Steven Spielberg returns to dinos with a Netflix documentary
30 years after Jurassic Park, the director and Amblin are producing this enormous documentary at the crossroads of science and entertainment.
At the time of Jurassic Park, he opted for animatronics. But times change, technology evolves and digital special effects are so advanced today that any dino can be recreated without difficulty on screen. So Steven Spielberg rediscovers his passion for the Cretaceous for Dinosaurs, an ambitious documentary series produced with Amblin, for Netflix.
The streamer unveils the impressive official trailer which sounds like a return to basics for the filmmaker, who will also return to the cinema this year with a major science fiction film about extraterrestrials. After Life on Our Planet in 2023, Spielberg continues its collaboration with the platform with this blockbuster documentary, at the crossroads of science and spectacle.
From the first images, The Dinosaurs impresses with the scale and precision of its reconstructions. The spectacular visuals are by Industrial Light & Magic (the legendary studio founded by George Lucas) which gives here a rare cinematic scale. A visual deployment worthy of the subject: the rise, domination and collapse of the greatest natural empire the Earth has known. To guide the viewer through this prehistoric fresco, Netflix called on Morgan Freeman, whose iconic voice accompanies the story.
The trailer reveals an impressive gallery of extinct creatures: from Tyrannosaurus rex to Plateosaurus, including Mamenchisaurus, Pliosaurus, Anchiornis, Longipteryx and even the lesser-known Marasuchus. Each species is placed in its ecosystem, with particular attention paid to behavior, evolution and extinctions.
The official synopsis promises “an epic journey into the heart of a vanished world. Produced by Steven Spielberg, Amblin Entertainment and the award-winning ‘Our Planet’ team, this groundbreaking documentary series traces the rise and fall of dinosaurs over hundreds of millions of years.”
Composed of four episodes, the series will be put online on March 6, 2026.
