{"id":14091,"date":"2026-07-23T01:18:34","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T20:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=14091"},"modified":"2026-07-23T01:18:34","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T20:18:34","slug":"out-of-time-with-tom-hiddleston-aims-at-a-young-audience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=14091","title":{"rendered":"Out of Time with Tom Hiddleston&#8217; Aims at a Young Audience"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tIn 2024, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/loki\/\" id=\"auto-tag_loki\" data-tag=\"loki\">Loki<\/a>\u201d star <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/tom-hiddleston\/\" id=\"auto-tag_tom-hiddleston\" data-tag=\"tom-hiddleston\">Tom Hiddleston<\/a> reunited with the film\u2019s executive producer Kevin R. Wright to create a documentary that wasn\u2019t about a salacious murder, a cult or Hiddleston\u2019s acting career. Instead, the duo set out to make a doc about Pompeii and the attempts of three real Romans to survive the ancient city\u2019s final hours after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe result is \u201cPompeii: Out of Time with Tom Hiddleston,\u201d a three-part <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/nat-geo\/\" id=\"auto-tag_nat-geo\" data-tag=\"nat-geo\">Nat Geo<\/a> docuseries that blends \u201cLoki\u201d-inspired time travel with scripted drama and interviews between Hiddleston \u2013 the \u201cTime Detective\u201d \u2013 and archaeologists, historians, geologists, and disaster experts. Hiddleston examines long-held assumptions about the disaster and pours over ancient records and artifacts that bring to life the humanity and resilience of Pompeii\u2019s inhabitants.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tIt\u2019s an ambitious, entertaining hybrid show with the potential to pull off the impossible by attracting a wider audience including younger viewers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cWe certainly feel like we\u2019ve unlocked an exciting format,\u201d Wright told <em>Variety<\/em>. \u201cWe partially felt free to mash forms together because of how people consume media now anyway. You\u2019re on your phone and scroll from clips from movies and shows, to a news story, to your friend\u2019s travel photography and vacation videos. Our brains are kind of used to jumping around, for better or worse. And so we didn\u2019t think it would be a shock to the system for us to interweave our story in a similar manner.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tSeries showrunner and director Tom Barbor-Might said that one reason drama, character, and time travel were incorporated into the docuseries was to attract a broad audience.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cI am always interested in breaking down distinctions between genres, using dramatic techniques in factual stories and vice versa,\u201d said Barbor-Might. \u201cI think part of the secret sauce of \u201cPompeii: Out of Time\u201d is that we use two forms of filmmaking, documentary and drama, to tell one story. I hope this hybrid approach means that we can attract audiences that might not normally watch more traditional historical documentaries \u2013 including the highly cineliterate younger people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tIn each episode of \u201cPompeii: Out of Time,\u201d Hiddleston time-travels between the present-day ruins of Pompeii and Pompeii in August A.D. 79, which was recreated on a stage in Malta. With a twist of his hand, Hiddleston takes the audience back in time to meet Avianius, a teenage bronzesmith apprentice, Julia Felix, a bathhouse owner, and an unnamed Praetorian guard. With the help of experts, he pieces together how each confronted the volcanic eruption.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cThe way we tell the story is the way I\u2019ve always learned,\u201d said Hiddleston, who studied Classics at Cambridge University. \u201cI couldn\u2019t help but have this overactive imagination when I was studying history and literature. So when I read \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d in Greek, I would cast it in my head. I would see it like a movie.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tHiddleston first visited the ruins of Pompeii in 1998 as a 17-year-old student traveling for the first time without adult supervision.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cUntil that trip, the study of the ancient world was in books,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was in the classroom. It was homework. So that trip  was the first time that I understood that the past was a place that you could visit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tHiddleston visited Pompeii again in 2021 via a green screen for the second episode of \u201cLoki\u201d season 1. In the episode, Loki and Mobius (Owen Wilson) time-travel to Pompeii moments before the disaster began. Two years later. Plimsoll producer Alan Eyres approached the star about making a documentary about the ancient city for Nat Geo and Disney+.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tHiddleston signed on partially because of his fascination with Pompeii and partially because he was inspired by his \u201cThor\u201d co-star, Chris Hemsworth\u2019s two Nat Geo series, \u201cA Road Trip to Remember\u201d about Hemsworth\u2019s dad\u2019s Alzheimer\u2019s diagnosis and \u201cLimitless,\u201d which follows Hemsworth as he attempts to find and demonstrate secrets to a living longer, healthier life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tBarbor-Might directed \u201cRoad Trip\u201d and the season finale of the first season of \u201cLimitless\u201d called \u201cAcceptance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cThe very first time (Tom and I) met, even before green-light \u2014 when we were still developing and packaging the show, we spoke a lot about \u2018Road Trip\u2019 and \u2018Limitless,\u2019 said Barbor-Might. \u201cIn both \u2018Acceptance\u2019 and \u2018Road Trip,\u2019 I started with a playful and comedic tone that draws you in before the story slowly becomes highly emotional. I think this approach reassured Tom that we could tell a documentary story but also access the same emotional depths and character empathy that are more common to drama.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tWhile Hiddleston, Barbor-Might and Wright discussed various films which did something interesting with the form, they were primarily inspired by fear of \u201cgetting it wrong and making the bad version of the show,\u201d said Wright.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cDocudrama is almost a dirty word because it conjures images of wooden costume dramas, bad togas, unemotional scenes, scored with a cheesy pan-flute,\u201d Wright said. \u201cSo every step of the way we actively were thinking about how we could make it more engaging, experiential, emotional, and heartfelt. How can we freshen up a genre that has largely stagnated? It\u2019s freeing to allow yourself to be led by desire. What do I wish these movies\/shows did? Okay, well let\u2019s just do that!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cPompeii: Out of Time\u201d premieres July 22 on Nat Geo, before its July 23 streaming release on Disney+\/Hulu.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2024, \u201cLoki\u201d star Tom Hiddleston reunited with the film\u2019s executive producer Kevin R. Wright to create a documentary that wasn\u2019t about a salacious murder, a cult or Hiddleston\u2019s acting career. Instead, the duo set out to make a doc about Pompeii and the attempts of three real Romans to survive the ancient city\u2019s final&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/101_Tremors_PompeiiOutOfTimeWithTomHiddleston_009.jpg?crop=0px%2C97px%2C3000px%2C1687px&resize=1000%2C563","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}