Australians love a rough-and-tumble outback hero, but perhaps not as much as the rest of the world, whose first introduction to the continent came via Paul Hogan's Crocodile Dundee or the cheeky Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin.
For evidence, look no further than Tourism Australia ads in decades since or Irwin's posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
After Irwin's death and Hogan's star faded, the world has been waiting for Australia's next big outback export.
Enter Matt Wright: a charismatic real-life crocodile wrangler, wildlife relocator, tourism operator and helicopter pilot from Australia's remote Top End.
When a video of Wright snagging one of Australia's biggest crocodiles aired on the local nightly news more than a decade ago, his status as the next big Australian thing was all but set.
It didn't take long for National Geographic to announce a series that would follow him and his two mates, Willow and Jono, as they wrangled crocs against a backdrop of the Northern Territory's glittering waterholes and red sand plains.
Flash forward and as 2022 began, Wright — by then known globally as the Outback Wrangler — had four seasons of a hit show under his belt and a deal with the Nine Network and Netflix for another.
"The only person to compare me to is pretty much Steve Irwin and Bear Grylls," Wright reportedly said during an American interview ahead of the global release of his second series, Big Croc Territory.
The new show follows a similar format to his earlier series. The cameras follow Wright and his team as they find and trap problem crocs, wrap their snouts in gaffer tape, and relocate them somewhere they're less likely to get in the way.
The repetition is punctuated by dramatic mishaps, blokey banter, and liberal use of Aussie slang (translated on-screen for an international audience).
Within two weeks of the show's Netflix release in October, it had reached the streaming platform's list of top 10 TV shows globally and attracted a league of passionate international fans.
But by the end of November — just over six weeks since the show's Netflix debut — the 43-year-old was making headlines for very different reasons.
On Monday, NT Police announced they were issuing a warrant for his arrest following a helicopter crash that killed his co-star, fellow crocodile wrangler and best mate Chris "Willow" Wilson earlier this year.
The following day he arrived at Darwin Airport, from Queensland where he had been living, surrounded by men who jostled with a scrum of waiting reporters.
Hours later, he was charged with a slew of offences relating to the crash, including attempting to pervert the course of justice and destruction of evidence, before being released on bail.
Now, there are widespread media reports that Wilson's widow has asked Netflix to pull the series from its platform while the matter is before the courts.
Wright was not on board the chopper when it came down in a remote area of the Northern Territory's Arnhem Land, and through his lawyer has strenuously denied any wrongdoing in relation to the incident.
Wright's rise to the top
Wright's interest in wildlife was sparked at a young age.
He was born in South Australia and spent some of his early years in far north Queensland and Papua New Guinea.
In childhood, he would often catch snakes and spiders and keep them in his bedroom, according to an interview with The Advertiser.
"It just seemed to grow and grow, and in school holidays with my mate Jono, we'd be out catching brown snakes and scorpions and bringing them home," he said.
As an adult, Wright made his way through a long list of eclectic jobs, according to his website, dabbling in horse wrangling and crocodile egg collecting before focusing on relocating wild animals.
In a promotional interview, Wright said his interest in television started while he was working as a mustering pilot in Canada in the early 2000s.
But it would be another few years before his big break.
"I caught one of Australia's biggest crocs and it ended up on Sunday night Channel 7," he said.
"Once that went live, it went viral and every other national network around the world wanted to do something, and National Geographic came together with the right storyline."
Earlier this year, Wright told Fox News that while he enjoys the comparisons to Irwin — who he credits with paving the way for his own career — he never set out to be the next Crocodile Hunter.
He also never planned on becoming famous.
"I didn't set out to do TV. I set out to make a career," he told News Corp in 2017. "Fortunately what I've done in that career is quite interesting for the rest of the world to see."
Today, Wright has over half a million followers on Instagram. Earlier this year, the national broadsheet's youth publication, The Oz, ranked him 35th in their Influence Index — a list of Australia's top 100 most influential social media creators.
The NT Government put up $250,000 in production funding for the creation of Wild Croc Territory, describing Wright as "one of the true success stories out of the Northern Territory" and a "global export".
"We are incredibly proud of their work in sharing our Territory with 204 million Netflix viewers around the world," the territory's minister for industry Nicole Manison said in a statement last year.
