WMG / Prehistoric Planet

Each of the episode will focus on a different continent, with various formations and fauna from said continent being shown

For example, not only would the North America episode focus on Hell Creek and Prince Creek, but it could also show the Western Interior Seaway. While a good chunk of it dried up, the seaway was still around by the Maastrichtian epoch, implying that the nyctosaurid and fighting mosasaurs seen in the official trailer are Nyctosaurus and Tylosaurus respectively.

• Another episode will feature Hateg Island with Balaur and Haztegopteryx. The Asian episode will possibly include the Nanxiong Formation (Qianzhousaurus) and the Nemegt Formation (Deinocheirus and possibly the desert dromaeosaur).
• Jossed. The official synopsis for the episodes seems to confirm each one will treat about different habitats such as coasts, deserts or forests (in the style of Planet Earth), rather than continents. Also, the nyctosaurid and fighting mosasaurs from the first trailer are Barbaridactylus and Mosasaurus, respectively.
• Confirmed, at the end. The final episode of season 2 focuses entirely on North America, with aforementioned Hell Creek and Prince Creek formations both appearing in the episode.

The desert dromaeosaur is not a Velociraptor

V. mongoliensis comes from the Campanian, the stage before the Maastrichtian. The one in the trailer is probably an Adasaurus or a speculative "generic" dromaeosaur.

• That might not be true. Velociraptor did live during the Campanian stage, but it was also around during the Maastrichtian stage as well.
• Jossed, official promotional material refers to it as Velociraptor. However, Word of God does confirm that it is an "indeterminate velociraptorine". Part of the lineage, but not V. mongoliensis or V. osmolskae.

The Tyrannosaurus rex will appear in more than one episode

Now that we know (by the titles of the five episodes) that the series will focus on different habitats, it seems the swimming T. rex dad and the one who kills the Triceratops in the trailer are different individuals (with the forest T. rex also possessing a wound on his right leg). Also, the first episode is called "Coasts", while the fifth and last one is named "Forests", that further indicates the environment where both theropods appear will be different. Given the last episode focuses on a young Triceratops in what looks like Hell Creek, is likely the T. rex will have a small appearance in the first episode (with the scene of the swimming family) and then will receive more spotlight in the last one.

• Alternatively, the T. rex dad and its chicks will appear at the beginning and end of each doing something thematically relevant to each episode before segueing in and out in a Book Ends manner. For instance, the beach and swimming scenes are from episode one, about oceans.
• Confirmed. The T. rex appears in episodes 1 and 3, though "Hank" specifically only appears in "Coasts", as the male Tyrannosaurus from "Freshwater" is an older, more scarred individual.
• T. rex has also been confirmed to appear in season 2.

Didelphodon will appear in the "Freshwater" episode

As Tyrannosaurus appears in the episode, it'd make sense to feature some of the aquatic life that lived alongside it, and the otter-like Didelphodon would be a good way to show the modern understanding of the diversity of Cretaceous mammals.

• Jossed, mammals apparently do not exist in this universe. Except for Cimolodon.

Possible future seasons would go progressively further and further back in time until ending in the Triassic.

Given how the series focuses on one specific era of the Cretaceous, it would only be natural to show other time periods of the Mesozoic.

Future season(s) will be set in the Cenozoic and revolve around prehistoric mammals

Because it is called Prehistoric Planet, not Dinosaur Planet.

• Two possible alternatives: A) more focus on Mesozoic mammals, B) a Cenozoic show with few mammals and more focus on the various flightless birds and crocodylomorphs.
• Alternatively: it could feature the Permian and its diverse array of protomammals, featuring updated or even speculative reconstructions of Dimetrodon, gorgonopsids, dicynodonts and the like, ending with the Great Dying and Lystrosaurus conquering the world post-cataclysm.
• Hypothetical future seasons may be centered in the Cenozoic because the environments there are more similar to the modern ones, thus easier to film in.

Future seasons will not retain the habitat format of season one

Possible new styles could be:

• Groups of related creatures. For instance, one episode could be about crocodilians, another could be about fish.
• Behaviours, such as nesting, hunting, browsing, and defense.
• A format more oriented in what Walking with Dinosaurs did, centering in a determinate formation in a certain period per episode showing the daily life of the animals there.

Bets for new creatures in future seasons set within the Maasrichtian

While it was rather obvious that the show returned to the Maasrichtian for Season 2, a good few animals have yet to show up. The animals with Confirmed to them were for Season 2, and this WMG could be used for a possible Season 3.

