Bear Grylls, explorer and Primetime Emmy winner, is getting a prequel of his own! To provide the voice of his 14-year-old self in an animated movie titled Bear Grylls Young Adventurer: Endangered, the TV personality, well known for his Emmy-nominated survival series Man Vs. Wild, will take on a task he’s never taken on before, according to an exclusive story from Variety. The animated coming-of-age narrative about Grylls will follow him through his life beginning when he was 14 years old. In Endangered, we watch as a young man finds his calling in life as he leaves “his school classroom for the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra,” illuminating the path by which the ex-British soldier came to appreciate travel, discovery, and the cultivation of personal challenge.
The young Grylls in the animated picture is thrust into the middle of action and adventure as he joins a secret rescue organisation for children called Secret Ops Squad. Grylls’ film will feature his newfound family of five courageous teenagers as they tour the world to bring attention to environmental concerns “including deforestation and species extinction.”
Grylls discusses the film’s portrayal of his early years. The intention from the start was to create the best-animated adventure ever seen, one full of heroic acts and selfless heroes who refuse to give up.
When I was younger, I was really into stories about kids going on missions in the jungle, getting into all sorts of scrapes and adventures while attempting to save and preserve the planet. ‘Endangered’ has everything one could want in a film, and it’s amazing to watch how the crew took a young Bear Grylls and turned him into such an encouraging, upbeat, and entertaining journey.” The high-octane lifestyle isn’t too far off the mark, even if sections of the animated film may look like a kid’s action-packed adventure dream come true. Grylls began his martial arts education at a young age, and he later served for three years in the British Special Forces.
Many of the abilities he uses on his TV shows were honed in that environment. Man Vs. Wild ran for seven seasons on Discovery Channel; six seasons of Running Wild with Bear Grylls featured guests like former President Barack Obama, Will Ferrell, Kate Winslet, Julia Roberts, and more; and an interactive, Emmy-nominated series on Netflix titled You Vs. Wild led to Grylls’ team-up with Netflix to produce one of the streamer’s most-watched movies Animals on the Loose. Grylls’ first foray into the world of animation, Endangered, will allow him to reach an even broader audience with his clearly motivational message.
Ben Bailey Smith (Persuasion) will play Grylls’s sidekick Ty, Sean Teale (Little Voice) will play Grylls’s sidekick Toro, Rae Lim (Four Weddings and a Funeral) will play Grylls’s sidekick Mei, and Kevin Eldon will play Grylls (Game of Thrones). Bron Studios, the studio behind 2019’s The Addams Family and Ghostbusters: Afterlife, is making Endangered alongside Platinum Files and Bear Grylls Adventures. Nigel Stone helms the show, and Luke Bradford created the opening credits. Unfortunately, there is currently no set date for the release of Endangered.