Nearly 70,000 fans inside Bucharest, Romania’s National Arena, got the surprise of a lifetime during a stop on Ed Sheeran‘s The +–=÷× Tour (aka The Mathematics Tour) on Saturday night. Yes, that was Chris Hemsworth playing the drums on the track “Thinking Out Loud.”
The unique moment, a first for Hemsworth, was captured for an upcoming episode on the second season of the actor’s National Geographic’s Disney+ original series Limitless With Chris Hemsworth. Though the episode has no premiere date yet, it’s expected in 2025. “Got Chris Hemsworth to learn to play drums for my stadium show,” Sheeran shared on Instagram Saturday, moments after the show.
In the clip, Sheeran says Hemsworth emailed him to say that he’s doing a documentary on cognitive health and the benefits of learning an instrument. “He came to visit me and he’s learned drums.” Hemsworth, who then mimed playing the drums, admits, “I’ve been thinking about it a lot. It’ll be nice to put this on to bed.”
On the Limitless series, Hemsworth regularly pushes himself physically and mentally to master new challenges as a way to keep himself sharp and “live better for longer.” Guided by experts, mentors and spiritual leaders, he has traveled the globe to “unlock some of the world’s best-kept secrets” on that mission.
Tom Watt-Smith and Jane Root are executive producing the second season, with Arif Nurmohamed as a co-executive producer for Nutopia. The executive producer team also includes creators Darren Aronofsky and Ari Handel of Protozoa Pictures, and Hemsworth, Ben Grayson and Brandon Hill for Wild State. For National Geographic, Bengt Anderson and Simon Raikes are executive producing with Tom McDonald, executive vp of Global Factual and Unscripted Content. Season one is streaming on Disney+.
Sheeran’s tour rolls in with upcoming stops in Bulgaria, Cyprus and Brazil in 2024, followed by other international dates next year. Hemsworth next toplines Transformers One with a voice role opposite Brian Tyree Henry and Scarlett Johansson.
