{"id":804437,"date":"2026-07-16T17:59:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T17:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/804437\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T17:59:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T17:59:11","slug":"tom-hiddleston-explains-how-paved-the-way-for-pompeii-out-of-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/804437\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Hiddleston Explains How Paved the Way for Pompeii: Out of Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tTom Hiddleston<\/a> laughs at the notion that his new National Geographic series, Pompeii: Out of Time<\/a><\/a>, is the product of the same machinations that defined his signature character of Loki<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMarvel fans might recall that in the second episode of Marvel Studios\u2019 Loki series,\u00a0the then-God of Mischief and Mobius (Owen Wilson) time-traveled to Pompeii in 79 AD just moments before Mount Vesuvius\u2019 volcanic eruption killed thousands of people across a half-dozen Roman towns and settlements.<\/p>\n

\n\tHiddleston did suggest the Pompeii scene to the Loki creative team at the time, but it was less about playing the long game and more about merging two of his longtime passions.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt would be Loki-level strategy to concoct an entire series for Marvel Studios\/Disney+ and then pitch a Pompeii sequence, only to later secure a series for National Geographic,\u201d Hiddleston tells The Hollywood Reporter in support of Pompeii: Out of Time\u2019s July 22 premiere on Nat Geo, followed by its Disney+ and Hulu streaming release on July 23.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe origin of Pompeii instead goes all the way back to 1998 when a 17-year-old Hiddleston and two friends took a trip to the Campania region of Italy. What began as fun in the sun with lots of pizza consumption soon turned into a life-changing experience for the British teenager. That\u2019s when he visited the remnants of Pompeii and its neighboring city, Herculaneum, which have been excavated and preserved in astonishing detail. The site essentially serves as an archaeological memorial for Vesuvius\u2019 victims. Hiddleston could see how they lived, but also how they died, as the remains of 100 Romans are still on display by way of plaster casts. \u201cI felt the 2000 years between me and the inhabitants of Pompeii compress,\u201d Hiddleston says.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAn archive photograph of Tom Hiddleston at age 17, standing on top of Mount Vesuvius, during his first trip to Pompeii and Herculaneum with friends in 1998. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAnthony Bowles<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen Hiddleston received an inquiry about developing a Nat Geo project, he went right to Pompeii, and the powers that be quickly warmed to the synergistic relationship between Loki and what is now its stablemate, Pompeii: Out of Time. \u201cEverybody saw the fun in using Loki as a jumping-off point and a connecting of the dots,\u201d says Hiddleston\u2019s producing partner, Kevin R. Wright<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tHiddleston credits his formative tour of Pompeii for his interest in the ancient world, as well as his pursuit of acting. At the University of Cambridge, he degreed in Classics, which is shorthand for ancient Greek and Roman studies. His three-year program even included Latin courses, the primary tongue of Pompeii. Ahead of Loki, Hiddleston made a point to brush up on the classical language of ancient Rome so that Loki could futilely warn the Pompeians of the impending apocalyptic event.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tA CGI depiction of Mount Vesuvius erupting in AD 79. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNational Geographic<\/p>\n

