by Ani Bundel
After four years of struggling in last place, the odds are finally in Peacock’s favor. The Summer Olympics, which the streamer initially planned to launch in 2020, are finally back where they belong. Moreover, in what could be considered the most innovative use of synergy, NBC’s streaming service is releasing something that’s Olympics-adjacent in their fictional drama lineup to give viewers another arena to watch: the sword-and-sandal series, Those About to Die.
Peacock went full court press at San Diego Comic-Con 2024 with the series, including interviews with the actors, an activation where players get to experience chariot racing (and specific teams having a leg up to win) firsthand, and a Ballroom 20 panel, “Behind the Action of Peacock’s Gladiator Epic Those About to Die,” which included executive producer/director Roland Emmerich and stars Iwan Rheon, Sara Martins, Moe Hashim, Jojo Macari, Gabriella Pession, and Dimitri Leonidas.
Perri Nemiroff of Collider moderated the panel, starting by noting this was Emmerich’s first time directing a TV series and asking why he chose this project. The director admitted that though sword-and-sandals series are much more popular in feature films than TV, the familiar material didn’t prepare him for the sheer pace of shooting TV. It was even a shock to the system. But he relished the challenge and concluded shooting the entire 10-hour series in 108 days, which is quite a feat.
Emmerich also explained that the period he chose (79 CE) was deliberate, as it was when the Circus Maximus first introduced a new kind of entertainment. It elevated the Roman games from a pale shadow of the Greek culture they’d appropriated to its historical invention.
At the roundtable, the actors talked about how immersive Emmerich’s set was and what a grand scale they were working on for TV, which only brought home just how grueling it must have been, shooting the whole thing in barely 100 days. (In comparison, Game of Thrones, which Rheon also starred in, filmed the same amount of footage in 200+ days.) Most of them reiterated those comments at the panel.
One of the few stars of the show not in attendance was Anthony Hopkins, who Emmerich said was one of the first to sign on. “He brought such a knowledge of Roman history,” he said, “so intelligent.” Macari gushed about working with him, how Hopkins worked hard to make the younger actors feel comfortable, and how much he absorbed just by doing scenes with him.
While most were intimidated by Hopkins, Leonidas admitted that the horsework gave him the most heartburn. He described the experience of auditioning horses to be “his” as terrifying, even though he deliberately chose the more challenging horse to work with because he needed that energy. However, training from riding a horse to riding a chariot being pulled by four was a wonderful moment of growth and skill that he never imagined achieving.
While the men talked horses, the women talked politics. Gabriella Pession admitted she was annoyed not to have many action sequences, even though she was one of the most intelligent and manipulative characters in the series. As a lower-class character, Sara Martins does get a fierce hand-to-hand action sequence, but she too found that most of her action was cerebral rather than physical.
The panel ended with a behind-the-scenes featurette walking the audience through what it took to create some of the fantastical sequences of violence and make the look realistic. Look for it on Peacock, along with all 10 episodes of Those About to Die, which are streaming now.
Stay tuned for more SDCC ’24 coverage from The Beat.
(Featured image: Those About to Die games master at SDCC 2024. Photo Credit: Robert Powers)
