Tom Hiddleston at the Disney 2026 Upfront Red Carpet

Tom Hiddleston Previews National Geographic’s ‘Pompeii: Out of Time’

July 17, 2026 Sophia Soto

While covering the Disney 2026 Upfront Red Carpet for The Nerds of Color, I spoke with host Tom Hiddleston about working on Pompeii: Out of Time. The three-part docudrama will premiere July 22 on National Geographic and begin streaming July 23 on Disney+ and Hulu.

Pompeii: Out of Time is a fusion of cinematic scripted drama and investigative documentary storytelling that transports audiences to ancient Rome in the hours before and during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Guided by a team of archaeologists, historians, geologists and disaster experts, Tom Hiddleston uncovers remarkable evidence — and the stories of real people that challenge long-held assumptions about Pompeii and its final hours — not least revealing that many of those caught up in the disaster had the chance to survive. Blending cutting-edge archaeological discoveries, expert analysis and deeply personal storytelling, the series reframes Pompeii not as a story of destruction but as a human drama of resilience, sacrifice and survival, revealing the lives, choices and destinies of those who stood in the shadow of Vesuvius.

“It has been the most thrilling journey to make this show. Before I kind of took a detour into acting, and it’s been a good 30 years of a detour, I actually studied classics, the Latin and Greek literature and culture, the ancient world, at university for my bachelor’s. I first went to Pompeii when I was 17, as part of a trip with two friends to Italy, and I’ve never forgotten it. It was the most extraordinary, because I’d been studying Latin at school, but it was suddenly made real. The ancient world is real. There’s an ancient Roman town beneath Mount Vesuvius, and because of the eruption in AD 79, it’s been perfectly preserved for two millennia,” the actor shared.

“To visit Pompeii is to feel time compress immediately, and you can walk through the city as if the volcano erupted last week, and it’s so alive. The past is a living, breathing thing, and I’ve always felt we tell stories about the past to understand something about the present. We’re always trying to feel less alone in the world, our experience of being alive, and that time going to Pompeii when I was 17 kind of led to this fascination and curiosity with the ancient world, which I studied as my bachelor’s. Then, Nat Geo came to me and asked me to go back to Pompeii at the age of 45, some distance between us — not 2,000 years, but a good 30, just under — and they asked me to go back and tell the stories of what happened to the real people who were living in Pompeii on the day of the eruption, that fateful day. What I’ve loved about it is I get to track ordinary people, real Romans, and the choices they make through this extraordinary time, and I feel as though I’ve got to know them.”