Fox and National Geographic will be premiering Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey in spring 2014, a new series hosted by mainstream astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.
The show intends to continue from Carl Sagan’s definitive PBS series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage which debuted in 1980. Sagan’s widow Ann Druyan, who was a pivotal producer in the original series, will also be an executive producer and writer for the new series, CNET reported. Astronomer Steven Sotler, another contributor to the original series, and Seth MacFarlane also will be executive producers for the new series, Vulture reported.
MacFarlane advocated to get the new series on Fox after deGrasse Tyson mentioned the idea at a lunch meeting years prior, CNET reported.
“There’s never been a more important time for Cosmos to re-emerge than right now. I want to make this so entertaining, and so flashy, and so exciting that people who have no interest in science will watch just because it’s a spectacle,” MacFarlane said.
The San Diego Comic-Con featured a panel of Druyan and deGrasse Tyson to discuss and showcase the trailer for the upcoming series. “It’s a thrill to take the Ship of the Imagination out for another spin. We are going places none of us have ever been before, using capabilities that just didn’t exist back when we were making the original series. All that, and yet it feels so much like the first time,” Druyan said.