Walking with Dinosaurs is a 2025 six-part nature documentary television miniseries produced by the BBC Studios Science Unit and PBS in association with ZDF and France Télévisions. It is marketed as a revival of the original 1999 Walking with Dinosaurs miniseries, though without any returning crew members from the 1999 series. Each episode delves into a particular individual dinosaur discovered at an active dig site. The story of each protagonist dinosaur is assembled through paleontological work in the field as well as scenes of computer-generated imagery in live action environments.
In the United Kingdom, BBC One began airing the series on 25 May 2025, with the remaining episodes streamed on BBC iPlayer on the same day. In the United States, PBS began airing the series as a three-day event starting 16 June 2025. The series also released on ABC TV and ABC iview in Australia and iQIYI in China. The series was praised for its scientific accuracy, but received generally mixed reviews for its presentation.
The new Walking with Dinosaurs series was announced on 4 June 2024, as a co-production between BBC and PBS, along with ZDF and France Télévisions. The series is narrated by Bertie Carvel, with Andrew Cohen and Helen Thomas as executive producers, Kirsty Wilson as showrunner, and Stephen Cooter, Tom Hewitson, and Owen Gower as producer/directors. One of the consulting paleontologists, Nizar Ibrahim, revealed that the series was in part built around the premise to create a documentary featuring Spinosaurus. Over 200 paleontologists were consulted during the series' production.
The original announcement mentioned Spinosaurus, Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus, and Lusotitan as particular dinosaurs of emphasis. Promotional images were first revealed for the new series on 22 January 2025, indicating that Pachyrhinosaurus and Albertosaurus would feature as well. BBC released a full trailer on 10 April 2025. A companion book for the series, written by Andrew Cohen, Helen Thomas, and Kirsty Wilson, was released by DK in June 2025.
A 70-minute program called "Walking with Dinosaurs: Prologue", a production collaboration by the BBC and NHK, aired on August 8 in Japan. The program showed highlights of the documentary series, aired starting on August 10. It had Masaki Aiba (Arashi) as navigator, with , Manabe Makoto (Honorary Researcher at the National Museum of Nature and Science), and (NHK Announcer) as participants. The National Museum of Nature and Science in Ueno, Tokyo, was used as a studio.
The 2025 series received generally mixed reviews. Critics agreed that the CGI was an improvement over the original series, though it fell short of the photorealistic style accomplished by Prehistoric Planet (2022âÂÂ2023). Several reviewers were distracted by the usage of anthropomorphism in the dinosaur-centred storylines. Jack Seale of The Guardian described the paleontologist-based segments as "painstaking to the point of tedium". Conversely, Carol Midgley of The Times "found the sequences of the actual digs some of the most interesting parts", and Dan Einav of Financial Times stated that "[the] on-site segments are a joy to watch".
British paleontologist James Ronan praised the scientific accuracy, general behavioural depictions and incorporation of fieldwork segments, but expressed criticism on certain exaggerations and a lack of behavioral variety compared to the original series. He stated that the series felt more like a "dramatized re-enactment of possible scenarios" rather than observations of the dinosaurs in their natural habitat. He also noted minor graphical shortcomings and animation inconsistencies.