The Future Is Wild (also referred to by the acronym FIW)[1] is a 2002 speculative evolution docufiction miniseries and an accompanying multimedia entertainment franchise.

Though the settings and animals are fictional, the series has an educational purpose, serving as an informative and entertaining way to explore concepts such as evolution and climate change.

The success of The Future Is Wild spawned a large multimedia franchise, including books, children's entertainment, exhibitions, theme park rides, educational material, and toys.

From 2016 onwards, there has been talk of "relaunching" the franchise through various projects, such as an action-adventure TV series and The Future is Wild VR (a virtual reality videogame), though no new media has yet materialized.

The early episodes describe a world after an ice age, when giant seal-like sea-birds roam the beaches and carnivorous bats rule the skies.

The hypothetical world of 200 million years from now is recovering from a mass extinction caused by a flood basalt eruption even larger than the one that created the Siberian Traps, wiping out 95% of the species on the planet.

Although the formation of this new supercontinent has caused most distinctive geological features of its components to disappear, some can still be discerned, including Hudson Bay, the Novaya Zemlya archipelago and the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as the general outline of Africa.

One large global ocean with a single-current system gives rise to deadly hurricanes called hypercanes, which batter the coastlines of the continent all year long.

The survivors of the aforementioned mass extinction - fish, arthropods, worms and mollusks - populate the Earth and continue the process of adaptation and evolution.

The idea for The Future Is Wild was first conceived in 1996 by Joanna Adams, a British entrepreneur[3] who has previously produced documentaries on modern and extinct animals.

[4] The series was envisioned as an entertaining, informative and inspirational way to explain planetary change and evolution, suitable for the popular market worldwide.

[3] In 1996, the concept of the series, and ideas for an accompanying multimedia franchise, was first unveiled at the Frankfurt Book Fair and the MIPTV Media Market.

[7] The BBC hoped that the miniseries would repeat the success it had with its prehistoric nature documentary series Walking with Dinosaurs, which attracted 17 million viewers in 1999.

[3] ZDF Enterprises sold the television rights of the series to 18 markets: Belgium, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the Middle East, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovenia and Venezuela.

[9] Following the airing of the series, The Future Is Wild branched out into various other media, including books, children's entertainment, exhibitions, theme park rides, educational material and toys.

[11] Another children's reference work, also 96 pages long, was co-authored by Dougal Dixon and Joanna Adams in the 2010s, titled The Future Is Wild: Our World Tomorrow.

[10] The exhibition at Futuroscope was called Les Animaux du Futur [fr] and was inaugurated on 5 April 2008 by French politician Hervé Novelli.

The hall containing the models was designed to act as a "journey's end", after visitors have walked through the millions of years of prehistoric creatures exhibited elsewhere in the park.

[3][9][24] The fulldome film was made by Evans & Sutherland, in association with Discovery Channel International, Animal Planet and GOTO Optical Company[24] and is narrated by the American actor John de Lancie.

[15] Since The Future Is Wild is based on actual science concerning evolution, the environment, ecology and climate change, the series has been adapted into educational material.

[15] Marketed as "a unique mix of science and imagination combined with education and entertainment", there are United Kingdom curriculum specific lesson plans based on the series, which are freely available.

In France, experimental educational projects were coordinated with The Future Is Wild exhibition at Futuroscope, and included classroom resources such as printed charts and an interactive CD-ROM programme.

In a January 2016 interview, Williams stated that "we believe The Future Is Wild will be a spectacular franchise launch point for us into quality television" and also mentioned that Vanguard Animation was working on creating a 26-part science fiction action-adventure series, planned to be produced as an international co-production.

[5] Coinciding with this attempted revival of the franchise, The Future Is Wild was once more at the Frankfurt Book Fair and MIPTV Media Market events in 2016 to present new planned content.