A group of 20 ancient warriors, dressed in full garb, appeared at Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus and even hopped on a bus past Big Ben, with commuters and tourists watching on.
The stunt comes ahead of the release of the blockbuster Gladiator II on November 15, and was partnered with a colossal collaboration on the world-famous Piccadilly Lights, that saw the adverts for Gladiator II, Lego, Trainline, TK-MAX and Samsung transform into Roman inspired stone.
The costumes spotted on the streets of London are genuine outfits from the production of the new film. More than 2,000 costumes were created for the Hollywood blockbuster by lead designer Dave Crossman and his team, including that of Paul Mescal’s Lucius.
They also designed the outfits of the Roman military and 150 gladiator costumes, the latter of which all have their own unique, individual design in the film.
To make the costumes, various cutters, makers, leather workers, metal workers, jewellers, and embroiderers were needed to bring the outfits to life.
Dave Crossman said: “I wanted to do proper-looking gladiators. I looked at mosaics and contemporary references from the time. They usually wore quilted padding on their arms and legs for protection, because armour was too expensive. The Roman military has basic soldiers, centurions, and supervising officers. Higher-ranking officers wore expensive scale armour or chain mail, and the rest of the troops fought in segmented armour.”