\n\tThe other domino that fell en route to Hiddleston executive producing Pompeii involved his fictional brother in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Chris Hemsworth<\/a> has played Thor, the God of Thunder, in seven films opposite Hiddleston\u2019s Loki, beginning with Kenneth Branagh\u2019s 2011 film, Thor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 2022, Hemsworth launched his own Nat Geo series called Limitless in order to test the limits of his mind and body. Hiddleston was so impressed by the exploits of his friend from work that he can still recall specific details from the two-season series, such as Hemsworth swimming 250 yards in frigid Arctic waters or walking across a crane atop a 900-foot-high Sydney skyscraper. Additionally, Hiddleston was particularly moved by Hemsworth\u2019s Nat Geo documentary, A Road Trip to Remember, in which he hits the road with his father Craig. Together, in response to the latter\u2019s early-stage Alzheimer\u2019s diagnosis, they revisit meaningful places to the Hemsworth family and reignite memories. (Writer-director Tom Barbor-Might worked on both Hiddleston and Hemsworth\u2019s projects.)<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen National Geographic got in touch about making something in the non-fiction space, I definitely felt really encouraged by Chris\u2019 experience,\u201d Hiddleston says. \u201cI could see that working in this way actually stretches you as a performer, and it became a thrilling expansion of my curiosity about different types of storytelling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHiddleston knew he wanted to tell the story of Pompeii, but he needed to do so in an innovative way. Most of all, he strived for the audience to feel the same feeling he had during his first visit to Pompeii nearly 30 years ago. What resulted is one of the most unique docudramas to date. Hiddleston functions as the host and an \u201camateur classicist\u201d who seeks to understand the fates of three real Romans during the 24-hour long eruption of Mount Vesuvius.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTom brings an extraordinary combination of intellect, curiosity and heart to this journey,\u201d says National Geographic\u2019s content president Courteney Monroe. \u201cWe have created a bold, immersive series that makes the ancient world feel urgent and impossible to look away from.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHiddleston relies on professors, scholars, archaeologists and psychologists to piece together what happened to a teenage blacksmith apprentice, a businesswoman\/bathhouse proprietor and an unidentified Praetorian guard. In between Hiddleston\u2019s present-day investigation, a cinematic dramatization tracks all three people\u2019s unique experiences during the disaster that unleashed 100,000 times more thermal energy than the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. It goes to show that while mankind can be incredibly destructive, Mother Nature is a force not to be trifled with.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tProfessor Caitie Barrett and Tom Hiddleston explore the ruins of the house of Julia Felix at Pompeii. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNational Geographic\/Paolo Verzone<\/p>\n

\n\t2,000 years from now, documentarians will probably be burdened by the overabundance of recorded information from our current era, leaving very little to the imagination. Conversely, there are moments throughout Pompeii where the trail goes cold due to insufficient documentation from 2,000 years ago, frustrating Hiddleston in the process. Thus, he employs an acting technique where he combines available evidence and imagination in order to form the most logical conclusions possible. Similar to the Loki series\u2019 time mechanics, he\u2019ll occasionally rewind and replay moments based on new data that redefines each character\u2019s story.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tTo tell this ambitious story, Hiddleston called on his right-hand man from Loki, the aforementioned Wright<\/a>. In 2018, the former U.S. Marine turned Marvel Studios executive approached Hiddleston with a 30-page pitch for a Loki-led spinoff series. The presentation contained many of the foundational pillars that would constitute the future crown jewel of Marvel\u2019s offerings on Disney+. In the middle of wrapping their two-season series in 2023, Hiddleston realized it was his turn to pitch Wright. That\u2019s when he proposed a production partnership known as Ithaca, a reference to the island home of the mythological Greek hero, Odysseus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAt a time when Christopher Nolan\u2019s The Odyssey is hitting theaters, Hiddleston admits that the timing of Ithaca\u2019s debut project is rather fortuitous, especially since Matt Damon, Nolan\u2019s Odysseus, played a version of Hiddleston\u2019s Loki in Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and Thor: Love and Thunder (2022). \u201cThe [Odyssey] story I often reference is essentially about being careful at the finish line. On shoots, everyone gets excited near the finish,\u201d Hiddleston says. \u201cAnd I\u2019ll be like, \u2018Well, hang on, guys. We haven\u2019t seen the shores of Ithaca yet. That\u2019s why our company is called Ithaca.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs for the future of the character who helped pave the way for Pompeii: Out of Time, Hiddleston will reprise the role of Loki in December\u2019s Avengers: Doomsday<\/a>. Considering how well Loki season two completed the now-God of Stories\u2019 arc, it could\u2019ve easily served as Hiddleston\u2019s swan song in the MCU. But he assures fans that Loki\u2019s evolution won\u2019t be for naught. \u201cLoki felt like a closure. And when Marvel called about Avengers: Doomsday, it was going to be starting from that end point,\u201d Hiddleston shares. \u201cSo there was no sense of unstitching or undoing all of that development. That development still stands as a place to begin.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t***
National Geographic\u2019s Pompeii: Out of Time with Tom Hiddleston premieres July 22 on Disney+ and Hulu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tom Hiddleston laughs at the notion that his new National Geographic series, Pompeii: Out of Time, is the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":804438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,22160,447,2021,134,377692,218876,377693,156075],"class_list":["post-804437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-avengers-doomsday","tag-celebrities","tag-chris-hemsworth","tag-entertainment","tag-kevin-r-wright","tag-loki","tag-pompeii-out-of-time","tag-tom-hiddleston"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/804438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}