And share the territory it does. The series is bursting with footage of vivid sunsets, sprawling outback vistas, crocs thrashing in slow motion, and glimpses of outback waterholes usually only accessible by helicopter.
And there for nearly every moment is Chris Wilson, affectionately known as "Willow".
The crash and the aftermath
Just before the final credits roll on Big Croc Territory, an on-screen message tells viewers of Wilson's death "a few weeks after the conclusion of filming".
The exact circumstances of the crash, what happened in its aftermath and the alleged details of Wright's involvement are still not clear.
What we know is in late February, Wilson was out on a job collecting crocodile eggs — a dangerous but common practice undertaken to support conservation, breeding and wild croc population control.
As part of the mission, he was hanging metres below the chopper in a "sling" — a device that allows access to the nests from above.
Two other helicopters were also out collecting eggs and raised the alarm when they noticed the third crew had not been communicating via radio.
The crash site was discovered in a paperbark swamp between Goulburn Islands and Maningrida, about 500 kilometres east of Darwin.
Wilson, 34, was found about 40 metres from the crash site and fatally injured, while the helicopter's pilot Sebastian Robinson was airlifted from the scene with serious injuries.
Because of the remote location, it took several hours for the first police officers to arrive at the site by boat.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau immediately launched an investigation, releasing their preliminary report in April. After examining the helicopter, they concluded the engine had stopped before the aircraft hit the ground but found no defects that would have caused the engine to fail.
Six months later, detectives dropped a bombshell.
Now former senior Northern Territory police officer, Neil Mellon, was arrested as he arrived at work in relation to the crash. He was charged with dozens of offences, including perverting the course of justice and destruction of evidence.
The following month, local bush pilot Michael Burbidge was also arrested and charged with four offences, including attempting to pervert the course of justice and destroying evidence. Both have faced court, but neither has entered pleas yet.
Finally, this week, Wright was charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice, destruction of evidence, fabricating evidence, interfering with witnesses and unlawful entry — all charges which he strenuously denies.
As part of his bail conditions, he is barred from contacting 50 people, including Mellon, Burbidge, and Wilson's wife, Danielle.
The Outback Wrangler out on bail
After his death, Wilson was remembered as a true outback icon — a larger-than-life personality who never let anything get in his way.
The memorial service held at Darwin's waterfront convention centre was the largest the city had seen in some time.
Before the service, paragliders descended from the sky with flags representing Wilson's two great loves: the territory and his family.
"Christopher was a loveable, larger-than-life, loud, sometimes frustrating, beautiful, sparkling, blue-eyed human being, we will always miss him," his father, Robert Wilson, told the service.
A tribute included in the final episode of Big Croc Territory dedicated the series to Wilson, who it said "was tragically killed while working in a remote part of his beloved Northern Territory".
Announcing the new show on his Instagram, Wright also said it would be "dedicated and in memory of my best mate Chris ‘Willow’ Wilson".
But earlier this week, it was reported that Danielle Wilson had written to Netflix requesting the series be taken down on account of the charges laid against Wright — who is also a co-executive producer on the show — and stating that she had "largely been kept in the dark" about the program since her husband's death.
Netflix has so far refused to comment on the matter and it is unknown whether the show will be renewed for a second season.
The saga has sent shock waves through the territory, where Wright is also a major player in the tourism industry. Alongside his wife, Kaia, who also features in the series, he operates a luxury retreat on the remote Tiwi Islands — billed as "living off the grid in a luxurious way" — and the Top End Safari Camp near Darwin.
The Northern Territory's crocodile industry, of which Wright is a part through his tourism ventures and crocodile egg harvesting, has been valued at more than $100 million.
Wright's team reportedly collect about 40,000 eggs each year for four farms, which he has described as "the most sustainable way to manage the population".
In a statement earlier this week, Wright's spokesperson described the crash as a "tragic accident that took the life of a close mate".
"His immediate concern following the accident was the condition of the two team members on board at the time," it read. "The next priority was ensuring the other helicopters and team members at the site weren't at risk and that the location was safe."
The matter is expected to return to court in January, and outside the hearing in Darwin this week Wright only had two words for reporters: "Going home".
