The reboot train has cranked up its engine once again, and this time it’s pulling into Sheffield, for the city is set to host the latest revival of popular nineties series Gladiators thirty years after it first launched. Moving from its home on ITV, the eleven-episode reboot will now live on BBC which, if you’re a millennial, feels very wrong because Gladiators is an ITV show at its very core, and ideally needs to be enjoyed as part of a Saturday evening line up of Baywatch and Blind Date.
Where are the original Gladiators?
Sure, we might be living in the past but for the legions of fans of the OG Gladiators the show - which ran from 1992-2000 and was hosted by John Fashanu and Ulrika Jonsson - holds a sacred place in our hearts. So it’s unsurprising, then, that as news of the reboot is announced, Google search data shows that ‘Where are the Gladiators now’ is trending.
Because when millennials think of Gladiators, they think of Jet, Wolf, Lightening, Hunter, Rhino and the gang (in a way, they were the original fitness influencers). A quick look turns up the fact that Hunter, bodybuilder James Crossley, broke a world record for breaking Dinnie Stones in Scotland in 2019, before appearing on E4 reality show The Circle.
The lustrous haired Jet, real name Diana Youdale, 51, is a psychotherapist and wellness coach (and much to Alan Partridge fans’ disappointment never did host a millennium barn dance in Yeovil Aerodrome). Wolf, real name Michael Van Wijk, is now a successful cage fighter in New Zealand.
Lightning, real name Kim Betts, owns a fishery, while Rhino, aka Mark Smith, is living it up in LA and is pals with Idris Elba and Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Dorit Kemsley.
So while the new show, which is set to launch later this year with Bradley Walsh and his son Barney at the helm, may very well charm a new generation of fans, it’s going to be a (Hang) tough challenge to fill the bright white shoes of our nineties heroes.
Nothing else could get your serotonin flowing as, aged 8, you chanted along to Another One Bites The Dust as the Gladiators nailed another challenge, or shouting, ‘Gladiators, ready?!’ along with ref John Anderson. With its roaring crowd thrusting their giant foam fingers in the air, Gladiators made the Birmingham NEC seem like the most thrilling place on earth. Nothing can recreate that magic, but in the words of Gwyneth, we wish Bradley Walsh well.