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(Photo by ©Paramount Pictures)
Are you not entertained? A new Gladiator movie is upon us, bringing back the glory, spectacle, and carnage of Ancient Rome to our screens. Gladiator II follows the acclaimed 2000 historical epic by Ridley Scott that starred Russell Crowe as Roman general Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, and loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. He was father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife, and a man who wanted vengeance against Emperor Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) “in this life or the next.”
The original Gladiator went on to win five Oscars, and since then, Scott has given us several other historical epics. But now, he returns to where it all began, bringing us more drama, betrayal, megalomaniacal Roman emperors, and, of course, glorious gladiator action. Here is everything we know about Gladiator II.
(Photo by ©Paramount Pictures)
Ridley Scott is not usually one to direct his own sequels. After all, he created Alien and Blade Runner before handing them off to others to helm their direct sequels (he did eventually return to the Alien franchise, however). Still, he’s been saving one sequel for himself in Gladiator II, and in recent years, he’s been preparing by directing a couple of big historical epics filled with swordfights and warfare in The Last Duel and Napoleon.
(Photo by ©Paramount Pictures)
Paul Mescal, whose star has risen exponentially since he broke out in 2022’s Aftersun, pkays the grown-up Lucius, grandson of Emperor Marcus Aurelius and nephew of Commodus. He takes over the role after a young Spencer Treat Clark played Lucius in the original. Pedro Pascal plays General Marcus Acacius, the target of Lucius’ vengeance, in a full circle moment for Pascal, who first became known to international audiences in the arena when he played Prince Oberyn Martell, the Red Viper of Dorne, in Game of Thrones. Whether he will meet a similar fate here as he did on that show remains to be seen.
(Photo by ©Paramount Pictures)
We also have Fred Hechinger (Thelma) and Joseph Quinn (A Quiet Place: Day One) as the two main antagonists, co-Emperors and twin brothers Caracalla and Geta, who seem to be following in the megalomaniacal footsteps of Commodus. Rounding out the cast is Denzel Washington as Macrinus, a wealthy arms dealer who houses Lucius in the stable full of gladiators that he uses for sport.
Additionally, Connie Nielsen returns as Lucilla from the first film, while Derek Jacobi will once again play Roman Senator Gracchus.
(Photo by ©Paramount Pictures)
The story of Gladiator II centers on Lucius after his mother Lucilla sent him to Numidia, on the northern coast of Africa, in order to shield him from the violent chaos and corruption of Rome. Of course, no one can escape Rome, so the film sees General Marcus Acacius invade Northern Africa, and in the process, take Lucius captive and sell him into slavery.
Meanwhile, the Empire is now ruled by two young twins who Ridley Scott described to Vanity Fair as “definitely damaged goods from birth.” Inspired by Maximus, Lucius decides to take revenge in the ring, where he does everything from fighting white rhinos to getting involved in massive naval battles inside a flooded Roman Colosseum. Bring on the naumachia!
(Photo by ©DreamWorks)
Just to cover our bases here, spoilers for the first Gladiator follow here, so if you haven’t seen that box office-dominating, multiple Oscar-winning, 24-year-old movie, consider yourself warned.
In that film, Russell Crowe’s Maximus fights Joaquin Phoenix’s Commodus in the arena and kills him, but not before sustaining fatal wounds himself in the battle. The film ends with Maximus entering the afterlife, making it highly unlikely that either character will appear in Gladiator II.
But there once was a world where Maximus didn’t merely return in Gladiator II, but starred in it. In the mid-2000s, Nick Cave wrote a draft for a sequel that followed Maximus in purgatory and then saw him resurrected as a warrior sent back to Earth to kill Jesus Christ because Christianity is destroying the Roman gods — in actuality, this was all a ploy to trick Maximus into killing his own son. The film was to end with a Twilight Zone-esque sequence of Maximus being cursed to experience war throughout eternity, jumping in time from the Roman era to the Crusades, WWII, the Vietnam War, and modern times, ending with Maximus working at the Pentagon. The working title for that script? “Christ Killer.” Yeah…
Will any of this make its way to Gladiator II? Unlikely, and that’s probably for the best.
Yes. The first trailer for Gladiator II doesn’t give too much away, but it does enough to tease out the story, the character dynamics, and best of all, the heights of Roman spectacle. Did we need a sequel to Gladiator? Probably not. Are we officially excited that Ridley Scott is giving us one anyway? You bet.
Gladiator II
(2024)
opens in theaters on November 22, 2024.
