The future is any time after the present. It's held in a level of mystery and awe.
The future in the Primeval universe has been changed and altered an uncertain number of times.
Known future times and places[]
Future city[]
The future city was the post-apocalyptic decaying ruins of an abandoned human city, located among spires of rock. It was inhabited by large colonies of Future Predators and Megopterans, and also by Future Maggots dwelling underground. (Episode 3.1, 3.3 3.8, 3.10) In this future world, humanity seemed to be extinct, having reportedly been wiped out by the Predators after the Anomaly Research Centre and/or Christine Johnson had artificially created Predators and lost control of them. (Episode 3.3, 3.8, 3.9) The cities' and buildings' stage of decay would suggest that this time period was no more than a few centuries after the end of civilisation. Hilary Becker observes that the modern design of the buildings and vehicles suggests that the catastrophe occurred in the near future not long after the 2000s. (Episode 3.8)
Future rainforest[]
In the Future Fungus' world, the Fungus lived in humid, rainforest-like woodland among mountains. The calls of unknown animals could also be heard among the distant landscape in the Fungus' future home. (Episode 3.5)
Future shoreline[]
The future shoreline was a rocky yellow coastal shoreline, where Mer Creatures lived together in large numbers on the shore and Future Sharks (presumably) in the waters. The climate at this world's shorelines appeared to be sunny and warm, though thunderheads were visible at sea, and the landscape visible inland from these shorelines was desert-like and barren-looking. Nick Cutter speculated that in this distant time, humanity was either long extinct or had "evolved back into the water where [they] came from" and become the Mer's ancestors. (Episode 2.4)
Sterile Earth[]
In the alternate future which Matt and Gideon Anderson came from, New Dawn - a project to use Convergence to create a massive, manmade Anomaly to harness energy from - went awry in the present, causing catastrophic atmospheric changes that rendered the Earth's surface sterile and unable to support life anymore. In the future, due to New Dawn's effects, the Earth's surface was a barren, hostile wasteland, frequently ravaged by toxic winds, and inhabitable only to Mutated Future Predators which preyed on the humans and fought amongst themselves for survival. In Matt's time period, the remaining humans were nomads moving between underground shelters due to the surface's hostile conditions. (Episode 4.7, Episode 5.6) Some other future species besides humanity and the Future Predators lived in this era but were adapted to burrowing underground, namely Giant Burrowing Insects and Future Beetles. (Episode 5.1, Episode 5.4) According to Matt, all life was invariably "either dead or dying." It's presumed that this future was derailed and negated after Matt's interference in the present successfully destroyed New Dawn and stopped the future apocalypse. (Episode 5.6)
Visits and incursions[]
Episode 1.6[]
A family of Future Predators (a mother, a father and five young) came through an Anomaly into the Permian period from their own time period in the future, and then went through another Anomaly to the present. The father Predator was shot and killed by Nick Cutter, the mother was killed by a Gorgonopsid in a fight, three of the young were eaten by the Gorgonopsid, and the remaining two survived and lived in the Permian.
Shadow of the Jaguar[]
A Future Bird apparently came through an Anomaly from the future to the Pliocene epoch, and then went through another Anomaly from there to Peru in the present, before returning through to the Pliocene.
Episode 2.4[]
A Future Shark and several Mer Creatures came through an Anomaly into the Isle of Dogs in the present, before the Anomaly closed. When the Anomaly reopened, Abby Maitland and a Mer Queen went through it into the Mer's future home, followed by Connor Temple, Stephen Hart and Nick Cutter.
Cutter and Connor were able to save Abby from falling from a cliff or being captured by the Mer Queen, and Cutter and Stephen then gunned the Mer Queen down and returned through the Anomaly to the present.
Episode 2.6/2.7[]
Neural Clamp technology and numerous Future Predators were acquired by Helen Cutter from the future and used by Oliver Leek as part of the latter's creature army. Two Mer Creatures were also captured for Leek's organisation. When Nick asked Helen about the future, she stated that she'd "discovered a lot of things." The Predators and Mer were all presumably killed when Nick, Helen and Stephen locked them and Leek's other creatures in the Creature Prison's cage room, where the trapped creatures destroyed each other.
Episode 3.1[]
Helen Cutter and her Cleaner Clones, as well as a squad of Christine Johnson's soldiers led by Ross, travelled through the Anomalies into a post-apocalyptic city ruins in the future. Ross and his men found the Artifact in an old building, but Ross was forced to retreat and return to the present without it when his men were attacked and killed in an old building by a pack of Future Predators. Helen then retrieved the Artifact and she and a Cleaner Clone fled with it through an Anomaly.
