Tom Hiddleston (45) is trading the martial Marvel universe for a real catastrophe. The British actor hosts the three-part documentary series "Pompeii with Tom Hiddleston", which National Geographic will air starting Sunday, July 26, at 9:50 p.m. The docu-drama will be available for streaming on Disney+ starting July 23.
Reunion with the "Loki" producer
Behind the Plimsoll Productions production is a familiar team: Hiddleston is once again working with Kevin R. Wright (43), the executive producer of the Marvel series "Loki". Instead of time travel in fantasy costumes, this time there's a journey into real history. The series blends cinematic reenactments with documentation, combines archaeology with scenic cinematography, and transports viewers to ancient Rome, specifically to the hours before and during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
Hiddleston is supported by a team of archaeologists, historians, geologists, and disaster experts. Together they unearth findings that challenge long-held assumptions about the city's final hours. One thesis of the series: Many of those affected would have had a genuine chance to escape the eruption.
From Cambridge seminar to the Marvel universe
For the Brit, antiquity is no new acquaintance. Before Hiddleston studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he studied classics at Pembroke College in Cambridge. His big breakthrough still came through a Norse god: Since the Marvel film "Thor" (2011), he has played his adoptive brother Loki, most recently in his own series that launched on the streaming service Disney+ in 2021. His 2017 Golden Globe, however, came not from comic material but from playing spy Jonathan Pine in the Le Carré adaptation "The Night Manager".
In his private life, Hiddleston lives with fellow actress Zawe Ashton (41). The two met in 2019 during the play "Betrayal" and have two children. The stage has accompanied him throughout his career anyway, including in adaptations of classic Shakespeare plays for BBC television.
Three fates, one countdown
Classic material, then, as with the National Geographic docu-drama "Pompeii with Tom Hiddleston". The catastrophe is told through three stories of real people whose traces can be found in the ruins.
An apprentice, an influential businesswoman, and a mysterious Praetorian (member of the Roman emperors' elite guard) face decisions that are nearly impossible to make but determine who survives-and who doesn't.
Not a destruction drama, but human fates
"The ancient world has fueled my imagination and awakened my curiosity for as long as I can remember", Hiddleston says according to the press release. Anyone who visits Pompeii experiences how "the temporal gap of 2,000 years between then and now" seems to shrink. The city is known primarily for its end, yet upon closer inspection, the details of everyday life and the moments before the burial can be uncovered. Bringing these fates back into the light, he calls "a great honor".
Wright, in turn, brings his signature style from "Loki" and wants to bring history to the screen differently than usual. The series portrays Pompeii not as a narrative of destruction, but as the sum of human dramas.
