Tom Hiddleston is once again going on an adventure with the Apple TV+ miniseries, The White Darkness. The actor has been roped in to play the lead role in the limited series, which is based on the non-fiction book of the same name by David Grann.
Grann is famous for penning novels like the bestseller The Lost City of Z, which was also adapted into a feature film helmed by James Gray. His Killers of the Flower Moon is also being adapted into a film by Eric Roth, with Martin Scorsese serving as the director.
According to Deadline, The White Darkness is being developed by Soo Hugh, who has also developed Pachinko for Apple TV+. Besides Hugh, Mark Heyman is co-writing Black Swan and penning the upcoming Stephen King adaptation, The Boogeyman, and will serve as the showrunner for The White Darkness along with Hugh.
Besides playing the lead, Hiddleston will also executive produce the show with Caroline Garity (Pachinko), with Apple Studios helming the production. It is the second collaboration between Apple and Hiddleston, who will also star in Apple’s upcoming The Essex Serpent.
The White Darkness: A True Account of Adventure
The White Darkness is based on the true accounts from the life of Henry Worsley or Lt. Col. Alastair Edward Henry Worsley. He was in the British military and was a well-known explorer who joined the 2009 expedition that retraced Ernest Shackleton’s foot journey to the Antarctic. Hiddleston will essay the role of the former officer and explorer in the series.
Worsley was enamored by the works of Shackleton and is remembered for his journey across Antarctica, which he planned to finish on foot without any support or assistance. The novel and probably the series will focus on his Into The Wild-Esque journey and going back in flashes to his personal life and experience in the military.
Worsley had quite an exciting life. He had a knack for sports from his early days, captaining his school’s cricket and rugby teams. He graduated from Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and served in Afghanistan, Northern Ireland, Bosnia, and Kosovo. For his service in Northern Ireland, he was awarded Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1993. And then, he decided to follow in the steps of his idol Shackleton and explore the cruel winters of the Antarctic. Commissioned in 1988 as a second lieutenant, Worsley rose in ranks and was made Lieutenant Colonel in 2000. It was after he retired in 2015 that he sought the journey across Antarctica on foot to fulfill his desire to be the first man to do so without external support or assistance.
Given the description of Worsley’s life’s accounts, Hiddleston, who is famous for essaying such mischievous yet enthralling characters, is the right choice for the series. Hiddleston is renowned for portraying the role of Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, for which he has won newfound acclaim after he reprised the role in the titular Disney+ original.
Currently, Hiddleston is awaiting the release of The Essex Serpent and is preparing for the second season of Loki, which shall premiere in 2023.
