‘Gladiator 2’ Moves Forward With New Lead Actor

Gladiator 2 has been caught in improvement hell for many years. The film was first talked about not lengthy after the unique movie grew to become an enormous blockbuster and an Oscar winner for Best Picture. Director Ridley Scott has all the time been all for persevering with its story about an enslaved warrior who turns into a hero to historic Rome — despite the fact that that hero, performed by Russell Crowe, died on the finish of the movie. That proved to be one thing of an impediment to a sequel; at one level, a proposed idea would have seen Crowe’s character get resurrected from past the grave.

That thought by no means acquired off the bottom, however a number of years in the past, Scott started creating a completely different sequel idea centered on Crowe’s gladiator’s son. Last fall, Scott insisted it was going to be his subsequent film after his upcoming biopic about Napoleon. And it appears like he is perhaps true to his phrase.

Deadline reviews that Paul Mescal is “in negotiations” to star within the Gladiator sequel. Mescal was not too long ago seen within the buzzy unbiased drama Aftersun. Per Deadline, Mescal will play the son of Crowe’s character from the unique Gladiator:

Mescal gained’t be changing Crowe’s Maximus, whose character met his finish within the unique movie, however as a substitute he can be taking part in Lucius, the son of Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), who now could be a grown man because the story takes place years after the primary movie ended. Lucius was additionally the nephew of Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), the son of Roman chief Marcus Aurelius who murdered his father seized the throne and wound up within the gladiator ring with Maximus — who, although mortally wounded, skewered the emperor earlier than fading into the nice past to reunite together with his slain spouse and son. Maximus saved the boy and his mom whereas avenging his circle of relatives, and left a powerful impression on the younger Lucius.

Gladiator 2 is without doubt one of the final I’ll-believe-it-when-I-see-it motion pictures, in that it’s been talked about for therefore a few years and by no means truly occurred. Then once more, in recent times we’ve acquired different unbelievable sequels like Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Top Gun: Maverick, and Blade Runner 2049. So stranger issues have occurred.