American Gladiators is a show that has continually been mentioned as a reboot candidate in recent years, going back to the time the Hulk Hogan-hosted reboot went off the air in 2008.
The reboot rumblings are growing once again, with the show potentially returning for the first time since the second Bush administration. Per Deadline, Amazon has ordered an American Gladiators reboot, though details do remain sparse at this point.
Amazon has ordered a reboot of the classic competition series for its Prime Video service. The series is produced by MGM Alternative and Amazon MGM Studios for Prime Video in association with Flor-Jon Films, the production company from American Gladiators co-creator Johnny C. Ferraro, who exec produces.
The concept of rebooting American Gladiators is nothing new. After NBC’s two-season revival over 15 years ago, a 2014 “post-apocalyptic” reboot that never happened was in the works from executive producer Arthur Smith. A 2018 reboot was being pitched by MGM and Ferraro, who is also involved in this reboot, along with Seth Rogen, and Evan Goldberg. News of yet another attempted reboot came in 2021, with WWE teaming with MGM to pitch the series.
In fact, the only new American Gladiators content we’ve gotten in the last decade and a half was a pair of documentaries. ESPN’s two-part 30 for 30 documentary, The American Gladiators Documentary, was released last year. A five-part Netflix docuseries, Muscles and Mayhem, was released shortly after.
Given how much news we’ve seen about possible American Gladiators reboots in recent years, I’ll start looking forward to this one once there’s news of actual filming. On the bright side, a casting website is already live.
In case you need a nostalgia hit, there are plenty of old school American Gladiators videos available on the show’s YouTube channel. It appears the full run is also available on The Roku Channel.
[Deadline]