Netflix Just Released the Perfect Follow-Up to American Primeval

Untamed, the new limited series from American Primeval writer Mark L. Smith, premieres July 17, 2025, and it has everything you'd want in a summer thriller: murder, mystery, and a lot of trees.

Smith co-created Untamed with his daughter Ellie Smith, and the six-episode series shifts from the 1850s frontier to modern-day Yosemite National Park. When a visitor is found dead and mutilated, National Park Service agent Kyle Turner (played by Eric Bana) is sent in to investigate whether the culprit is human or animal — or something worse. Naturally, the deeper he goes, the weirder things get.

Here's who's along for the ride:

• Eric Bana as Kyle Turner, the lead investigator
• Sam Neill as Paul Souter, veteran park ranger with secrets of his own
• Rosemarie DeWitt as Jill Bodwin, Turner's ex-wife and former park counselor
• Lily Santiago as Naya Vasquez, an LAPD cop newly assigned to Yosemite
• Wilson Bethel as Shane Maguire, an ex-soldier turned wildlife manager

This is familiar territory for Mark L. Smith, who's quietly become Hollywood's go-to guy for survival stories. His resume includes:

• The Revenant (2015): 12 Oscar nominations, 3 wins, including Best Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Best Director (Alejandro G. Iñárritu)
• The Marsh King's Daughter (2023): a suspense thriller shot in Canada's Kawartha Lakes
• The Boys in the Boat (2023): the George Clooney-directed true story of a 1930s Olympic rowing team
• Twisters (2024): the sequel to Twister, taking on tornadoes in the Midwest
• American Primeval (2025): Netflix's blood-soaked miniseries about the Utah War

Between these and Untamed, Smith has pretty much cornered the market on man-versus-nature storytelling. Even when it's not nature you're supposed to fear.

And if the setting looks authentic, that's because parts of Untamed were filmed in Maple Ridge and Chip Kerr Park in Canada, standing in for Yosemite's dense wilderness.

Netflix is releasing all six episodes of Untamed at once, perfect for a weekend binge — just like American Primeval. And if the combination of Eric Bana brooding in the woods and Sam Neill back in a massive park where bad things happen doesn't sell you, consider this your Yellowstone-with-a-body-count alternative.

Untamed premieres on July 17.