Episode 3.2/4.7[]
In the mid-1990s, an Anomaly to the future opened inside a house, and a Camouflage Beast came through. Patrick Quinn escaped through the Anomaly from the Camo Beast into the creature's home time, and the Anomaly then closed. Afterwards, Patrick Quinn spent years alone in the future, and had to kill many of the Camouflage Beasts to survive. Eventually, Patrick apparently escaped from the Camo Beasts' time period through another Anomaly.
Meanwhile in the present, after the Anomaly had closed and marooned it, the Camo Beast that had come through into the house inhabited and 'haunted' the house for the next fourteen years. When the Anomaly finally reopened, the Camouflage Beast first returned through the Anomaly, then changed its mind came back through into the present, before Danny Quinn shot it over and over until it fell back through the Anomaly. It is unknown whether or not the Camo Beast survived the gunshots.
Episode 3.3[]
Helen set about trying to negate the post-apocalyptic future world the Artefact had come from, by killing Nick Cutter and detonating a bomb in the Anomaly Research Centre; claiming that in that future, the ARC would eventually create the Future Predators in an act sanctioned by Nick, and that the Predators would escape, apparently hunt humanity to extinction, and cause the destruction of almost all of Earth's beauty. Although both objectives were a success, the future did not change.
Episode 3.4[]
Using an Anomaly to the future located in her headquarters, Christine Johnson had Future Predators taken and experimented on to try and learn more about the Predators and to discover how to control them.
Episode 3.5[]
An Anomaly to a future rainforest opened up in Sir Richard Bentley's apartment in the present. Lloyd went through the Anomaly into the future world, and was infected by Future Fungus spores there. Lloyd then tried to return through the Anomaly, but it closed on him; leaving Lloyd marooned in the future, where he was presumably taken over by the Fungus. The Future Fungus in the present was all eventually killed through freezing.
Episode 3.8[]
An Anomaly to the desolate city in the future (the one Ross' men and Helen Cutter visited) opened in a hangar at a race circuit and two Megopterans came through. The next day, Jack Maitland accidentally drove a sports car through the Anomaly and into the city in the future, where he became trapped in an old underground bunker.
The ARC team went through the Anomaly into the future city after Jack, where they were attacked by Future Predators numerous times before finding Jack in the bunker and rescuing him. Becker separated from the group to lure arriving Future Predators away, and Danny then blew up the bunker to kill a Megopteran nest in there and he and he and the rest of the group took shelter in an old bus as more Predators arrived and besieged it. While the Predators and several surviving Megopterans from the bunker were distracted fighting, the team made a run back to the Anomaly with Jack, meeting back up with Becker along the way.
After the Anomaly was unlocked, the team escaped through from the Megopterans and Future Predators back to the present, and then locked the Anomaly behind them. Meanwhile, Captain Joseph Wilder travelled into the city in the future through Christine Johnson's Anomaly, captured Helen Cutter (then disguised as Eve) and returning with her through Johnson's Anomaly to the present.
Episode 3.9[]
With killing Cutter having failed to change the future, Helen blamed Christine Johnson for the Future Predators' creation in the near future which would wipe out humanity, and so decided to kill Johnson to try and stop the Predators' future creation. After capturing Christine Johnson, Helen Cutter took Johnson with her through the Anomaly in Johnson's HQ and into the future. When Johnson was attacked by a Future Predator, she tried to escape back through the Anomaly; but the Predator apparently killed Johnson, and Johnson's Anomaly then closed.
Episode 3.10[]
When Johnson's death did not change the future either, Helen decided that the only way to stop the Future Predators from being created was by stopping humanity from evolving so that it would not exist to create the Predators in the first place.
Danny, Connor and Abby returned to the future through the race circuit Anomaly, and at the same time Johnson's Anomaly reopened. The trio accidentally lured three Megopterans through Johnson's Anomaly and into the latter's HQ in the present to save themselves, before entering the future Anomaly Research Centre, followed by a Future Predator. One of the Megopterans in Johnson's HQ in the present was trapped, and the other two were killed by electrocution.
In the future ARC, Helen captured Danny, Connor and Abby, before opening, escaping through and then closing an Anomaly to the Cretaceous period, and leaving the trio in the future to die. Connor reopened the Anomaly and the trio escaped through from a pack of Future Predators. Connor then closed the Anomaly behind them to stop the Predators from following them through.
Between Series 3 and Series 4 Prequel Webisodes[]
After Danny Quinn, Connor Temple and Abby Maitland did not return to the present, the ARC launched four failed rescue missions into the future in search of them. On the last mission, Sarah Page was killed by a Future Predator.
