“Four rounds. One winner. No mercy.” So reads the tagline for this month’s martial arts action thriller that promises to throw the violent tournament mayhem of Mortal Kombat into the dirt and stamp on its face. Superbly titled Gladiator Underground, the new trailer for the action outing smashes all manner of expert stunt performers and martial artists at each other in this tale of two brothers who find themselves fighting for their lives in the world’s deadliest underground fighting tournament.
Directed by Chaya Supannarat and led by a trio of action stars in D.Y. Sao (Bangkok Dog, Everything Everywhere All at Once), Andy Le (The Paper Tiger), and Brian Le (American Born Chinese), Gladiator Underground is due to land on digital on October 17, 2025. The rest of the cast is comprised of Apasiri Kulthanan (Fistful of Vengeance), Selina Wiesmann (Full Moon), Geoffrey Giuliano (Squid Game), Bear Williams (Alien: Earth), Elliott Allison (The Creator), Ron Smoorenburg (Meg 2: The Trench), Sahajak Boonthanakit (Only God Forgives), and Byron Bishop (Kate). You can check out both the trailer and synopsis for Gladiator Underground below…
“Max and Wu, two estranged brothers, are competing in the world’s most dangerous underground fighting tournament, where powerful crimelords gamble and dictate who they fight and what weapons are used.
In this high-stakes bloodsport, one wrong move means certain death. The brothers must decide whether to play by the rules—or to cast their honor aside and team up against the syndicate controlling the system, risking everything to bring it down.”
‘Gladiator Underground’ Delivers Enough Bloodshed You’ll Be Convinced You Watched the Best ‘Mortal Kombat’ Movie
Gladiator Underground is brimming with vicious stunts performed by some of the best (and most underrated) names in the genre game and whose credits include the MCU outing Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the Oscar-winning Everything Everywhere All at Once, Jackie Chan’s Who Am I?, Scott Adkins’ Ninja: Shadow of a Tear, and more.
Gladiator Underground made its debut recently at Big Bad Film Fest, with those in attendance heaping praise on the savage martial arts spectacle on display. “A hyper-fierce, bone-crunching, gravity-defying martial war of fluid action design and immersive fight choreography,” raved John M Jerva of action-flix.com, who heaped praise on the lead trio for their efforts in bringing back “old school fight films.”
“Stars D.Y. Sao, Andy Le and Brian Le deliver a ferocious homage to the old school fight films of the past in a dizzying and non-stop barrage of hardcore martial arts entertainment that rips from the opening salvo to the climatic and epic final assault. A must see when it officially releases!”
Further reactions echo these sentiments, with @thediegocrespo saying, “GLADIATOR UNDERGROUND rules lmfao. Gradually builds its fight scenes throughout its runtime before delivering enough bloodshed to convince you you just watched the best Mortal Kombat movie. Killed with a crowd.” While @A4EPodcast added, “Campy, funny, with some sick martial arts. D.Y. Sao and Andy Le have incredible physical charisma, but Brian Le is a beast onscreen. He moves like a man possessed.”