, I wonder: Will she be able to survive?” So asks the Russell Crowe-voiced dino-whisperer Kor the Prophet in the new trailer for ARK: The Animated Series, which roared onto Paramount+ on Thursday. The streamer has announced that the animated adaptation of the video game ARK: Survival Evolved — Studio Wildcard’s open world survival game set on a mysterious, dinosaur-infested island — will be split into two parts, with the six-episode Part 1 available now and the seven-episode Part 2 landing at a later date.
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ARK: The Animated Series is “a sweeping saga spanning eons of humanhistory,” per a synopsis. “When 21st century paleontologist Helena Walker findsherself resurrected on a mysterious primeval island populated byprehistoric beasts, she must learn to survive with new allies fromthroughout time, while trying to uncover the true nature of theirstrange new world.”
Vin Diesel (the Fast & Furious franchise) serves as executive producer and voice actor on the series produced by Lex + Otis (RAID: Call of the Arbiter, Netflix’s Trese anime) and Studio Wildcard (ARK: Survival Ascended).
The starry cast includes Madeleine Madden (The Wheel of Time) as 21st century Australian paleontologist Helena Walker, newly awoken on the ARK; Gerard Butler (300) as the Roman despot General Gaius Marcellus Nerva, Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once) as “Beast Queen” Mei-yin Li, a formidable 3rd-century Chinese rebel leader; Karl Urban (The Boys) as square-jawed ARK arrival Bob; Alan Tudyk (Star Wars: Rogue One) as a crusty buccaneer, The Captain; David Tennant (Doctor Who) as Sir Edmund Rockwell, an egocentric 19th century scientist harboring dark ambitions; Crowe (Kraven the Hunter) as the ancient prophet Kor; and Diesel as Santiago, a 24th century Mek-pilot, gearhead, and freedom-fighter.
“Being able to mix together fantastic characters from throughout humanhistory is one of the unique joys of telling stories within the ARKuniverse,” said executive producer and series co-creator Jeremy Stieglitz, who directed ARK: Survival Evolved with Jesse Rapczak. “But more than that, this series is a deeply personal narrativeabout love and grief, and the ways in which those two most-powerfulemotions manifest in different people. Plus, of course, taming andriding dinosaurs!”
Rapczak added, “With ARK, we’ve always looked for new ways to tell the story. Theanimated series brings together some of the most talented directors,actors, and animators out there to finally depict on-screen thisfranchise’s epic narrative.”
ARK: The Animated Series – Part 1 is streaming now on Paramount+. Try Paramount+ for free here.
