Shouldn't it be Gladiatrix?

Well I think the name is also their humour (not quite the way it should be). Don't you? ;)

"Gladiatrix" would be correct, if the title was in Latin. However, the title is in English, and the correct (if somewhat archaic) equivalent in that language is the title as given.

What's the difference? Anyway, it's just another example of the fact that the term "British humor" is an oxymoron (and Monty Python is the exception that prooves the rule).

Since there are multiple, I think you would want "Gladiatrices." But "Gladiatrix" would be proper in the singular.


By the way, Asterix is not a Roman; he's a Gaul. Trying to make sense of anything French is like herding cats with nasty coke habits.

If it was a serious movie about female gladiators it would be. But the Smack the Pony bunch specialise in sending up the whole "girlie" thing so Gladiatress fits their thematic humour better, like the poster sends up the Athena tennis-girl poster of the seventies.

In any case, the name gladiatress is perfectly correct as it is simply the Anglic derivation of gladiatrix, coming to us via the french gladiatrice, which forms the linguistic bridge between the two forms.

I went to a focus group screening on this years ago and it was Gladiatrix then, so obviously they changed the title after that. I never thought this would be released to be honest, it was panned by everyone at the screening.

Yes, it should be if it was a serious film about a female gladiator, but it's not. If you were familiar with the parodic style of the Smack the Pony girls it would make sense. Gladiatress sounds a bit girly and feminine so it's part of the joke.