The shocking real-life history that had to be cut from Prime Video's new gladiator show

The shocking real-life history that had to be cut from Prime Video’s new gladiator show

Stephen Porzio

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‘For a modern sensibility, not a good thing to do.’

Prime Video’s very entertaining Ancient Rome-set historical epic series Those About to Die is now available to stream in its entirety.

Directed by Roland Emmerich (The Day After Tomorrow, Independence Day) and featuring amongst its cast two-time Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins, the show explores the complex and corrupt world of chariot racing and gladiatorial fights in 79 A.D. Rome through several characters from all corners of the empire.

In the lead up to its release, JOE interviewed Emmerich about the project – a conversation in which he spoke about the connections between his new series and Gladiator, as well as about a sequel to The Day After Tomorrow.

During the chat, we noted to the filmmaker the extreme levels of sex and violence in Those About to Die and asked if this material was important to include in order to capture the hedonism of the time and place.

Responding, he actually said the real-life history was “much worse” and that he had cut back on including certain details in order not to offend modern audiences.

Replying to the question, he said:

“That’s how it was. It was much worse. When you sometimes read what they did in these arenas, you kind of blanche.

“I tried to keep that to a minimum. For example, animal cruelty – you cannot show how they slaughtered animals because for a modern sensibility, not a good thing to do.

“So we kept that very short and then mainly we concentrated on horse races.”

During the conversation, we also asked the director if there was anything he learned about Ancient Rome while working on Those About to Die that surprised him.

To this, he responded:

“There’s two things that I always like saying. [The charioteers] obviously wrapped the reins around their body. We didn’t do that [in the show] because we thought we wanted to see these guys fly. And how would that like look? Because they would get ripped down or whatever. I just didn’t want to do that.

“And then I never understood why when they built the Flavian Amphitheatre (now better known as the Colosseum) that women could only sit on top, in the top tiers. And in the Circus Maximus (another popular Roman venue), which 250,000 people could fit in there, they were intermixed.

“I don’t understand that and I never understood it and I never found any reason why it was like that.”

All 10 episodes of Those About to Die are available to watch on Prime Video in the UK and Ireland now.