• Rajasaurus (Confirmed via accidentally released VFX shots)
• Isisaurus (Confirmed via the official teaser)
• Austroraptor (Confirmed as of second trailer)
• Phosphorosaurus (Confirmed via Instagram clip)
• Simosuchus (Confirmed via Apple TV press images)
• Stegouros
• Alamosaurus (Confirmed!)
• Maip
• Pachycephalosaurus (Confirmed in the teaser, albeit a version that plays every few times on the Apple TV+ website.)
• Dryptosaurus
• Pyroraptor (Confirmed, albeit babies)
• Ankylosaurus
• Diplomoceras (Confirmed via Season 2 trailer)
• Gargantuavis
• Sanajeh
• Shantungosaurus
• Squalicorax
• Armadillosuchus
• Thalassotitan
• Tethyshadros (Confirmed via Season 2 trailer)
• Thescelosaurus
• Saltasaurus
• Didelphodon
• Imperobator (Confirmed via Season 2 trailer)
• Edmontonia
• Majungasaurus (Confirmed via Apple TV press images)
• Prognathodon (Confirmed, albeit a small cameo)
• Acheroraptor
• Vulcanobatrachus (a prehistoric frog)
• Xiphactinus (Confirmed via Apple TV press images)
• Tylosaurus
• Simurghia (a pterosaur that coexisted with Alcione, Barbaridactylus, Tethydraco and Phosphatodraco; was glossed over in Coasts for some reason)
• Arambourgiania
• Palaeosaniwa
• Alioramus
• Bonnerichthys
• Ocepechelon
• Anzu
• Charonosaurus
• Dakotaraptor
• Gallimimus

Predictions for new habitats for the second season

Keeping with the format of each episode centering in a determinate habitat.

• Mountains. Some of the unfinished footage of the documentary showed that two segments about sauropods (one a group of Isisaurus hatchlings being predated by some Rajasaurus in a mountainous range, another group traversing it) was originally produced for the series but eventually discarded for the final product, so an episode centered in mountains could be possible for season 2.
  • Jossed: They are in an episode titled "Badlands".
• Open oceans. Obligatory sea-related episode and the chance to show more marine reptiles and pterosaurs. The fact that 'Coasts' from Season 1 was titled 'High Seas' at first hints that the episode was originally going to be about this ecosystem rather than the coastal one.
  • Confirmed.
• Islands. Not only will it see a return to Madagascar and Hateg, but also other known island formations, like Appalachia and others of Europe, such as Tethyshadros, known to live on islands.
  • Confirmed.
• Wetlands.
  • Confirmed under the title 'Swamps'.
• Plains. Featured locations could be:
  • India, as the first grasses evolved there, and there is evidence Dinosaurs even ate them.
  • Floodplains (perhaps returning to locations seen in Freshwater)

Predictions for returning creatures in Season 2

As T. rex and Tarchia have been confirmed to appear again in Season 2 (though one may argue the ankylosaur's appearance in the previous series was so short it may count as a new animal in the coming series), it's likely that some of the Mesozoic animals of Season 1 may reappear as well. Place your bets and ideas for what creatures will come back too.

• Triceratops. As Tyrannosaurus rex will be back, is likely that its most famous prey will make an appearance in season 2.
  • Confirmed
• Tarbosaurus. For similar reasons, this time with the tyrannosaur being the predator to Tarchia's prey.
  • Confirmed as it appears in the "Badlands" episode, but its role is unrelated to Tarchia's segment.
• Carnotaurus. It was in the teaser via archival footage.
  • Jossed.
• Alcione. We never did get to see the adults up close, and it would be cool to see them diving for fish out at sea.
  • Technically confirmed. An adult Alcione has a small cameo at the beginning of "Islands".
• Mononykus. Popular with viewers enough that it may get an encore in season 2.
  • Jossed.
• At least a few enantiornithines. Getting a closer look at the birds of the Mesozoic.
  • Technically jossed - enantiornithines are still largerly cameos, but Styginetta (a relative of modern ducks) appears to represent Mezozoic birds.
• Deinocheirus. In the concept art made by Gaëlle Seguillon, the concept art for the Deinocheirus has it listed as “Deinocheirus male”. It could be possible that a segment about the shaggy beast trying to court, or at the very least, interacting with a female is gonna show up somewhere in Season 2.
  • Jossed.
• Beelzebufo. Similar story to the Deinocheirus, but the concept art for the devil toad has it listed as “Beelzebufo adult”. The most likely suggestion is a scene where a father Beelzebufo raises its tadpoles, similar to how male African bullfrogs do the same thing today.
  • Confirmed with the teaser of the second season.

Season two will have segments serving as Immediate Sequels to season one's

• Scavengers chow down on Dreadnoughtus carcasses after they leave, such as the theropod Orkoraptor and the azhdarchid Aerotitan.
  • Jossed.
• Grown up versions of some of the babies, such as the Alcione, the Triceratops and the Therizinosaurus.

There will be spinoffs also utilizing the same format but with wildly different premises

They will go a lot more into more abstract and outright Speculative Biology then this series or even the greater Planet Earth series.

