Nat Geo sets 'Genius' season four for Feb 2024 release

Los Angeles: The fourth season of critically-acclaimed National Geographic series "Genius" will premiere in the US on February 1, 2024.

According to American news outlet Variety, the first two episodes of season four will premiere on February 1 on Nat Geo and will stream the next day on Disney+ and Hulu.

The new chapter of the anthology series is titled "Genius: MLK/X” and centres on the two geniuses of the Civil Rights Movement in the US -- Dr Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X.

It features Kelvin Harrison Jr as King and Aaron Pierre as X with Weruche Opia as Coretta Scott King, and Jayme Lawson as Betty Shabazz.

The eight-episode series also marks one of the last roles for Ron Cephas Jones, who passed away in August 2023.

"Genius: MLK/X” follow both King and X from their formative years, where they were "molded by strong fathers and traumatic injustices, to their rich, parallel stories as they shaped their identities and became the change they wished to see in the world", as per the official plotline.

"Influenced as children by different upbringings and experiences: King by the Jim Crow-era South and life in the church before finding his voice at Morehouse and Boston University, and X growing up under the constant, deadly violence of the Klan and falling into a life of vice and incarceration where he was introduced to the Nation of Islam and found his voice. The two visionaries ultimately rose to pioneer a movement," it added.

Raphael Jackson Jr. and Damione Macedon are co-showrunners and executive producers of the fourth season, which is produced by 20th Television.

"Genius" started in 2017 with its first season on the life of famous German scientist Albert Einstein. The second season came out in 2018 and focused on Spanish painter Pablo Picasso. Its third season, which debuted in 2021, centered around music icon Aretha Franklin.