THE return date of Gladiators has officially been revealed – and there will be strict rules for the contestants.
The BBC announced in August that the popular show would be returning in 2023 following a 14-year break.
Gladiators is set to return next year, with filming dates officially revealed
And now we know the popular show will start filming in May and June 2023, with the show moving from its original ITV home to the Beeb.
BBC bosses overseeing the reboot of the hugely popular show are also said to be “hell bent” on keeping the series “clean as a whistle” and avoiding the muscle-bound “superhumans” it wants on screen being exposed for using performance enhancing substances.
An insider warned: “They have their work cut out on this one because the type of eye-popping muscles they will want displayed on screen don’t just come from eating lettuce, chicken and protein shakes!”
Applicants are being asked to name their “super power” and reveal who would play them in a Hollywood movie.
It’s an attempt to find larger-than-life characters who will be a big hit with viewers, just like the ITV Nineties series.
The panic over drugs ahead of filming comes as a result of the original show being mired in a string of steroid and cocaine scandals.
The dark side started to leak out when Gladiator Flame, real name Kimbra Frazier, said after being fired from the show she had found steroids in some Gladiators’ gym bags.
In May 1994, telly sleuth Roger Cook accused stars Wolf – Michael Van Wijk – and Panther (Helen O’Reilly) of steroid abuse before both were later cleared after programme maker LWT forced them to take a drug test.
But Gladiator Hawk – Aleks Georgijev –admitted to Cook he had taken the drug. One of the show’s toughest stars Shadow – Michael Jefferson King, now 61 – was jailed for his part in a blackmail plot where he threatened to kneecap a drug-user if he did not pay a £1,000 debt.
A mug shot released showing him looking like a shadow of his former self shocked fans when it emerged in 2021 while he awaited sentencing in custody.
Cobra – Michael Willson – claimed producers on the hit show “turned a blind eye” when Shadow began spiralling into drug addiction, saying: “They knew he was doing cocaine and steroids for six months and they turned a blind eye to it.”
He also admitted to hitting the bottle during filming and said booze nearly derailed his career.
Ace — bodybuilder Warren Furman – told in September how Gladiators producers knew he was on steroids, but warned him that if he kept taking them he would be ditched.
A casting form for wannabe stars also hints they will need to use their registered GP to provide medical evidence they are clean and possibly provide medical records for a background check.
It asks: “Do you have a registered GP?”, with an asterisk against the question referring those filling it out to the warning: “All Gladiators/contenders will be subject to routine drug testing prior (to) and during the series.”
The form also asks: “Have you ever used performance enhancing drugs?”
The form also asks candidates to name who would play them in a Hollywood movie, to name their “superpower” and their “proudest achievement in life”.
A show insider said: “Bosses want the new Gladiators to have bundles of personality, just like the original.
“It’s tough to remember any of the Gladiators from the Sky version as they were deemed too robotic.
“The reboot will have more of a nod to the original, where the cast became huge stars.”
The remake has been inundated with applicants hoping to be either Gladiators or competitors, and producers expect some familiar names from the world of sport to be among them.
Gladiators returns next year
The remake has been inundated with applicants hoping to be either Gladiators or competitors