• Future Planet, Future is Wild or After Man style series about life on Earth in the future.
• Planets Beyond or Other Planets, about alien lifeforms in space on different planets, like what either Alien Worlds or Expedition did, only more in-depth.
• Monster Planet, a what if? series a la Cryptozoologicon about reimagining mythical creatures and cryptids through a more plausible lens.

PHP will get a whole franchise to its name, similar to what happened with the Walking with Series and The Future is Wild

Is it wishful thinking? Yes, yes it is. However, given how extremely popular Season 1 was, it could (and should) be possible for Prehistoric Planet to develop into its own franchise. Things like physical merch, cartoon spinoffs, manga, etc could come out of this.

Guess as to what will happen in each of season two's eps

• North America: The segments are organised by going southwards down Laramidia, starting with the Nanuqsaurus chase segment seen in the teaser, then. The final segment will take place in the Ojo Alamo or Javelina Formation in New Mexico or Texas, the southern tip, and be the Quetzalcoatlus vs. Rex seen. It would also make sense as it means the series would start and end with T. rexes by the sea.
  • Semi-Confirmed - it's actually the other way around.

Season two will end with the asteroid impact

Going hand in hand with the last WMG's part, assuming the Rex Vs. Quetz is the last segment, and thus last of Season Two, the segment will be not too far from the site of the K-Pg impact.

If they choose not to, it will simply just show Earth from space, the implication clear.

Either way, it will be the ultimate Tear Jerker for the show. Nevertheless, there will be an epilogue of species that survived the impact, acting as a Tear Dryer and a Sequel Hook.

• The final episode could end showing the Maastrichtian Earth from space and would be accompanied by David waxing lyrical about the success and diversity of dinosaurs and hypothesizing that even greater wonders are assured for dinosaur evolution in the future, but as the asteroid enters the frame he'd follow this up with some kind of subtle aside like "...barring unforeseen events". The episode and series would end right there.
  • Both speculations are jossed.

The bait ball scene seen in the Season 2 teaser trailer will be inspired by the same one from The Hunt

Given how the first season took inspiration from other nature documentaries made by the BBC, the same thing could be said for Season 2. In the Season 2 teaser, some sort of hesperornithe, along with a few elasmosaurs, is seen hunting a huge baitball. And given how the bait ball scene from the ocean-related episode of ''The Hunt'' (which involved a group of sea lions, tunas, sharks and other predators hunting down a huge gathering of sardines) is perhaps one of, if not the most memorable scene of a BBC documentary depicting this scenario, PHP could be doing its own version of the scene in Season 2.

Predictions for the segments of each Season 2 episode

This particular WMG serves as a way to guess the unshown segments for the Season 2 episodes, now that thier titles have been figured out.

• Islands
  • One on the island of Appalachia, most likely the tyrannosauroid Dryptosaurus. In contrast with the T. rex, its depicted more aggresively, perhaps fighting with another.
    • Jossed.
  • One on the island of Ibero-Armorica (what is now France and Iberia). Candidates could include the giant bird Gargantuavis.
    • Jossed.
• Badlands
  • The plains surrounding the volcanos of India develop some of the first forms of grasslands, and animals adapt to it. For instance, both the Isisaurus and the mammal Bharattherium is seen grazing on it and spreading seeds, or the snake Sanajeh camaflouging in it (making it a literal snake in the grass).
    • Jossed, the segment focuses on the Isisaurus hatching in the volcanic area instead.
• Swamps
  • The Hell Creek Formation's aquatic life, most notably the giant amphibian Habrosaurus and mammal Didelphodon.
    • Jossed.
  • Some sort of ankylosaur (either Ankylosaurus or Denversaurus) wandering through a swamp in search of new plant growth, just like with hippos, with the aforementioned Diphelodon also being in the same scene
    • Jossed.
• Oceans
  • A hadrosaur carcass washed out to sea is eaten by marine life, like sharks.
    • Jossed
  • The swordfish-like Protosphyraena. Given how similar it looked to modern-day billfish, it should act similar to them, even having it jump out of the water to catch prey.
    • Jossed
  • An Ocepechelon feeding on fish with its tube-like snout.
    • Jossed
  • A lone Scapanorhynchus wandering the deep sea for prey, possibly finding itself in a huge rudist reef.
    • Jossed
  • Phosphorosaurus, a type of deep-sea mosasaur from Japan.
    • Confirmed by an Instagram ad, although it more likely will be situated in Belgium.
  • A whole school of Bonnerichthys feeding on plankton in the open ocean.
    • Jossed
  • A young Kaikaifilu taking advantage of a swarm of Diplomoceras rising up from the deep to spawn, snacking on the ammonites.
    • Jossed. Diplomoceras does appear but as part of its own segment alongside other ammonites. Surprisingly, however, a segment virtually identical in concept does later appear in "North America", the only difference being that the featured genera are Globidens and Sphenodiscus respectively.
  • A baitball as suggested above.
    • Confirmed
  • Nyctosaurid and/or pteranodontid pterosaurs diving into the sea for food like gannets (a behaviour the real animals almost certainly had but which unfortunately wasn't depicted in "Coasts"), potentially as part of the baitball scene.
    • Jossed
• North America

