Four score and seven decades ago, America’s greatest president was assassinated. Now NBC’s “Timeless” will replay that moment in history at The Smithsonian and the National Endowment for the Humanities’ second annual History Film Forum.
The science fiction drama will hold a screening of its episode “The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln” on Thursday, March 9 before holding its panel, titled “Timeless: (Re)Creating American History.” Executive producers and show runners Shawn Ryan and Eric Kripke will be on the panel alongside stars Matt Lanter, Abigail Spencer and Malcolm Barrett.
“We’ve never felt classier in our lives than when we were invited to be a part of a Smithsonian and NEH’s History Film Forum. The Smithsonian!” said showrunners Kripke and Ryan via email. “We’re so thrilled and grateful. We love history, and one of our goals for ‘Timeless’ was to share that love with the audience.
“We always secretly hoped that teachers would use ‘Timeless’ as a teaching aid,” they added. “But to make it to the Smithsonian? Wow, talk about overshooting the mark — and it means so much to us.”

Goran Visnjic and Michael Krebs on “Timeless”
Sergei Bachlakov/NBC
Each week, the “Timeless” Time Team, consisting of historian Lucy Preston (Abigail Spencer), Delta Force operative Wyatt Logan (Matt Lanter) and scientist Rufus Carlin (Malcolm Barrett) travel back in time to pursue a rogue NSA asset who steals a time machine with the intent to change American history. In addition to fixing his interference, they also deal with issues of race, gender and politics throughout the centuries.
The History Film Forum is a four-day exploration of history as depicted on the screen, taking place March 9-12. Other screenings will include “The Great War,” “The Chinese Exclusion Act” and an advance screening of the Washington premiere of “Edgar Allan Poe: Buried Alive.” Besides screenings and discussions, the forum will feature the Emerging Filmmakers Lab, a workshop for potential filmmakers.
The forum is free and open to the public, with tickets and additional information here.
“Timeless” airs Mondays at 10 p.m. on NBC.
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