Kirk Fogg tapped for what he says is a “surreal” return to Legends Of The Hidden Temple

By Marah Eakin | March 23, 2016 | 3:00pm

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Kirk Fogg tapped for what he says is a “surreal” return to Legends Of The Hidden Temple

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Denim and khaki clad guide Kirk Fogg will return to Nickelodeon’s Hidden Temple: The original host of Legends Of The Hidden Temple will return for this fall’s TV movie adaptation of the game show, once again calling upon the powers of Olmec to help him guide a bunch of wily kids through the shrine of the silver monkey.

In the new movie, three siblings—played by Isabela Moner, Colin Critchley, and Jet Jurgensmeyer—get into a little bit of trouble when they go off book during a temple tour run by Fogg. And while a bunch of the show’s old trappings will be back—including the aforementioned Olmec, as well as the Steps Of Knowledge, the iconic entrance to the temple, and representations of the show’s colorful, animal-centric teams—things are a bit different this time around, and not just because Legends is no longer a game show.

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In an interview with The A.V. Club, Fogg said he’ll be back in the movie as a temple guide, though now that it’s “25 years later, things [at the temple] have gotten a little threadbare.” Fogg’s character—also named Kirk Fogg—is still hanging in there, though, because he’s “a believer in the temple.” Fogg also says his appearance should provide the kid-friendly project with, as he puts it, “the punctuation to the authenticity of what [Nickelodeon] is doing.”

Given that Legends was cancelled over 20 years ago, Fogg understandably says the experience being back on set has been “completely surreal.” He notes, though, that once he heard about the project, he knew he had to come back. Fogg says he asked to read the script first, but was pleased to find that the screenwriter, Alex Jenkins Reid, seems to have been a fan of the original series. Fogg says Reed, “was able to update [the show], making it into a live action adventure integrating all the games and challenges but putting it in the real world.” The only difference, Fogg says, is that, “this time you’re fighting for your life as opposed to fighting for a trip to the Bahamas.”

He also said that Moner, Critchley, and Jurgensmeyer give him ’90s throwback vibes, saying that “they’re almost like the kids I did the show with. They have the same sort of sensibility, and that’s the déjà vu about the whole thing… We’re already high-fiving.”

Fogg says he first visited the set about three weeks ago, describing the scene as “Raiders Of The Lost Ark meets Jumanji.” (Editor’s note: The A.V. Club has visited the set, and he’s not wrong. More on that at a later date.) He also said the movie’s creators were especially interested in showing him the new temple’s various rooms, though what those will be—and how much the movie will draw from the original show—is still under lock and key. Still, Fogg promises fans of the ’90s classic will find much to like about the new movie, regardless of whether they have kids of their own to watch it with.

Legends Of The Hidden Temple, the movie, will air sometime this fall on Nickelodeon. Legends Of The Hidden Temple, the game show, still airs occasionally on The Splat.