If we get a third season, it will focus on a different time period entirely

As fascinating as the late Maastrichtian is, there are only so many known species and ecosystems to explore from that time. It seems likely that eventually the series will transition into depicting other eras such as the early Cretaceous, the Jurassic, the Triassic, or perhaps even the Paleozoic and/or Cenozoic.

Season 3 will be set in the Oxfordian

Which would mean that creatures like Yi qi, Darwinopterus robustus, Allosaurus jimmadseni, Liopleurodon ferox, Shunosaurus lii and Guanlong wucaii would be featured as a result.

Season 3 will stick to a Cretaceous setting, but...

It will instead focus on the early Cretaceous, specifically the Aptian. If so, then the featured species will likely include Deinonychus antirrhopus, Acrocanthosaurus atokensis, Tenontosaurus tilletti, Microraptor zhaoianus, Iguanodon bernissartensis, Sauroposeidon proteles, Kronosaurus queenslandicus, Istiodactylus latidens, and Guidraco venator among others.

Season 3 will take place during the Neogene

• One of the episodes will be called "Grasslands", and feature:
  • An early hominid in Africa, like Ardipithecus or Austrolopithecus.
  • Homotherium
  • The Colombian mammoth.
  • Sivatherium.
  • Deinotherium.
  • Titanis.
  • Macrauchenia.
  • Smilodon.
  • Doedicurus.
  • Megatherium.
  • The Dire wolf.
  • Dinofelis.
• An ocean-based episode featuring Megalodon, Livyatan, giant pseudo-toothed seabirds, and the weird marine sloth Thalassocnus.

Alternatively, Season 3 will take place during the Pleistocene

• One episode will focus on Ice Age megafauna like woolly mammoth, woolly rhino, Elasmotherium, Megaloceros, cave lion or cave bear.
• Another episode will focus on Australia, featuring such species like megalania, Thylacoleo, Procoptodon and Diprotodon.
• Early humans will feature at least one segment.

Season 3 will feature the Morrison formation.

After appearances of such dinosaurian stars like Tyrannosaurus rex, Triceratops or Velociraptor in the previous seasons, it could be logical for the next season to feature one of the most iconic paleo-ecosystems: late Jurassic North America. The episode taking place in this location and time period could feature dinosaurs such as Stegosaurus, Allosaurus, Ceratosaurus, Apatosaurus, Brachiosaurus, etc. while putting their own unique spins on their species (for example: the Stegosaurus could be portrayed as Fantastic Fauna Counterparts to elephants by living in herds that are lead by a matriarch, which is something that any paleo-documentary hasn't yet done).

If Season 3 is made, then it should either be the last Maasrichtian-based season, or the last season of the show in general.

Two things are rather obvious about PHP's future in terms of material to work with. One, there's still plenty of Maasrichtian animals to use, some being more famous taxa like Ankylosaurus and Gallimimus, while more obscure species like Ocepechelon and Dryptosaurus sit on the other side of the coin. The second thing to consider is how Darren Naish has confirmed the very real possibility of the show going to other time periods. Taking both into consideration, maybe the PHP team could want to make one more season set within the end of the Cretaceous to cap off a possible Maasrichtian trilogy. The mere fact that an VR project based on the show is coming is enough to consider on how Apple plans to have the franchise stick around. In a similar way to how Planet Earth 3 is the end of the Planet Earth trilogy, Season 3 could be the end of the Maasrichtian trilogy as a whole, capping the show off for a few years while the people behind it can decide on where to take the franchise next.

Another possible route, however, is that a third season could in fact be the last one. A lot of the same things said above still apply, but given how the show is a once-in-an-lifetime opportunity on a massive scale, along with keeping up with David Attenborough’s life and career, the showrunners could be planning to make one final season to finish things off. And, if that’s the case, there could be a possible chance for the KT extinction to finally be brought up in the show. Whether it’ll be shown on screen, or it’ll be mentioned in some other way, that’s up to the showrunners. Regardless, one would expect the final episode of the series to be one last hurrah to the Maasrichtian and its animals, maybe even ending with a sort of bookend with a T. Rex either taking to the seas once again, or being on a beach, both being a bookend to the T. Rex and his chicks swimming across the ocean in “Coasts” back in Season 1. Regardless of what it’ll do, the show could cap everything off in a beautiful way, if a hypothetical Season 3 turns out to be the last one.