Eddie Hall’s New Sports Show Films in Malta: Strongman to Battle Locals in Epic Island Challenges

**Gozo’s Azure Window may be gone, but Malta is about to flex its own global muscle.**
Former World’s Strongest Man Eddie Hall— the 2017 champion who once dead-lifted 500 kg and can flip a Mini Cooper like a pancake— has chosen the Maltese Islands as the backdrop for his newest sports-entertainment series, tentatively titled *Hall of Legends*. The six-part show, commissioned by a major U.S. streaming platform, will drop Hall into historic fortifications, fishing villages, and limestone quarries to compete against local athletes, fishermen, and even ħobż-bakers in super-sized versions of Maltese tradition. Think tug-of-war with a luzzu, carrying a 200-kg tuna up the stairs of Valletta, or racing while hoisting a kileb (traditional rabbit trap) filled with limestone blocks.

Filming begins 15 July and runs through September, with crews basing themselves at Malta Film Studios in Kalkara and a pop-up outdoor arena on the Għajn Tuffieħa cliffs. The production is expected to pump €2.3 million directly into the local economy— renting 120 hotel rooms nightly, hiring 180 Maltese crew, and placing daily orders for 700 pastizzi from Is-Serkin alone. Transport Malta has already issued special permits for drone shots over Ġgantija and a sunset strong-man sprint down Republic Street that will briefly close traffic on 28 August.

For an island whose cinematic CV already includes *Game of Thrones*, *Gladiator*, and *Popeye*, Hall’s project is more than another production line-item. “We’re portraying Malta not just as scenery, but as a protagonist,” line producer Rebecca Vella told *Hot Malta*. “Every challenge is rooted in something Maltese—whether it’s hauling nets like the Marsaxlokk fishermen of old, or pulling a vintage bus up the Sliema ferries slope. Eddie’s opponents won’t be imported talent; they’re grandparents who still climb Dingli cliffs to pick wild fennel, and Gozitan masons who cut stone before breakfast.”

Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo hailed the series as “soft-power gold,” predicting a 7% spike in off-season British arrivals once the show airs early next year. “Wellness and heritage trails already attract the over-50s,” Bartolo said. “Hall brings the 18-34 adrenaline crowd that spends on jet-skis, night-life and Michelin-star tables.” The Malta Tourism Authority is preparing a tie-in campaign—#LiftLikeALocal—offering fans discounted packages to train with Maltese strongmen at historic venues such as Fort Manoel and the 17th-century bastions of Birgu.

But the ripple effects reach deeper than tourism spreadsheets. Qala primary school will host Hall for a fitness clinic; the Malta Community Chest Fund receives €50,000 from the producers; and surplus catering will be redirected to YMCA shelters. “It’s refreshing when a foreign crew asks where they can donate food instead of how late bars stay open,” said Marlene Farrugia, who coordinates film-industry CSR for the Malta Chamber of Commerce.

Not everyone is flexing celebratory biceps. Some residents near the Għajn Tuffieħa set worry about noise and plastic barriers marring sunset views. “We support jobs, but we also support tranquillity,” said Nadur councillor Paul Xerri. Environmental NGOs have secured guarantees that no heavy rigs will be anchored on protected seagrass beds, and a qualified archaeologist will monitor every crane move within 50 metres of cart-ruts or temple remains.

Still, the buzz is undeniable. Already, Sliema gym-owners report a 30% uptick in strength-training sign-ups, while teenagers practise tire-flips outside the abandoned Għallis tower. “Maltese kids grow up hearing stories of knights and sieges,” said historian Dr Lydia Abdilla. “Now they see that heroism can be a blacksmith from Stoke-on-Trent lifting altar stones in Mdina. It links our past to a global future.”

When Hall arrives next month he won’t just be swinging kettle-bells; he’ll be wielding Malta’s story—its limestone, sea-salt, and stubborn heart—into living rooms from Los Angeles to Lagos. And if the past is any guide, the Islands will answer back with the same spirit that once hoisted siege cannons onto Valletta’s walls: grit, grin, and a collective *“Ħaqq alina, let’s see you try.”*