If you loved Sigourney Weaver as the voice of the Marine Life Institute in Finding Dory, Disney’s got a whale of a tale for you: National Geographic’s four-part docuseries Secrets of the Whales, which is narrated by Weaver and coming soon to Disney+. ET is exclusively debuting a new clip.
“With her calm and confident voice, Sigourney brings both passion and gravitas to the series’ narration,” National Geographic Explorer and photographer Brian Skerry tells ET. “Many of these whale families are matrilineal and are led by the strongest and wisest females in the group.”
Executive produced by James Cameron (who directed Weaver in Alien and Avatar), Secrets of Whales was filmed over three years in two dozen locations to dive deep in whale culture and see how orcas, humpbacks, narwhals and more make friends, fall in love and deal with death.
The clip above is from the third installment, “Beluga Kingdom,” and documents beluga whales communicating with one another using given names, captured on camera for the first time. “They use special calls to keep tabs on everyone in the murk, maybe even individual names,” Weaver narrates the footage.
“What makes Secrets of the Whales special, is that we bring the audience into the world of whale cultures. Behavior is what we do, but culture is how we do it,” Skerry says. “Whale families and societies celebrate identity and pass down their ancestral traditions to their offspring. While firmly rooted in science, this series is less clinical in its approach and more cultural.”
All four episodes of Secrets of the Whales are streaming on April 22 on Disney+, with Skerry’s book of the same name and a special issue of National Geographic Magazine celebrating Earth Day both on sale now. See an exclusive photograph below.
