Bear Grylls is coming to Netflix with a brand-new wilderness series — but this one has a twist. On You vs. Wild, the viewer chooses what Grylls does as he encounters dangerous and exciting obstacles.
This isn’t new for Netflix, as they have been experimenting with Choose-Your-Own-Adventure styled interactive stories for over a year now.
However, in the past, it was through animation, such as the Puss in Boots and Minecraft: Story Mode. In 2018, a new episode of Black Mirror titled Bandersnatch brought the interactive experience to a live-action drama.
In the case of You vs. Wild, it is strikingly different.
Bear Grylls heads out to remote locations around the world for each episode and there is a branching narrative for viewers to choose from when it comes to his decision making.
Keep in mind that, for this to work, he had to film both options so no matter what the viewer chose, he can accomplish their wishes. That makes it a little disingenuous, but it does bring up the question of which one he did first and how they were able to replicate the event for the second take of filming.
Here is the You vs. Wild trailer that hit today.
As you can see, there is at least one option here where it was clear which option he had to film first. He was on a mountain and saw a mountain lion at the top. The viewer is asked whether he should climb up and face the lion or climb down into the abyss.
There isn’t much of a chance the mountain lion stuck around, so he likely went up first and then repeated his task and went down for the second take.
Other events in the trailer have the viewer deciding which cave he should venture into, what he should do to escape a thick forest, or what he should do on a white water rapids excursion.
However, Netflix might hope people don’t think about that too much, as the fun is seeing Bear Grylls do whatever they ask him to do, including eating what looks like a small, slimy slug-like creature.
Bear Grylls’ You vs. Wild premieres on Netflix on April 10.