Spike TV’s resident “stuff that can kill you” expert’s path to the present was paved after he came upon a fork in the road: Battling blazes in Edmonton or biomedical engineering?
“There’s no question, I would have ended up as an (Edmonton firefighter),” Deadliest Warrior co-host Geoff Desmoulin told Metro.
After he was diagnosed with an obstructive lung disease in 1997, Desmoulin crossed his name off the city’s Emergency Response Department short list and opted for a career applying mechanics to medicine.
A couple master’s degrees later, and the Vancouver native is living a testosterone-fuelled fantasy: Pitting history’s most notorious warriors against each other in simulated battles to the death.
Last year’s fights included knights vs. pirates, yakuza vs. Mafia, Vikings vs. samurai and Spartans vs. ninjas, a fight Desmoulin said was heavily debated by fans.
“A lot of it has validity, though. We’re trying to put an end to these debates, but in many ways, (the show) stimulates more debate,” he said. “Our fans are serious, no question about it.”
Living-warrior experts attack blood-spurting gel torsos, dead pigs and hack at an opponent’s armour in a controlled lab setting, where Desmoulin and cohorts calculate force, frequency and pressure of blows.
The show’s popularity grew faster than expected, Desmoulin said, as followers swarmed its website pitching ideas.
Requests topping wishlists include fights between fictional characters, like Bigfoot vs. the Loch Ness Monster.
“These guys are total nerds — they’ll have seven-minute debates on who would actually win,” he said, adding the show’s future is real warriors only.
Ranked as Spike’s number 1 series in its first season, Deadliest Warrior is coming back for a second season with a bigger budget, robotics and more blood.
Season 2 is currently being filmed in Los Angeles, and will hit airwaves in the spring.
