Those About To Die: What the new gladiator series is really about, according to its stars

For nearly a thousand years, gladiator games dominated daily life in the Roman Empire.

In an often-chaotic world plagued by war, high-level corruption and widespread hardship, sport was the glue that held their fractured society together. Those in power knew this well, and that’s precisely why they poured resources into the leisure industry, knowing how tenuous their hold was on the masses.

As writer Mark Twain said, history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes. According to Welsh actor Iwan Rheon, that’s precisely why he was interested in starring in the new series Those About To Die, a sword-and-sandals series set in ancient Rome. Civilisation has evolved over the past 2,000 years, but more has stayed the same than we realise.

“This series is about how entertainment is a form of distraction, and I don’t think things have changed much at all, really,” Rheon tells The National.

“The Romans certainly utilised sport deliberately. When things were going badly, throw some games, and everyone forgot all about it. I think that's a very interesting parallel to contemporary life, even though now things are a lot harder to see.”

Rheon, who is best known for playing Ramsay Bolton in Game of Thrones and Simon in Misfits, is the show’s lead Tenax, a bookmaker who is carefully manoeuvring through the underbelly of society in an attempt to gather enough influence to gain legitimate power.

The story is set during the Flavian Dynasty in the early days of the common era, at a time when an ageing emperor, played by Anthony Hopkins, is in obvious decline, leading to a bloody conflict between his potential successors. But the more things dissolve behind closed doors, the more focus they put on the games – which Tenax takes advantage of.

Actress Sara Martins, who co-stars in the series as a Numidian woman named Cala who teams up with Tenax, says: “For me, this series really puts in perspective how we’re living now.

“Sports is a big spectacle, and it is the tool of politics. Thousands of years ago in Rome people needed to be entertained, and when they were being entertained the politicians could do whatever they wanted to do.

“We didn’t invent any of this. The same way people worship their sports idols now, the children back then did with gladiators. We have the same triggers, and humanity has the same problems.”

Beyond the machinations behind the scenes, Rheon and Martins believe that people will see the most obvious links to the current day in the fan culture on display at the Circus Maximus, which is an obvious nod to how little things have changed.

“We see factionalism. We see fans and how they argue with each other. They have their allegiances. It’s so similar to football culture,” says Rheon.

Because the show so consciously plays on the parallels to the current day, it stands out from the pack of a well-tread genre, which has produced countless films and series dating back to at least the 1940s.

“The script of the show is multilayered,” says Johannes Haukur Johannesson, who plays the Norse gladiator Viggo.

“There's so many stories to tell in this genre, but the way our show focuses on the underbelly of Rome, the people behind the scenes, the people below the stands who are holding the strings and controlling the outcomes multiple levels is such an interesting focus point to look at.”

Those About To Die is now streaming on Starzplay in the Middle East