Peacock’s upcoming gladiator drama Those About to Die has added seven names to its cast, with Marco Kreuzpaintner (Beat) now signed up as co-director and exec producer.

Lorenzo Richelmy, Tom Hughes, Sara Martins, Jojo Macari, Gabriella Pession, Dimitri Leonidas and Moe Hashim will join Anthony Hopkins in the AGC Television series, which Roland Emmerich (Independence Day) will co-direct with Kreuzpaintner. Robert Rodat is the writer.

The ambitious series, which is inspired by Daniel Mannix’s eponymous nonfiction book, is set in the complex and corrupt world of ancient Rome’s spectacle-driven gladiatorial competition and features an ensemble of characters from all corners of the Roman Empire.