Tom Hiddleston has never had reviews like these — his Everest film is sitting at 100%
Tenzing, his Everest drama for Apple TV, holds a perfect score after the first wave of reviews.
Tom Hiddleston, best known to most of us as Loki from Marvel's blockbuster machine, has been quietly racking up one of the more varied CVs among British film stars. He might be synonymous with that mischief god, but there’s a lot more going on – and his newest project, Tenzing (set for release in 2026), is now drawing the kind of critical fuss every actor secretly wants.
Everest, Oscars, and an All-Star Cast
So, a bit of background: Tenzing is the latest from director Jennifer Peedom, who’s known for her serious love of mountaineering documentaries (*Sherpa*, *Solo*). The film zeroes in on the legendary 1953 Everest climb, when Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and New Zealand’s Sir Edmund Hillary did what was then considered impossible. Hiddleston plays Hillary – and yes, before you ask, it’s a proper leading role, not a ‘blink and you'll miss it cameo’.
The rest of the cast isn’t exactly lightweight either. You’ve got Willem Dafoe, Caitríona Balfe, and Thinley Lhamo supporting, but the real revelation, according to early viewers, is Genden Phuntsok, who brings some actual depth (spiritual and otherwise) to Tenzing Norgay himself. Critics out of Telluride and TIFF were flagging up his performance as a bit special – so don’t be surprised if you start hearing his name a lot more outside indie circles.
On Rotten Tomatoes, Tenzing currently holds a perfect 100% score, outpacing any prior Hiddleston film.
Tenzing had its world premiere at Telluride on 4 September and then hit TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) on 15 September – prime awards season positioning, if we’re being honest. Early reviews are just about unanimous, handing out praise to not only Phuntsok but also Hiddleston and Dafoe for their work, with plenty of mentions for Peedom’s knack with mountain visuals. She knows how to make a mountain look like something people would risk freezing to death for, which helps.
And for stats nerds: Tenzing's Rotten Tomatoes score puts it above Hiddleston’s previous high water marks, namely Midnight in Paris (93%), Thor: Ragnarök (93%), and Archipelago (96%). Of course, streaming release and general audiences could spoil that winning streak when it arrives in cinemas on 9 October and via Apple TV on 16 October, but for now Hiddleston’s never had a better run with critics.
The Biopic Niche… and What’s Next for Loki?
If you’re keeping score, this isn’t Hiddleston’s first time doing the whole ‘true story’ thing: he’s popped up as Hank Williams in I Saw the Light (2015) and even managed a quick turn as F. Scott Fitzgerald in Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris (2011). But Tenzing is already shaping up to be a career best, at least as far as Rotten Tomatoes and festival foam are concerned. There’s even some early talk of Oscar contention, though frankly, who knows at this stage.
- Tenzing — Hiddleston as Sir Edmund Hillary
- Genden Phuntsok as Tenzing Norgay
- Willem Dafoe
- Caitríona Balfe
- Thinley Lhamo
Somewhat predictably, Hiddleston’s not abandoning comic books for good. He’s set to return as Loki in Avengers: Doomsday, with the plot apparently spinning on Doctor Doom targeting heroes (or antiheroes) for their more dubious moral decisions, and Loki’s dodgy past – and, well, death – catching up once again. That picks up from where the Loki series left things: after the Trickster God nicked off with the Tesseract during the Avengers’ time-travel shenanigans, the TVA came calling, leading to all sorts of existential crises. Seems like the next Avengers will make all that timeline drama matter in a big way for Hiddleston.