Steven Spielberg's Colossal 4-Part Netflix Series Surges Toward 100M Viewing Hours in 2026

Published Aug 10, 2026, 11:27 AM EDT Shawn Van Horn is a Senior Author for Collider. He's watched way too many slasher movies over the decades, which makes him an aficionado on all things Halloween and Friday the 13th. Don't ask him to choose between Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees because he can't do it. He grew up in the 90s, when Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond, and TGIF were his life, and still watches them religiously to this day. Larry David is his spirit animal. His love for entertainment spreads to the written word as well. He has written two novels and is neck deep in the querying trenches. He is also a short story maker upper and poet with a dozen publishing credits to his name. He lives in small town Ohio, where he likes to watch professional wrestling and movies. Steven Spielberg is one of Hollywood's all-time greatest visionaries due to his ability to bring the impossible to life on the big screen. With Jaws, audiences were terrified even by what they didn't see, and left in awe of aliens thanks to the likes of Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. There's also no diminishing what Spielberg did with dinosaurs as a producer on The Land Before Time — as well as, of course, his time behind the camera on Jurassic Park and its sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park. In 2026, the 79-year-old Spielberg most prominently returned to the world of aliens with Disclosure Day, but he also returned to his fascination with dinosaurs as the executive producer of Netflix's The Dinosaurs. The docuseries, narrated by the great Morgan Freeman, is an emotional and jaw-dropping examination of the species that walked the Earth millions of years ago. Netflix's 'The Dinosaurs' Is a Visual Spectacle A big part of what has defined Jurassic Park's success, both at its premiere in 1993 and in the decades since, is its special effects. A combination of state-of-the-art CGI from Industrial Light & Magic and practical animatronics by Stan Winston allowed dinosaurs to feel real for the first time, as if viewers could reach through the screen and actually touch them. No matter how much the rest of the franchise has declined without Spielberg's contributions, audiences are still turning out in droves to see dino mayhem. The Dinosaurs, which was released on Netflix in March, isn't a work of fiction, but it benefits from two major pieces of Jurassic Park's original success: Spielberg's contribution as executive producer and ILM's work on special effects. The result is an all-encompassing journey into the history of dinosaurs, from their very beginning to their sudden and violent end. From the scales of a Triceratops to the feathers of a bird-like Hesperornis, ILM's expansive animation drops the viewer into eras long before man ever existed. Just as important is what the effects team does to the dinosaurs' surroundings, giving equal attention to a blade of grass moving in the wind as they do to an impressive ball of fire bringing doom to an entire civilization. 'The Dinosaurs' Is an Unexpectedly Emotional Watch Chances are you remember Spielberg's previously released Life on Our Planet, which also includes Freeman narrating the action. The 2023 Netflix docuseries adopted a wider scope in its exploration of life, from its early origins to the reign of humans. Dinosaurs are only a mere part of that story, whereas in The Dinosaurs, which serves as a spiritual successor of sorts, they're front and center. Watching a group of animated dinos walk around eating grass and each other could get dull pretty quickly if not for a wise decision: The Dinosaurs goes for the heartstrings by following an individual dinosaur through an era. It's impossible not to get attached to this singular being trying to survive in an ever-changing world. The result is an emotional and awe-inspiring journey that will even make you shed a few tears if you're paying attention. When The Dinosaurs first premiered in March, it pulled in an astounding 10.4 million views on Netflix in its first week. The streamer was all about dinos, with the Jurassic World movies dominating the U.S. Top 10 as well. Yet it wasn't a case of a series doing well for a week, only to disappear afterward. According to Netflix's "What We Watched the First Half of 2026" report, released in July, The Dinosaurs earned even more attention over the next several months for a cumulative achievement of almost 100 million viewing hours to date. Other movies and shows certainly come and go on Netflix, here one week and forgotten the next. The Dinosaurs is a different story. People have always been fascinated by these ancient creatures, and as the streaming numbers prove, Spielberg's new docuseries, like the subjects it explores, has timeless appeal. The Dinosaurs Release Date March 6, 2026