What's it like to be a slug?
National Geographic focuses its cameras on uncool creatures this month with new series Underdogs.
It premieres on Nat Geo Wild and Disney+ on Saturday 21 June 2025, starting at 18h00 on Nat Geo Wild.
Here's a slime trail of details, followed by its giggleworthy trailer and episode teasers:
It's narrated and executively produced by actor Ryan Reynolds who's slumming it on TV bigtime now that he's a hotshot businessman.
As you may know, he has the
Welcome to Wrexham docco series on Disney+ which follows his adventures with Welsh underdog football team, the Wrexham Association Football Club.
The team was down and out after being booted from the English Football League and in 2020 Ryan bought the team with actor Rob McElhenney.
Their goal was to was convert it from loserdom to success, which they achieved in 2023 when the team was promoted back into the EFL.
There are four seasons on Disney+ and Season 1's
currently airing on S3, on Saturdays at 16h00.
So the Wrexham players were misfits and Nat Geo's Underdogs is about creatures in the same situation - animals who don’t usually get to be the stars of the show.
It explores their hidden talents, weird hygiene habits and creepy courtship rituals.
The show's theme song is written by rock group Green Day, whose best song of all time has to be Boulevard of Broken Dreams ("I walk a loooonely road....")
Guess the title of the show's theme song? Click the spoiler tag to reveal:
Underdog. 
We get the idea... this lot are bottom the food chain, man.
The song's in the trailer:
Episode teasers:
Superzeroes
Episode 1
Ryan Reynolds assembles a team of Superzeroes, apparently pathetic animals with unexpectedly awesome superpowers.
Forget about the cheetah’s speed, the eagle’s eyesight or the elephant’s brute strength, and say hello to the invisible glass frog, the indestructible honey badger and the pistol shrimp who can fire bubbles that are as hot as the surface of the sun.
Terrible Parents
Episode 2
Ryan Reynolds reveals some highly questionable parenting strategies from the animal kingdom’s worst parents, the underdogs.
From a goose who lays their eggs on the top of a cliff to a koala that feeds its baby poop, it’s uncertain if they are bad parents or just misunderstood. But no matter how bad you think you may be at parenting, you can’t be as bad as these guys.
Sexy Beasts
Episode 3
Forget the birds and the bees, Ryan reveals the steps to finding the one, underdog-style.
From the first attraction in giant-nosed proboscis monkeys to the importance of wingmen in turkey courtship to foreplay in flying foxes, these guys have re-written the rule book on messy and complicated relationships.
The Unusual Suspects
Episode 4
Ryan Reynolds puts the spotlight on the underdogs who get ahead by sneaky tactics.
From the master-of-disguise frogfish to a butt-biting jackal and a multi-headed caterpillar playing the decoy, these are the masters of deception and deceit.
And bringing all these hustlers together is the greatest con artist of them all - a cunning macaque who feeds on the spoils from unsuspecting tourists.
Total Grossout
Episode 5
Ryan gives his unique take on the animals who use gross-out tactics to achieve their goals, from defending their home to finding a mate and wining at the game of life.
His cast includes manatees that use flatulence to control their buoyancy and cave-dwelling fungus gnats that create beautiful, illuminated fly traps from the mucus lit by their bioluminescent butts.