'The Elephant Queen' Trailer: Apple Gets Theatrical With This Nature Documentary

By Ben PearsonOct. 7, 2019 3:00 pm EST

Apple is beefing up its participation in the streaming wars with AppleTV+, but one of its upcoming streaming titles is debuting in theaters before it lands on the upcoming streaming service. The Elephant Queen, a new nature documentary about a family of pachyderms who must traverse the harsh African savanna in order to survive, is hitting theaters in just a few days, and it marks a return to the plains for Chiwetel Ejiofor, who narrates this doc and tried to usurp the Pride Rock throne as Scar in Jon Favreau's version of The Lion King just a couple of months ago. Watch the new trailer for The Elephant Queen below.

The Elephant Queen Trailer

Move over, DisneyNature. Take a hike, Planet Earth. Buzz off, Our Planet. You're not the only ones with slick-looking nature docs that tug at the heartstrings. AppleTV+ is getting into the game with The Elephant Queen, a film from Mark Deeble (Voyage of Time) and Victoria Stone's (The Queen of Trees), two filmmakers who have spent a combined 60 years making wildlife documentaries. The two reportedly spent 25 years living in the African bush to prepare for this movie, which Deadline says took four years to shoot.

And yes, those elephants are cute and everything, but did you see those baby geese? Fingers crossed that AppleTV+ decides to greenlight The Goose Queen immediately.

Here's the official synopsis:

Embark on an epic journey of family, courage, and coming home. The Elephant Queen is a genre-crossing wildlife documentary, uniquely crafted as a character driven narrative. Its enduring themes are built upon a foundation of authenticity and integrity, brought from filmmakers Mark Deeble (Voyage of Time) and Victoria Stone's (The Queen of Trees) 60 years of collective experience in the rich tradition of wildlife documentary filmmaking and production. Deeble and Stone, who are Emmy and Peabody Award-winners, spent 25 years living in the East African bush, preparing them for the unforgettable odyssey of The Elephant Queen.

The Elephant Queen is Athena, a majestic elephant matriarch, who leads her family across an unforgiving, yet cinematic natural landscape made up of grasslands and woodlands, dotted with seasonal waterholes. The elephants share their home with a cast of supporting character species who provide texture and richness to the elephants' ecosystem – from a toenail height perspective. Athena, as leader of her herd, anticipates the coming dry season and knows there are lean times ahead. As the waterholes dry up, she has no choice but to take her family on a treacherous journey across even more foreboding landscapes, as the majestic creatures seek refuge until the rains fall again.

The Elephant Queen arrives in theaters on October 18, 2019 (likely in order to contend at the Oscars in the Best Documentary Feature category), and it will be available to stream as soon as AppleTV+ debuts on November 1, 2019.