Anthony Hopkins Rules Over Those About to Die in New Look at Peacock Drama

If you’re still in Shōgun withdrawal, you can look forward to Peacock’s own take on a lavish historical epic this summer. Robert Rodat (Saving Private Ryan) is behind the small-screen adaptation of Those About to Die, Daniel P. Mannix’s book of the same name, which was also the inspiration for Ridley Scott and David Franzioni’s Gladiator.

This new period drama will come racing to our screens on July 18, with the decline of the Roman Empire as its backdrop. Peacock released a teaser for the series, starring Anthony Hopkins, Tom Hughes, and Iwan Rheon, among others, last month. And the streamer is now moving full speed ahead on promo with new images, including closer looks at the Roman Emperor Flavius Vespasian (Hopkins), who founded the Flavian dynasty; Titus (Hughes), Flavius’ son and successor; and games master Tenax (Rheon, who looks to be considerably less sadistic here than in Game of Thrones).

Those About to Die has an appropriately expansive cast; in addition to the Flavian power players, we’ll meet the Spanish Corsi brothers (played by Pepe Barroso, Eneko Sagardoy, Goncalo Almeida), who will work with Tenax and speed racer Scorpus (Dimitri Leonidas) to launch a new chariot-racing faction. Also in the mix are Cala (Sara Martins), who fights to rescue her daughters, Aura (Kyshan Wilson) and Jula (Alicia Edogamhe), after they are sold into slavery. Cala’s son Kwame (Moe Hashim) also faces an uncertain fate as an unwitting gladiator; at least he has an ally in Viggo (Johannes Johannesson).

And that’s just the edge of the toga. Disaster movie king Roland Emmerich has directed five of the 10 episodes, including the finale, which means we may yet get to see him reduce parts of ancient Rome to ruins. Marco Kreuzpaintner, who’s helmed episodes of thoughtful sci-fi shows Bodies and The Lazarus Project, directed the other five. Along with nabbing an Oscar nomination for Saving Private Ryan, Rodat’s served as script doctor on 10,000 B.C. and Thor: The Dark World.

This does sound like a team that can bring gladiators and chariot racing to exciting life, and it doesn’t hurt that Paris Olympics fever will already be in swing by the time the show premieres mid-July. Rodat gave Entertainment Weekly some insight into the process of reviving this part of ancient history; he also singled out Cala as a potential fan favorite, due to her unwavering commitment to reuniting her family. But as Flavius, it’s Hopkins who will have the Herculean — wait, since this is Rome, we suppose that would be Heraclean? — task of trying to stave off the decay of an empire after years of dissolution. At least we can be pretty certain that this will be someone’s Roman Empire.

Danette Chavez is the Editor-in-Chief of Primetimer and its biggest fan of puns.