Pre-Series 4[]
Several human agents, among them Matt Anderson and his father Gideon, were sent back in time through the Anomalies from the future to prevent a manmade apocalypse (actually caused by New Dawn) from devastating the Earth and dooming all life on the planet, with Matt and Gideon being the ones to arrive in approximately the right time.
Episode 5.1[]
At some point pre-2011, a colony of approximately fifty Giant Burrowing Insects came through an Anomaly from the future to London in the present. One died of gunshot wounds to the face, and the rest were killed by a gas explosion.
After the ARC dealt with the incursion, Matt showed Abby videos and pictures of the aftermath of New Dawn in the future; in which cities and landmarks around the world were destroyed and in ruins, and the sky had already changed to match the Sterile Earth Desert's. Screaming, distant gunfire and sirens were audible in a video of London's ruins.
Episode 5.3[]
Using the New Dawn Prototype, Connor Temple and April Leonard successfully created the First Man-made Anomaly; a small, artificial Anomaly to the future.
Episode 5.4[]
A swarm of Future Beetles came through the First Man-made Anomaly from the future and invaded the ARC. The Queen of the swarm was shot and killed by Hilary Becker with an EMD, and the other Beetles were killed when Connor recalibrated the Anomaly to release a gamma ray into the ARC and close.
Episode 5.5[]
During Convergence, Philip Burton used the New Dawn Machine to create the New Dawn Anomaly, and Connor then fell through the Anomaly into the future.
Episode 5.6[]
Matt and Abby went into the future through the New Dawn Anomaly after Connor, and took shelter with him in a bunker from the toxic storms. After the storms passed, the trio returned to the surface and made a run for the New Dawn Anomaly. They were pursued by several Mutated Future Predators, but managed to escape back through the Anomaly to the present. Meanwhile, the First Man-made Anomaly reopened and two Predators came through from the future. Both Predators were incapacitated and contained by the ARC.
As the New Dawn Anomaly began to wreak havoc on Earth's atmosphere and weather patterns in the present, Matt and the ARC team set about stopping New Dawn and changing the future, by moving the First Man-made Anomaly into the New Dawn Anomaly; this successfully destablised and closed the Anomalies, presumably changing the future and negating the timeline where New Dawn had caused all life on Earth to slowly die away.
The Inquisition[]
Colonel Henderson Hall claimed to have seen the future, though it is unclear if he was being literal or metaphorical. He claimed that it was nothing himself nor Evan Cross wanted to live through, and implied it was the source of his belief that the present world was doomed to experience a now-inevitable environmental collapse.
Creatures[]
- Camouflage Beast
- Future Beetle
- Future Bird
- Future Fungus
- Future Maggot
- Future Predator
- Future Shark
- Giant Burrowing Insect
- Humans
- Megopteran
- Mer Creature
- Unidentified Creatures
Anomalies[]
Confirmed[]
- Isle of Dogs warehouse - future shoreline Anomaly
- Future city Anomaly
- Brooks house Anomaly
- Christine Johnson's Headquarters - future city Anomaly
- Richard Bentley's apartment - Future rainforest Anomaly
- Race circuit - future city Anomaly
- Future Anomaly Research Centre - Cretaceous forest Anomaly
- First Man-made Anomaly
- New Dawn Anomaly
Unconfirmed[]
Appearances[]
- Episode 1.6 (mentioned)
- Shadow of the Jaguar (mentioned)
- Episode 2.4
- Episode 2.7 (mentioned)
- Episode 3.1 (flashback)
- Episode 3.3 (flashback, mentioned)
- Episode 3.5
- Episode 3.8
- Episode 3.9 (flashback, mentioned)
- Episode 3.10
- Webisode 1 (flashback)
- Episode 4.1 (flashback)
- Episode 4.6 (flashback)
- Episode 5.1 (mentioned, video)
- Episode 5.6
- The Inquisition (possibly mentioned)
Trivia[]
- It was apparently confirmed by Tim Haines and Adrian Hodges that the future in Series 4 and Series 5 was indeed an alternate future to the one seen in Series 3.
- Due to the initial belief and theory, before Series 3, that the Future Predators evolved naturally from bats in the future over millions of years (as well as the fact that in Series 2, Helen did not mention nor make any attempt to negate the desolate future seen in Series 3), there is a popular fan belief that the future that Helen had originally visited and had taken the Neural Clamps (and the Predators in Oliver Leek's creature army) from between Series 1 and 2 was an alternate future to the one seen in Series 3.
- Tim Haines confirmed this theory in an interview; stating the Future Predators were originally ground-dwelling predators that evolved in the absence of primates, and indicating the Predators' artificial creation in the future city timeline was a result of widespread knowledge of the Anomalies leading to genetic experimentation.