ABU DHABI — The most beloved, wonder-filled science franchise in television history returns with a new, 13-episode, mind-blowing adventure when COSMOS: POSSIBLE WORLDS premieres Sunday at 8 p.m. UAE Time/ 7 p.m. KSA Time on National Geographic Abu Dhabi. This out-of-this-world trip through space and time will transport viewers across 13.8 billion years of cosmic evolution and deep into the future. The next chapter of COSMOS, continues the legacy of the groundbreaking series co-written with Ann Druyan and Steven Soter. The previous season of the popular series was viewed by over 135 million people worldwide. Many celebrities compose the noteworthy corps of actors who lend their voices to COSMOS: POSSIBLE WORLDS. This season includes Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning actor Seth MacFarlane as President Truman; Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated actor Sir Patrick Stewart (“Star Trek,” “X-Men”) as German, British-born astronomer William Herschel; Academy Award-nominated Viggo Mortensen (“The Green Book,” “The Lord of the Rings”) as Soviet plant geneticist Nikolai Vavilov; and Judd Hirsch (“A Beautiful Mind,” “Independence Day”) as Robert Oppenheimer, famously known as the “Father of the Atomic Bomb.” Druyan and Sagan’s daughter, author Sasha Sagan, appears in a recurring live-action role as Sagan’s mother, Rachel Gruber Sagan. Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist with the American Museum of Natural History, host of the four-time Emmy-nominated “StarTalk” series and best-selling author (Death by Black Hole,” “Letters from an Astrophysicist), returns as host and series executive science editor. This season begins with him on the shores of the cosmic ocean as COSMOS’ enhanced and upgraded ‘Ship of the Imagination’ and ‘Cosmic Calendar’ return, taking viewers on a journey through time and spanning a stunning variety of worlds. Throughout these adventurous episodes, COSMOS: POSSIBLE WORLDS integrates one-of-a-kind VFX, animations, holograms and stylized reenactments to carry viewers to never-before-seen worlds and meet unsung superheroes who have made possible our understanding of life’s spectacular voyage — from its origin at the bottom of the sea to its possible future on the exotic worlds of distant stars. This Emmy-winning, worldwide phenomenon is the brainchild of Emmy and Peabody Award winner Ann Druyan, creative director of NASA’s legendary Voyager Interstellar Message, who serves as creator, executive producer, writer and director, and Emmy-winning and Academy Award-nominated executive producers Seth MacFarlane, Brannon Braga and Jason Clark. “This third season of COSMOS: POSSIBLE WORLDS is our boldest yet,” says Druyan. “The ‘Ship of the Imagination’ will carry us places we never dared to venture before: lost worlds and worlds to come, deep into the future and straight through that hole in the curtain masking other realities – and all of it rigorously informed by science and made real by lavish VFX.” “National Geographic is proud to be the world’s leading destination for viewers who are passionate about science and exploration,” says Courteney Monroe, president of global television networks at National Geographic. “Which is why we’re excited for the next chapter of the most-beloved and most-watched science show to date, COSMOS, to return to our air. COSMOS: POSSIBLE WORLDS takes complex themes from astrophysics, astronomy and anthropology and makes them accessible and entertaining for millions of people around the world to devor.” — SG