Ridley Scott returns to the arena in Gladiator 2. Here’s everything you need to know about Gladiator 2, including the release date, cast, synopsis, and trailer.
In 2000, director Ridley Scott introduced Maximus Decimus Meridius to the world in Gladiator. The historical epic starred Russell Crowe as Maximus, a Roman general sold into slavery after being betrayed by Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), the Emperor’s power-hungry son. Maximus becomes a gladiator and vows to exact his revenge on Commodus for killing his family. Gladiator was the second-highest-grossing film of 2000 and won five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Crowe.
Twenty-four years later, Scott returns to the arena of blood and sand with his long-awaited sequel, Gladiator 2. The film will follow an adult Lucius Verus, son of Lucilla and nephew of Commodus. Gladiator 2 is one of the most anticipated films on the 2024 calendar. Below, we explore everything you need to know about Gladiator 2, including the release date, cast, synopsis, and trailer.When is Gladiator 2’s release date?
Gladiator 2 is now scheduled to be released theatrically on November 22, 2024. Gladiator 2 will be released one week earlier, on November 15, 2024, in select international markets.
Paramount Pictures will distribute the film in the U.S., while Universal Pictures will handle international distribution.Is there a trailer for Gladiator 2?
The second trailer for Gladiator II was released on September 23, 2024. This time around, vengeance is the theme most emphasized as Paul Mescal’s gladiator looks to avenge his wife’s death and take down evil emperors and fight bad CGI animals. Hmm, that sounds a bit familiar, doesn’t it?
The long-awaited first trailer for Gladiator II teases several jaw-dropping fight sequences, including a battle with sharks inside the arena and a one-on-one sword fight between Mescal and Pascal.Who is in the Gladiator 2 cast?
Paul Mescal headlines Gladiator 2 as Lucius Verus, a character originated by Spencer Treat Clark in Gladiator. Variety described the character as a “nobleman who renounced his privilege.” Lucius is the son of Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) and former heir to the Empire. After being sent to live in Numbia, Lucius is captured by the Roman army and forced to become a gladiator.
Mescal is best known for his Emmy-nominated role of Connell Waldron in Normal People and his Oscar-nominated role of Calum Paterson in Aftersun. Predominantly known for starring in independent features, Gladiator 2 is the biggest film of Mescal’s young career.
Scott mentioned how Mescal’s breakout role in Normal People convinced him to cast the Irish actor in his Gladiator sequel.
“Can I see Paul Mescal being as big as Russell Crowe? For sure,” Scott told Total Film in October 2023. “I watched Normal People. It’s not my kind of show, but I saw four episodes in a row – boom, boom, boom. I was thinking, ‘Who the hell is this Paul Mescal?’ And then I watched the whole series. And then, suddenly, Gladiator 2 came up because the script was working pretty well. And I kept thinking about Paul. And that was it.”
Denzel Washington will star alongside Mescal as Macrinus, a former gladiator who earned his freedom and became a wealthy arms and commodities dealer. However, Washington’s character still holds a grudge against the emperors. Additional cast members include Joseph Quinn as Emperor Caracalla, Fred Hechinger as Emperor Geta, and Pedro Pascal as Marcus Acacius. May Calamawy, Lior Raz, Peter Mensah, and Matt Lucas also star. Hechinger’s role originally belonged to Barry Keoghan, but the Saltburn actor dropped out because of scheduling issues.
Two actors reprising their roles from Gladiator in the sequel are Connie Nielsen as Lucilla, Lucius’s mother, and Derek Jacobi as Senator Gracchus, an ally of Lucilla and Maximus. Djimon Hounsou was set to return for the sequel, as Juba but had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts.Who does Denzel Washington play in Gladiator 2?
Although Mescal is the movie’s lead, there has been a huge amount of interest about who Washington might be playing in the film, in large part because of his incredible career in Hollywood. Washington plays a power broker named Macrinus. Scott described Washinton’s character in an interview with Vanity Fair.
“Denzel is an arms dealer who supplies food for the armies in Europe, supplies wine and oil, makes steel, makes spears, weapons, cannons, and catapults,” Scott said. “So he is a very wealthy man. Instead of having a stable of racehorses, he has a stable of gladiators,” Scott says. “He’s beautiful. He drives a golden Ferrari. I got him a gold-plated chariot.”What is Gladiator 2 about?
Gladiator 2 will follow an older Lucius about 15 years after Gladiator. Paramount’s official synopsis reads: “Years after witnessing the death of the revered hero Maximus at the hands of his uncle, Lucius (Paul Mescal) is forced to enter the Colosseum after his home is conquered by the tyrannical Emperors who now lead Rome with an iron fist. With rage in his heart and the future of the Empire at stake, Lucius must look to his past to find strength and honor to return the glory of Rome to its people.”
Scott explained to Rotten Tomatoes what Lucius has been up to since Gladiator.
“[Lucius] has been out in the wilderness for … let’s see, we last saw him when he was 12,” Scott said. “It’s about 12, 15 years later, he’s been out in the wilderness, having lost touch with his mother. His mother lost touch with him. She doesn’t know where he is. She thinks he might be dead.”
Paul Mescal was reticent to offer any additional details but added that he was excited about the project.
“I can’t tell you how stressed I am talking about that film in particular because it’s definitely the biggest one I’ve done,” he explained. “I feel really excited, but it’s difficult to get away from the legacy of the film a bit… I think it’s really well written and it pays homage to the first one, but it’s very much something that I think I can step into and make comfortably my own.”
In a profile with The New Yorker, Scott revealed that Gladiator 2 will feature a scene where Mescal’s character fights a group of vicious baboons.
The profile reads: “In the meantime, he’d [Scott] been polishing the 90 minutes he had, including a scene in which the hero fights a pack of baboons; he’d been haunted, he said, by a video of baboons attacking tourists in Johannesburg: ‘Baboons are carnivores.
