National Geographic has released a three-part docuseries, *Pompeii: Out of Time*, in which actor Tom Hiddleston plays a "time detective" investigating the final 24 hours before Mount Vesuvius destroyed Pompeii in 79 CE. The project grew out of Hiddleston's Marvel connections, as executive producer Kevin Wright previously worked with him on *Loki*, a series that featured a scene depicting the character visiting Pompeii; Hiddleston himself studied classics at Cambridge and had visited the ancient site as a teenager.

The series departs from typical documentary conventions by blending historical and scientific evidence with scripted dramatic reconstructions, following three specific individuals — a teenage boy, a local businesswoman and a Praetorian guard — to explore whether they survived the eruption. Wright said the approach draws on the concept of "historia", noting that the Latin words for "storytelling" and "history" are the same, an idea Hiddleston introduced to the production team, which was embraced enthusiastically by the show's historians and experts.